Kara Louise Tointon (born 5 August 1983) is an English actress, known for portraying the role of Dawn Swann in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.

[1] Tointon's debut in acting was when she played Brigitta in the local amateur dramatic society's version of The Sound of Music at the Cliffs Pavilion, Westcliff-on-Sea.

[2] In 2005, Tointon joined the cast of the BBC soap EastEnders as Dawn Swann,[2] a role she played for 4 years until being written out, along with co-star Ricky Groves, in August 2009.

[3] In January 2010, she made a guest appearance in the 26th and final series of ITV's long-running police drama The Bill in "Duty Calls" as Ami Ryan.

[6] From May to September 2011, Tointon played Eliza Doolittle in the West End production of Pygmalion at the Garrick Theatre, opposite Rupert Everett as Professor Higgins.

[9][10] Following this she played Giny in Ayckbourn's Relatively Speaking, with Felicity Kendal, Jonathan Coy, and Max Bennett at the Wyndham's Theatre in 2013.

In September, it was announced that Kara would play a lead role in the new film Last Passenger, opposite Dougray Scott and directed by Omid Nooshin.

[15] In January 2017, Tointon appeared in the ITV period drama The Halcyon, which was set in 1940 at a five-star hotel "at the centre of London Society and a world at war".

[17] In 2018, Tointon joined 26 other celebrities at Metropolis Studios, to perform an original Christmas song called Rock With Rudolph, written and produced by Grahame and Jack Corbyn.

[21] In September 2014, Tointon took part in the Great North Run to raise money for Share A Star, a charity set up to help severely unwell children and teenagers.