Victoria Shalet’s biography, net worth, fact, career, awards and life story

Victoria Shalet (born 9 December 1981) is a former English actress most famous for her role as Harmony in the award-winning CBBC adaptation of the Dick King-Smith book The Queen’s Nose.

Acting

Victoria Jane Shalet was born in Enfield, London, the youngest child of Lawrence and Elaine Shalet. Although she is English on her mother’s side, she shares Russian and Austrian/Jewish heritage from her father’s side of the family-hense the unusual surname. She attended Southgate School during her school years. She was a lively and boisterous child, which proved exhausting to her parents, so they decided to enroll her in after class activities. As Shalet explained :

” Having driven my parents loopy on a daily basis, they decided to send me to an after school acting/singing/dancing class to expel some of my energy. I attended those classes weekly and after a couple of months Tony Boden, the agent who ran the classes, sent me for an audition for a BBC screenplay called Testimony of a Child.”

It was a drama based on the controversial Cleveland affair in 1987, and it marked Shalet’s acting debut. In it she played Rosie Taylor, daughter of John Bowe’s character Paul, who is accused of sexual abuse. By the time it had been screened on TV on July 5, 1989 Shalet’s parents had separated, with Victoria being brought up by her mother, but her acting career was just beginning. Her exuberant nature proved ideal casting when she was cast as Anna, the daughter of Miranda Richardson and Michael Kitchen’s rowdy family, in Andrew Davies’s Ball-Trap on the Cote Sauvage. Then, in 1990, a casting audition in America saw her get the chance to work with Jim Henson, who cast her in his latest series for children, Mother Goose Stories. She was cast in two stories; The Giant (as Dorothy) and as the title character in The Little Girl with the Curl. However, tragedy struck when Jim Henson died suddenly halfway through filming, when a throat infection turned to septic shock and pneumonia. Despite this shock setback, filming was completed and the show was released posthumously, debuting on the Disney channel on August 25, 1990, to favorable reviews from Lee Winfrey of Inquirer Magazine. Shalet was retained for another Henson production, this time The Greek Myths, in the episode Daedalus and Icarus, playing the younger daughter of King Minos, which was broadcast at the end of the year.

By this time she was finding work all over the world. As well as work in England on the second series of ITV’s Spatz (playing Emily Jane Mudge in the episodes “Star Attraction” and “Talent Contest”), and her work in America on Jim Henson Productions, she was also working in the Netherlands on Van Der Valk in the episode “A Sudden Silence” (as Ciaran Madden’s daughter Brigid Van Hoorn) and in France on the film The Maid, starring Martin Sheen and Jacqueline Bisset. All of these were released in 1991, but The Maid provided her with her biggest role so far, that of Bisset’s bratty daughter Marie Chantelle. Although the film didn’t perform well at the box office, Victoria later described it as some of the most fun she’d ever had on set.

The role was enough to attract attention, leading to her casting in another film, Shining Through, in 1992. It had an all star cast, including Michael Douglas, Melanie Griffiths, John Gielgud and Liam Neeson, with Victoria cast as Neeson’s daughter Gisella Dietrich. Also that year she appeared in two BBC productions that gained notice, for different reasons. The first was the gentle acclaimed romantic comedy drama Love Hurts, starring Adam Faith and Zoe Wanamaker, (her co-star in Ball Trap on the Cote Sauvage). Shalet played Isobel, the daughter of one of Wanamaker’s widowed work colleagues, who insists on being called Ben, in tribute to her pet dog she has also lost. She was only cast in three episodes: “Walk Right Back”, ” Relative Values” and “Cured!”, and only appeared in the first series. The second BBC programme she appeared in was the 3-part thriller Natural Lies, starring Bob Peck and Sharon Duce. Shalet played their daughter Sally Fell, but the series attracted controversy for a plotline that suggested a cover-up involving BSE in the food chain, and drew criticism from the government of the time. The drama did much to highlight what would develop into a major crisis later in the year.

If Natural Lies attracted controversy, then her next work the following year received nothing but praise. Goggle Eyes (1993) was an adaptation of Anne Fine’s award winning 1989 novel, starring Alun Armstrong and Lesley Manville. Shalet was cast as Jude Killen, Manville’s daughter, but it was her co-star Honeysuckle Weeks (in her debut role) that won recognition as her older sister, who plots to ruin her mother’s relationship with her new boyfriend (Armstrong)-the “Goggle Eyes” of the title. It proved to be one of the best things she had done, and the drama itself was critically acclaimed, winning the Writer’s Guild Award for Best Adapted TV Serial for its scriptwriter Deborah Moggach. Despite this, it’s yet to be repeated since its showing in 1993.

