When did you start to take an interest in theatre?

I was always a performer as a child, always doing impressions.

Even when I was very small I was a sort of performing chihuahua.

The moment it all began was when I replied to an advert in the local paper where we lived, in Bolton, to audition for One Day Out by Willy Russell, about a group of deprived kids on a school trip. I was 11 and the youngest kid selected. After that I was bitten, hooked.

Are or were any members of your immediate family involved in drama?

There was no family background in drama. My parents were bakers. But they were very supportive. When I told them I wanted to go to stage school, they wanted me to do a degree first. They said after I graduated, they would pay for me to go to stage school.

What formal training have you done?

I did my Performing Arts degree at Middlesex University. I went to the head of drama to see if I could get any drama experience. I was told performing arts students did not normally do drama, but they made space for me, and I learnt a lot. After that, I landed a part in A Slice of Saturday night, and then Grease.

What has been your most embarrassing moment involving drama, on or off stage?

In Grease there was a scene where I lose my trousers, and I’m down to my boxer shorts. Only on this occasion I wasn’t wearing any boxer shorts! I had to style it out. The unflattering thing was the audience didn’t seem to notice.

But the people in the wings did.

Do you have any sort of “day job”, or work you revert to if you’re not working in the performance arts?

I have a wonderful training job, teaching actors to work with children. I’m lucky because so many actors do jobs like working in call centres, which they hate.

But I find my “day job” enriching and worthwhile.

Which actor do you most admire and why?

I really like Jim Carrey’s work. I feel he does the sort of work I do, and brings the same sort of skills into his work. But he’s doing it at the level of international films rather than panto.

What role would you most like to play and why ?

I’d really like to do a soap.

I’ve no particular ambition to do the big heavyweight parts, though I think one part that would suit me is the spirit Ariel in the Tempest.

What are your plans for the future after Rapunzel?

We’re already working on the 2014/15 Towngate production, Cinderella. We’ve done Cinderella in Basildon before, but this time we’re planning a different approach.