[citation needed] She travelled extensively with her mother as a child, returning to London at 16 to train as an actress at The Drama Centre.

Her first credited television appearance was as a terrified diner in The Bill in 1984, running frantically out of a Chinese restaurant after it had received a bomb scare.

[2] Her novels include the semi-autobiographical Hideous Kinky, which was adapted into a film starring Kate Winslet.

She has two cousins in the media industry; public relations executive Matthew and broadcaster Emma.

[citation needed] Freud's maternal grandparents were Catholics but her mother was non-observant, while her father's Jewish family were atheists.