After a barren year in 1994 Shalet appeared on film in 1995 in Lewis Gilbert’s Haunted, starring Aidan Quinn and Kate Beckinsale. She appeared as Quinn’s sister, and is notable for being the only time in her career in which she dies on screen. Despite this, she still appears throughout the film (as a ghost) and is probably the best of her four films. It is also notable for Shalet having dyed her hair ginger, but this was for another role she was filming at the same time for the BBC. It was a 6-part adaptation of Dick King Smith’s 1983 novel The Queen’s Nose, and Shalet was cast in the lead role of Harmony Parker, a lonely tomboy who is given a magic coin by her uncle that grants wishes. The series quickly became a critical and popular success, leading to Shalet appearing on Blue Peter on December 4 to further advertise the show in an interview. The series won the Royal Television Society Award in 1996, and shot her to fame, leading to a five year association with the series. She appeared in a number of magazines, including What’s on TV (1995/96) and Girl Talk (October 31, 1996), as well as TV interviews, and even a Comic Relief Special for Chucklevision (“Silly You, Silly Me”) in 1999 with Nerys Hughes. A second series was quickly commissioned in 1996 and was followed in 1998 by a third series, but by this time Shalet was 16 and sitting her exams. As she revealed to Michael Underwood in an interview for CBBC to advertise the 3rd series, she was studying (amongst others) in English, Theatre and Psychology (a subject she would later become interested in). She also admitted that she was a fan of comedian Eddie Izzard. In a later interview with Richard McCourt (Dick from “Dick & Dom” fame) for CBBC on November 2 she revealed that she had passed her exams with 8 A-Levels.

By this time she was looking for different roles, and her first role away from Harmony Parker was in Andrew Davies’ adaptation of his own 1991 novel Getting Hurt, which was part of BBC2’s “Obsessions” series in March 1998. Shalet played Claire Cross, the daughter of Ciaran Hinds, who played a lawyer caught up in a dangerous affair with the wife of a gangster he was defending of murder (played by Amanda Ooms and Nicholas Hope, respectively). It was a controversial drama, involving sexual obsession and murder (of prostitutes) among other things, and gained some notice for its numerous sex scenes and nudity, although Shalet was not involved in any of the scenes. A scene involving her and Hope, however, in which he “photographically seduces her” was described by The Times newspaper on March 9, 1998 as one of the most powerful and chilling scenes in the drama. It marked her second collaboration with Andrew Davies, her first being Ball Trap on the Cote Sauvage. That year also marked her first foray into theatre and radio. On stage she appeared in Philip Ridley’s FairyTaleHeart at the Hampstead Theatre (as Kirsty), while from 1998 to 2001 she voiced a number of radio shows. They were CS Lewis’ The Last Battle in 1998 (as Jill Pole), Ballet Shoes (1999) (as Pauline Fossil), The River (2000) (as Valerie) and National Velvet (2001) (as Edwina Brown).

In 2000 she finally called time on her role as Harmony Parker in the fourth series of The Queen’s Nose, handing over the coin to Ella Jones’ character Sam. She appeared in the 1st two and last episodes of that series, but had enough affection for the show to return for a cameo in the last episode of Series 5 in 2001. She then sought other roles, although she wasn’t adverse to more children’s shows. In 2000 she auditioned for the lead in the BBC’s Cavegirl, but just lost out to Stacy Cadman. As it was, her next role was in the 3rd series of the gritty ITV drama The Vice in January 2001, and would prove to be another key role in her career. Starring Ken Stott (as Inspector Pat Chappel) and Sarah Parish as Jane Farrell, a face from his past, Shalet was cast as Parish’s daughter Sarah. At first just a minor character in the show, by the end of the series she had become a major figure in Chappel’s life. It gained Shalet a surprise following in America when it was shown, and is also notable for being the first major role for David Harewood (of “Homeland” fame). After this, she appeared in The Bill in the episode “Crush” (where she played Sophie) and finished the year in the film The Affair of the Necklace, starring Hilary Swank and Simon Baker. Shalet played Colleen, a ladies maid to Marie Antoinette, who is coersed by Baker into stealing papers from her. In 2002 she was reunited with her Goggle Eyes co-star Alexandra Milman in David Jason’s semi autobiographical drama The Quest. They played posh girls Vivienne and Juanita, who the young David and his pals Ronno and Charlie meet at a caravan camp site on their way to the Lake District. She followed that with Midsomer Murders, appearing in the episode “Murder on St Malley’s Day”, playing Julia Carter. She would return to the show 7 years later in 2009, in the episode “The Black Book”, this time playing air hostess Melony, and becoming one of a select group of people who have appeared in the show in two different roles. She continued the detective theme in 2003 with Jonathan Creek, in the episode “The Taylor’s Dummy”, playing Carrie Bergman, before finishing the year in Eroica, a drama on Beethoven’s Third Symphony. Victoria played Kirsten, a ladies maid, and is an unusual role in which she does not speak throughout the drama.

