She once played EastEnders’ nightclub queen Mel Owen, who famously sent customers running for their lives after setting fire to the E20.
But now Tamzin Outhwaite aims to set a very different dancefloor ablaze – as she’s poised to land a place on Strictly.
The 49-year-old actress is reportedly close to signing up for the BBC contest after saying in 2019 it was “next year or never”.
The mum of two told how her daughters Florence, 12, and Marnie, seven, were “desperate” for her to be on the show.
“But I think I’m a bit old,” she said. “I’m not sure my body could take it.
“Part of me thinks I should just do it next year as a last hurrah before my fifties.”
She’s set to follow the glitterball lead of other EastEnders stars including Emma Barton, Jake Wood, Kellie Bright, Kara Tointon, who won in 2010, and Jill Halfpenny who lifted the trophy in 2004.
Tamzin – who was trained at the world famous Sylvia Young Theatre School – got her big break as fiery Mel in Albert Square in 1998 who ran the R&R nightspot, also known as the e20 and Rubys.
She left in 2002, the year after the blaze drama, before returning for a year in 2018 when Mel was killed off in a car crash.
Londoner Tamzin has also starred in the BBC crime drama New Tricks.
She is currently appearing in online menopause comedy Dun Breedin’ with pals Julie Graham and Angela Griffin.
The star has been dating documentary maker Tom Child for almost three years following her divorce from fellow actor Tom Ellis, the father of her two children.
She recently told how she and Tom had become like the Queen Vic’s fiery publicans Dirty Den and Angie Watts in lockdown – bickering as they worked on her YouTube series.
Her Dun Breedin’ co-star Denise Welch made the revelation on Kate Thornton’s podcast White Wine Question Time.
She said: “We have a WhatsApp group and Tam said, ‘In all the time me and Tom have been together we haven’t argued.
"But this has turned us into Den and Ange’.”
