Kara Tointon - Swimsuit shoots

Kara Louise Tointon (born 5 August 1983) is a British actress, best known for playing Dawn Swann in the popular BBC soap opera EastEnders.

Tointon was born in Basildon in Essex, but shortly afterwards moved to Southend. Her younger sister Hannah is also an actress, best known for portraying Katy Fox in Hollyoaks. She had speech and drama lessons at school. She also took part in LAMDA examinations, entering local musical festivals performing poetry recitals. This was done whilst attending the Morgan Academy of Performing arts (M.A.P.A) in Leigh-on-Sea. She dated James Bourne from Busted from when she was 15 till she got her part in Eastenders.

Her first professional acting experience came when she played the part of Brigitta in The Sound of Music at the Cliffs Pavilion. Shortly after that, her first paid job was as one of the children in the pantomime Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Her first appearance on television was as an extra in EastEnders in 1994 when she played a school friend of Sonia Fowler.

She also played the part of student Pauline Young in 2001's first series of Teachers on Channel 4 which kick started the career of Mathew Horne (Corden and Horne/Gavin and Stacey). James Corden also appeared in the first series.

In 2004, Tointon appeared in Mile High and in December returned to her former Dream Team role as Gina Moliano until May 2005. She has also made appearances in the films Just My Luck and The Football Factory, and adverts for a number of companies, including McDonalds.

Almost a month to the day that her last Dream Team episode aired, it was revealed to the press that she would be joining the BBC soap EastEnders as a new character, Dawn Swann. Tointon auditioned for EastEnders at the same time as Tiana Benjamin, Matt Di Angelo, Kellie Shirley and Charlie Clements all auditioned for their respective roles. Tointon left EastEnders, along with co-star Ricky Groves, on 27 August 2009. She has said that she would return to eastenders.

Tointon won the Sport Relief version of Strictly Come Dancing in March 2008, partnering former champion, Mark Ramprakash.

In August 2009, she was unveiled as the new face of Michelle for George underwear at Asda. It has also been confirmed that she will star alongside Joe Swash in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in the upcoming 2009/2010 pantomime season.[citation needed]

She and Swash split in May 2010