[4][5] Born in Falkirk and raised outside Bonnybridge, she is the only child of football manager and coach David Connell and teacher Fiona Murray.

After leaving drama college, she performed the lead role of Grusha in Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, which toured for The Palace Theatre, Watford in 2004.

[7] In 2006 she played the lead female roles of Gretchen and Helen of Troy in Faust at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh.

[9] Connell was cast as a series regular in the ITV sitcom pilot Above Their Stations in 2009, which also starred Denis Lawson, Ashley Madekwe, Andrew Brooke and Simon Dudley shown on BBC Three.

Connell is also credited with producing A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hansel and Gretel at the Avenue Theatre Company based in Greenwich during this time period as well as the short film Sapphire Strange and web series John and Jane.