From this point Shalet struggled to find substantial roles on screen. She played a waitress in the 2004 short film Every Seven Years (which, nevertheless, won critical acclaim at US film festivals), and a nurse in the 2nd series of MIT: Murder Investigation Team, in the episode “Viper’s Nest” the following year. But for the next 3 years she mainly found herself doing voice-over work, such as in Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King in 2004 (as Princess Medea), and in Tractor Tom (as Fi and Rora) in 2005. She also found herself doing more theatre, gaining some notice for her role as Rosie in My Mother Said I Never Should at the Salisbury Playhouse (in October and November 2005) and as Lucy in Dan Muirden’s The Things Good Men Do at the Old Red Lion (in March and April 2007). But the only appearances she had on screen was in a series of adverts for Wrigley’s Extra Mint during broadcasts of Hollyoaks in 2005, as Janey, who brings her older boyfriend home to her less than happy parents, and in a Vodaphone “How Long Have You Got?” prison advert in 2006.

But in November 2007, Shalet made her first significant appearance on TV for nearly 4 years, when she appeared in an episode of BBC daytime soap Doctors as Beth Pritchard, a devious amateur reporter, in the episode “The Story of My Life”. The following year she was cast in a couple of short films. First was Diana Liyanage’s “We Saw Zebras”, playing Cathy, a heroin addicted mother. Then came Laura Windebank’s Close, where she played Mags, who was constantly disrupted by her flatmates (played by Rafe Spall and Tom Riley). She was also cast in the lead role of Paul Watson’s radio play How Now TV, playing Daniela Cross. In June 2009, she returned as PC Vicky Hilton in Doctors, in the two part story “Red Letter Day.” It would become a semi-regular role, spanning from 2009 to 2012. Her other episodes in the show were “Too Close to Home”(2010), “Teenage Kicks”(2011), and “The Devil You Know/The Devil You Don’t”(2012), a 2-part episode that would mark her last appearance on screen. She would continue to perform as a voice-over artist and has voiced radio and television commercials for Alliance & Leicester, Compeed, Acuvue, Specsavers, Herbal Essences and Garnier. She has also voiced the ITV documentary The Heart Hospital in 2011.

Therapy

 By 2012 Shalet was becoming increasingly disenchanted by the acting profession. She had always been interested in psychology since her teenage years, and in 2007 when she played the part of a counsellor in The Things Good Men Do (along with her role as Lucy in the play) it reawakened her interest. Things came to a head in 2012, when she went for an audition for a major role in Holby City, as Shalet explained in Glamour Magazine (March 14, 2015) a few years later: 

   " From the age of six I was acting, but I got to my early twenties and realized my heart just wasn't in it. Then I had some therapy myself and it really did make me re-evaluate what I wanted from life. I did a foundation year in counselling and knew I wanted to take it further. The crunch came when I was accepted onto a training course that would qualify me to be a therapist. On the same day I got a call back from an audition to be a regular in Holby City. When I didn't get the part I saw it as a sign that I had to give up acting altogether to do the 3 year course. I had to make a choice and I've never regretted it." 

She stated the following in regard to her career change: “Before training to be a Psychotherapist, I spent 23 years working as an actor in film, television, theatre and radio. This career of observing the human condition fuelled my interest in people and how the mind works, why we do the things we do and how our interior world manifests itself in our behaviour and the space we take in the world around us.”

Occupation Timeline

Acting – 1989 – 2012

Counselling – 2013–Present

Personal life

Shalet is the second cousin of the actress Kacey Barnfield. She was for a time involved in a four year relationship with reporter and economist Conor Woodman, who lists her among his dedications in his book Unfair Trade when it was published in 2011. By the time she had taken up her psychotherapy training in 2012 the couple had separated. In 2013 she then became engaged to actor Adam James. and they married in September 2015. Their first child was born in September 2016, and he has a daughter from a previous relationship.

FILMOGRAPHY

   Screenplay: Testimony of a Child (1989)   Ball Trap on the Cote Sauvage (1989)   Jim Henson's Mother Goose Stories (episodes "The Giant" and "The Little Girl with the Curl") (1990)   Jim Henson's The Greek Myths: Daedalus and Icarus (1990)   Spatz (episodes "Star Attraction" and Talent Contest") (1991)   Van Der Valk: A Sudden Silence (1991)   The Maid (film) (1991)   Love Hurts (3 episodes) (1992)   Shining Through (film) (1992)   Natural Lies (1992)   Goggle Eyes (1993)   Haunted (film) (1995)   The Queen's Nose (Series 1-5) (1995-2001)   Obsession: Getting Hurt (1998)   ChuckleVision Comic Relief Special (1999)   The Vice (episodes "Out of Mind", "Into the Night" and "Falling) (2001)   The Bill: Crush (2001)   The Affair of the Necklace (film) (2001)   The Quest (2002)   Midsomer Murders: Murder on St Malley's Day (2002)   Jonathan Creek: The Taylor's Dummy (2003)   Eroica (2003)   Every Seven Years (short) (2004)   MIT: Murder Investigation Team (Viper's Nest) (2005)   Doctors: The Story of My Life (2007)   We Saw Zebras (short) (2008)   Close (short) (2008)   Midsomer Murders: The Black Book (12009) 

Doctors (4 episodes) (2009–12)