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Now 27 she's just recorded her first album, Return to Me. Her love of singing has always run in tandem with her TV work, in fact before becoming a full-time actor she got to the final stages of the first ever Pop Idol, only to be knocked out by a Mr Will Young.

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But her path into showbiz started from comparatively humble origins. Born and raised in Bradford, she is the eldest of five children and her parents Debbie and Tony had comparatively conventional jobs and never worked in the arts.

Instead it was her grandfather, 75-year-old Alan Frost, who unwittingly inspired her by continually treating her to an endless line of old movies when she was a little girl.

Just nine months after graduating from the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, set up by Sir Paul McCartney, she landed the role of Nurse Stella Davenport on The Royal, a part she's played since 2004.

After a four-year courtship Natalie got married in June to 36-year-old finance executive James Shepherd and the couple live in Guiseley, Leeds, from where she commutes between the TV studio and recording studio.

She has just released her first single, Did I, and on November 24 releases the debut album, a mix of rock, jazz and soulful pop, comprising totally new material. But what is Natalie all about when she's not in front of a microphone or a camera?

Rod McPhee found out..

"The one thing I couldn't live without is my husband and my family. My husband is my complete rock, he calms me down when I'm upset or anxious and helps put everything into perspective. Family is so important to me because so long as you have them it doesn't matter what life throws at you. If my career ended tomorrow it almost wouldn't matter if I had them. You can get another job but you only have one family. Oh and I'd struggle to live without chocolate too.

"The thing I'm most proud of has to be my album. It's taken a while to get to this point and it hasn't always been easy, not least because I'm always the first person to criticise myself, but now it's done and ready and I'm so excited. What's important is that I've done it. It doesn't matter what it does on release, what matters is that I made it and I can actually hold my CD in my hand, it's incredible.

"The best thing about Leeds? There are so many things, the nightlife, the shopping, the people, the fact you're minutes from the countryside. You don't have to live in London to have a good career and I wouldn't ever want to leave the sense of pride that Leeds has, the sense that we've achieved everything that other big cities have.

"To relax I open a bottle of wine, watch Desperate Housewives and sit around in my pyjamas eating chocolate.

"My childhood was very happy even though my parents separated when I was just three years old. It was just a very normal way of life for me. Although I saw my dad I mainly lived with my mum and for years she was just like a single parent to m, but we were always quite content really. My grandfather would often collect me from school and we would watch films like the Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind or Calamity Jane and he was the one who would take me to drama classes in the 1980s, it all started from there really.

"The best piece of advice came from my father who said: You only get out of life what you put in. I don't normally take his advice but that one's stood me well over the years.

"The last time I cried was probably yesterday because I was absolutely exhausted and there was so much going on with preparations for the album.

"My philosophy on life is that so long as you have your friends and family around you'll be ok. If you're loved then it doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor. I know you can have very little materially and still be happy. You can replace objects but you can't replace the people you love.

"The person I'd most like to meet is Marilyn Monroe because I'm a big conspiracy theorist and I'd love to know whether she was killed or whether she killed herself. I've always like her ever since I saw movies like Some Like It Hot and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

"My first boyfriend was a guy called Mark whom I went out with from the age of 15 to 21. My first crush was when I was about 14 years old and it was a guy called Robert who was much older than me. We were both starring in West Side Story and I also got to kiss him properly, I think that was my first full-on kiss too."