Lucy Renee Speed (born 31 August 1976) is an English actress best known for her television roles as Natalie Evans in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders appearing in 526 episodes between 1994 and 2004, and as DS Stevie Moss in the ITV police drama series The Bill from 2008 to 2010.
[5] She attended a local after-school theatre group in south Croydon alongside actor Nigel Harman, who she would later work with in EastEnders.
[7] At the age of seven, Speed modelled clothes for Kays catalogue and she went on to appear in commercials for Sunpat peanut butter, then for gas, paint, soup and the children's toy My Little Pony.
By the age of eight she was acting on stage at London's National Theatre in Neap Tide, a controversial play about lesbianism and women's oppression.
[5] Speed has commented "Mum wasn't keen for me to be a child actress — she thought I'd be even more precocious than I already was… I worked constantly and I loved it.
She went on to secure the role of 'young Aurora' in the film Impromptu (1991), which was about Polish pianist Frédéric Chopin and starred Hugh Grant.
Speed played Rose Penfold, a streetwise love interest for Maguire's character, Simon; they meet at a children's home and then run away to be together.
During 1992–93 Speed appeared as Beki Jenner in two series of Rides, a BBC drama about an all-woman minicab firm, written by Carole Hayman.
Speed's big television break came in 1993 aged 17, when she won the part of Natalie Price in the BBC soap EastEnders.
Speed quit the soap after a year as she felt overwhelmed and unprepared by all the press attention she received from being in such a high-profile show.
I was very young and extremely shy, so it all became a huge difficulty for me…I honoured my initial one-year contract and then moved on…they did express their interest in signing me for another year, but I politely but firmly declined.
Her return was prompted by her friend and EastEnders co-star Ross Kemp, who initiated contact between her and producer Matthew Robinson.
The DVD features special forces and "martial arts guru" Andy Hopwood, and teaches various self-defence techniques.
The play also starred Coronation Street's Paul Fox, Emmerdale's Janice McKenzie and EastEnders' Marc Bannerman.
Speed is good friends with Charlie Brooks, the actress who played Janine Butcher, her on-screen adversary in EastEnders.