Nadia Sawalha


Nadia Sawalha is a British actress of Jordanian descent, television presenter, TV cook and vlogger known for her role as Annie Palmer in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders from 1997 to 1999. After winning the 2007 series of Celebrity MasterChef, she has continued to make appearances on cookery shows as a presenter and as a chef. Sawalha was one of the original presenters on the ITV daytime talk show Loose Women from its start in 1999 until 2002. She returned to the show in 2013 as a panelist after a presenter revamp.

Career

After training at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, Sawalha began her career in theatre. From 1997 to 1999, she starred in EastEnders as businesswoman Annie Palmer. Her other acting television credits include Casualty, Which Way to the War and ITV police drama, The Bill. Sawalha has also appeared in the films Clockwise, Which Way to the War, Slave of Dreams, The Vanishing Man and the BBC Victorian drama Station Jim.
From 1999 to 2002, Sawalha was a regular panellist on the lunchtime chat show Loose Women. She returned in October 2013.
In 2001, Sawalha presented the short-lived ITV quiz programme It's Not the Answer with Peter Dickinson as the announcer.
For the BBC, Sawalha has fronted four series of Passport to the Sun, the Total series, TV Mail, Heir Hunters, Perfect Partner and Family Exchange. She is also a co-host on the live documentary City Hospital. Sawalha has previously hosted the BBC One show Living in the Sun, about British expats living in Spain, made by Ricochet, and Wanted Down Under, which shows families who want to make the move Down Under and what it would be like to live and work in those Antipodean nations. She can also be seen on Accidents Can Happen, a daytime BBC One programme produced by Twofour, which follows families as they try to rebuild their homes and their lives following disaster.
In 2005, Sawalha presented the BBC One programme Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre which followed learner drivers as they learnt to drive and took their driving tests with varying degrees of success. Sawalha was one of the learner drivers who ended up passing her driving test at the end of the second series. In the same year and on the same network, Sawalha also co-presented with Jeremy Milnes for the programme Keeping Up with the Joneses.
In the summer of 2006, Sawalha began co-presenting The One Show with Adrian Chiles. However, due to her pregnancy, she did not return to the show in the summer of 2007 and was replaced by Christine Bleakley.
After winning Celebrity MasterChef, Sawalha went on to co-present the children's version of the show Junior Masterchef, she was said to be 'delighted' to be given the chance to host the show.
In 2008, Sawalha returned to BBC One, to present the daytime programme, Wanted Down Under. She presented the 2009 programme Eating in the Sun, produced by her husband Mark Adderley and has Sawalha challenged by celebrity chefs to cook in their favourite holiday restaurants.
From 15 February until 20 August 2010, Sawalha presented the short-lived reality programme Instant Restaurant for BBC Two.
In December 2010, Sawalha starred in a fitness DVD entitled Nadia Sawalha: Fat To Fab, after losing three and a half stone.
In July 2011, Sawalha guest presented ITV Breakfast programme Lorraine and has since made regular appearances on the show, not only as a stand-in presenter but also as a resident chef.
In January 2011, Sawalha starred in the sixth series of ITV's Dancing on Ice with Scottish professional Mark Hanretty, but was voted out in a double elimination in the first week along with Angela Rippon and her partner Sean Rice.
In April 2012, she began co-presenting Saturday Cookbook on ITV Breakfast with chef Mark Sargeant
In 2012, Sawalha presented the UKTV Home series Kitchen SOS.
From 27 October to 29 December 2013, Sawalha and Kaye Adams co-hosted one series of Sunday Scoop, a cookery show.
From 7 January 2015, Sawalha took part in the fifteenth series of Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 5. She lasted 24 days in the house before being evicted.

Books

The Sawalha-Adderleys was launched on Monday 25 August 2014 by Nadia Sawalha and her husband Mark. The channel regular features their two children Maddie and Kiki, Nadia's parents, Mark's Mum Nanni Di, Nadia's sisters Dina and Nadia's best friend Lisa and her two children.
The channel began as a film and TV show review where Nadia and Mark and sometimes their two children Maddie and Kiki would review the latest films coming out in the cinema or a popular TV show on television. Before Nadia began her YouTube channel she had another channel with fellow Loose Women presenter Kaye where they done weekly vlogs and live videos.
By the end of 2014, the family decided to make much varied content with the first being Vlogmas where the family do a vlog every day in December. This proved to be a hit with their followers. From 2015 onwards the channel has been releasing at least two videos daily from Live steams, weekly vlogs, weekend vlog, home time vlogs, green fingered hell, cooking, how you feeling, how to stay married and many more.
In December 2016 the channel launched a subscription to the channel for people who would like some extra content, it's a monthly cost of £1.99 and which included their weekly The no named Sunday show which features different segments from memes, cooking, newspapers, book reviews, teddy talks and more and a weekly live for members only.
In February 2019 Nadia announced via the channel that they had reached 50,000 subscribers. As a reward for reaching 50,000 it was announced via her husband Mark that the family will be taking Nadia to an indoor Sky Diving to say thank you to all their subs
On 4 May 2020 the channel reached 100k and got their silver play button. In May 2020 it was announced after reaching 100,000 thousand subs that the family are hoping to begin to go into making new content for the channel and filming documentary for the channel. It was announced that for reaching 100,000 thousands subscribers that Nadia's husband Mark would experience labor by putting on a labor suit to give him the effect of labor.

Personal life

Sawalha grew up in Croydon, South London. She is the daughter of the Jordanian-born British actor Nadim Sawalha and his English wife Roberta Lane. She is the sister of television actress Julia Sawalha and has appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank with her. In 1997, the three starred together in Dearest Daddy... Darling Daughter at the Young Vic Theatre in South London.
Sawalha has suffered from psoriasis and has used homeopathy rather than conventional treatment.
On 25 December 1997, Sawalha's first husband Justin Mildwater ended his life by suicide. They had been married for five years, but had split up a few months before.
On 6 June 2002, she married her second husband, television producer Mark Adderley. They live in Upper Norwood in South London and have two daughters, Maddie and Kiki-Bee.
Sawalha is an atheist.
Sawalha is best friends with fellow Loose Women panellist Kaye Adams. They have their own YouTube account, Instagram account and Facebook page where they do weekly vlogs, cooking videos, film and TV programme reviews. They also focus on daily normal family routines as well. Sawalha and her husband talk about serious topics such as depression and anxiety, from which Adderley suffers. Sawalha's dogs, Chi-Chi and Toffee, also feature regularly.
On 31 May 2017, Sawalha announced via her YouTube channel in an emotional video online talking about losing her hair at the age of 52. Nadia said that her curls were fake and she was going through the perimenopause, which is the start of the menopause. She revealed a doctor told her in September 2016 she had the balding gene.

Television

;Guest appearances