Malandra Elizabeth Burrows (born 4 November 1965) is an English actress and singer. She is best known for her long-running role as Kathy Glover in ITV soap opera Emmerdale. Early life Burrows' first name, Malandra, is a portmanteau of her parents' names, Malcolm and Sandra. Her mother encouraged her at an early age to begin dancing; she initially trained under Billy Pearce's mother Jean. She appeared on Yorkshire Television's Junior Showtime at the age of six. In 1974 Malandra Newman became the youngest-ever winner of New Faces, appearing on the same "all-winners" show with Les Dennis and Victoria Wood. Her interest in music continued throughout her early adolescence, and at age 13 she won the 1978 BBC Merseyside Songwriter of the Year award. She attended King David High School in Childwall. After deciding that she wanted to be a performer, she joined the Everyman Youth Theatre in Liverpool, did classes at Liverpool Theatre School and also did productions with a local amateur dramatics company at St Peter's, in Woolton, whilst continuing to perform musically. After leaving school with eleven O-levels, she enrolled in a Liverpool drama school, where she remained for two years learning her future trade of acting – changing her surname to Burrows for registration with Equity, the British actors' union. Career Even before leaving drama school, Burrows played several roles on television, appearing in The Practice and Fell Tiger, as well as taking two parts in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside - firstly Lucy Collins' schoolfriend, Sue, and then Lisa Morrissey, the girlfriend of Pat Hancock. Emmerdale Three months after leaving drama school, she auditioned for the role of Kathy Bates in the popular ITV soap opera Emmerdale (then known as Emmerdale Farm) and got the part. The role has been her most prominent to date. She became one of the programme's longest-running characters, remaining in the show from 1985 to 2001 and returning briefly in 2005. Kathy is remembered for being one of the most-often married characters in the soap and had a reputation for having "the kiss of death" on her men. First husband Jackie Merrick accidentally shot himself in 1989; her second marriage to Chris Tate, who uses a wheelchair, ended in 1995 when he admitted to an affair; in 1996 Kathy’s third husband Dave Glover died saving a baby he thought to be his own from a house fire as he was