Letitia Jane Dean (born 14 November 1967) is an English actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Sharon Watts in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders. An original cast member from 1985 to 1995, she reprised the role from 2001 to 2006, and again from 2012 onwards. Her other television roles include Grange Hill (1983–1984), Brookside (1984), The Hello Girls (1996–1998), and Lucy Sullivan Is Getting Married (1999–2000). In 2007, she participated in the fifth series of the BBC dance competition Strictly Come Dancing, finishing fourth. On stage, she starred in the West End production of High School Musical in 2008, and in the UK touring production of Calendar Girls in 2010. Early life Dean was born in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire to parents Leslie (a tailor) and Ellie Dean, in a cottage rented on the estate of English romantic novelist Barbara Cartland, known as Camfield Place. Dean has two older brothers. Dean's family moved to the north Buckinghamshire village of Stoke Goldington near Newport Pagnell when she was three years old. She acquired a penchant for performing at an early age; both she and her older brother Stephen attended a local dance school, The Sylvia Mitchell School of Dance in, and they also performed a dance act together on stage. This later prompted Dean's successful application to attend the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts at ten years old, and later the Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marylebone, London, which has famously produced some of Britain's most familiar television and musical stars. Career Early career Dean began performing professionally at the age of 12, when she was cast as "Pepper" in the hit stage musical, Annie, at London's Victoria Palace Theatre. A trained singer, she played the lead female, Sandy, in the stage musical Grease, and she also sang with a rock group called "The Young Uns", which toured the country supporting stage acts such as Bobby Davro and Tom O'Connor. Between the ages of 13 and 17, Dean appeared in numerous television programmes, including: Love Story; Tales Out Of School; the Matthew Kelly sitcom Relative Strangers; Grange Hill, playing a student named Lucinda Oliver; (credited as Titia Dean) and the role of Dawn in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside. EastEnders In 1984, Dean auditioned to play one of the original characters in BBC One's brand new soap opera, EastEnders—she was selected for an interview on the strength