Five Fast Facts About British Soap Star Letitia Dean

Letitia Dean is a British actress who is best known for playing Sharon Watts in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders. Along with her soap role, Dean has also appeared on shows such as Brookside, Grange Hill, and The Hello Girls.

Plus, she starred in the West End production of High School Musical.  From where she was born and raised to being cast on a dance competition show, here are five fast facts about the actress.

Who Is Letitia Dean?

Dean was born on November 14 in Potters Bar, Hertfordshire to parents Leslie and Ellie. The youngest of three children, she has older two brothers, Stephen and Martin. The budding star attended the Italia Conti Academy Theater Arts and the Sylvia Young Theater School, where she studied acting, singing, and dancing.

Soap Career
Dean auditioned for a part in EastEnders in 1984, but she had to lie about her background in order to get the part. The casting directors were looking for real “East End” actors, so Dean told them she was from Hackney, London. She ended up getting the part of Sharon Watts, a role she has played off-and-on for over 35 years.

Dancing Queen
Dean competed on Strictly Come Dancing, the UK’s version of Dancing With the Stars, in 2007 and made it all the way to the quarterfinals before she was eliminated. She then went on the Strictly Come Dancing Tour with some of her EastEnders co-stars, Louisa Lytton and Matt Di Angelo.

Triple Threat

Along with being an actress and trying her hand at dancing, Dean is also a singer. She and Paul J. Medford — who played Kelvin Carpenter on EastEnders — sang a duet for the show called Something Outta Nothing. The song became quite the success and charted at number 12 on the UK Top 20 in 1986.

Getting Personal With Letitia Dean
Dean got engaged to actor Jason Pethers in 2001 and the couple married in September 2002 in front of their friends and family, including a number of EastEnders co-stars. However, after five years of marriage, the couple separated in 2007.