Powell was born on 5 July 1946[1] in Levenshulme, Manchester, and attended Cheadle County Grammar School for Girls, during which time she appeared to some acclaim as Fat Urs in the National Youth Theatre's production of Ben Jonson's Bartholemew Fair.
[1] She was a regular, if minor, player in many television dramas until being cast in Grange Hill, in which she played the "firm but fair"[3] headmistress Bridget ("The Midget") McClusky for eleven years.
[4]Eventually, however, Powell wanted to pursue other interests and gave the Grange Hill producers and writers a year to write McClusky out of the series.
[3] Powell went on to appear in other television programmes such as Heartbeat, A Touch of Frost, Holby City, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates and Father Brown, and in 2008, Echo Beach.
Subsequently, in 2011–2013, she became a support character in the teen programme House of Anubis, playing the role of Nina Martin's gran who ends up in hospital but is later released.