| The following article is written from an Out of Universe perspective. |
Julia Sawalha portrayed the Seventh and Eighth Doctor companion, Katie Tollinger, from 1990-1992. She went on to reprise the character in the spin-off series, Leftover, from 2001-2005 and again in 2010.
Biography
Prior to Doctor Who
Sawalha was born in Wandsworth, London, and is daughter of Roberta Lane and actor Nadim Sawalha. Her father was born in Madaba, Jordan. She was named after her paternal grandmother, a businesswoman who had received an award from Queen Noor for enterprise. She is of Jordanian, English, and French Huguenot ancestry.
Sawalha was educated at the Theatre Arts School, a fee-paying independent school which is part of the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, based at the time in Clapham in south London, which she left at the age of fifteen.
She is part of an acting family; Sawalha's father Nadim appeared in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me and The Living Daylights, while her sister Nadia starred in the soap EastEnders and is now a television presenter and chat show host with whom she has appeared on Lily Savage's Blankety Blank.
Sawalha made her debut in the 1982 BBC miniseries Fame Is the Spur and in 1988, played a small role in Inspector Morse on the episode "Last Seen Wearing". She first gained attention for her starring role in the Baftaaward-winning ITV teenage comedy-drama Press Gang, which ran from 1989 to 1990.
Work on Doctor Who
In 1990 Sawalha was cast as Katie Tollinger, a posh upper-class cat burglar and a new companion for the Seventh Doctor who first appeared in Crime of the Century.
Sawalha continued to play Katie regularly until the season 29 story Transit where her character was killed off after Sawalha decided to leave.
Sawalha later reprised her role as Katie in the season 36 story Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust where Katie was resurrected by a race of aliens known as the Mitahi.
Sawalha starred alongside Elisabeth Sladen, Katy Manning and Caroline John in the spin-off series Leftover which featured Katie leading a team of former companions investigating strange alien activity in Newcastle. The show ran from 2001-2005, with the final Season featuring Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush. She also played a parallel version of Katie in three episodes.
Sawalha along with the rest of the main cast of Leftover appeared in Doctor Who. she and the others then later appeared in the Season 42 episode Return to Earth where they played Matrix simulations of their characters.
She and the rest of the main Leftover cast reprised their roles for the Season 46 story Mad World and then for the fifth series of Leftover which was a mini-series with the umbrella title End of Days.
After Doctor Who
From 1992 to 2012, Sawalha played strait-laced daughter Saffron Monsoon in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous alongside Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. She appeared in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as Lydia Bennet, with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. She voiced Ginger in DreamWorks/Aardman's Chicken Run. She also played "Dawn the Wise Man" in The Flint Street Nativity on Christmas Evein the British Comedy Award-winning Faith in the Future (1995–98). In 1994, she played Mercy (Merry) Pecksniff in the BBC production of Martin Chuzzlewit.
In 2000 she appeared as Janet, the Australian barmaid ("Built for bar work; it's instinct... instinct!!") in the first series of the British sitcom Time Gentlemen Please. She also played the much put-upon PA to "Zak" in Argos TV adverts during 2002–2004, along with Richard E. Grant. She has also joined actor Ioan Gruffudd in the internationally successful TV adaptations of C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels, as the captain's wife Maria.
In 2006, she participated in the third series of the genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are? tracing her family's roots, which are Jordanian Bedouin on her father's side, and French Huguenot on her mother's. She also appeared in the pilot of BBC 1's A Taste of my Life presented by Nigel Slater. After a two-year break, she was back on screen in May 2007, competing in the BBC dog training celebrity reality show The Underdog Show. She then returned to acting in two successive BBC costume dramas; as Jessie Brown in 2007 series Cranford, followed by Lark Rise to Candleford in 2008. She provided the voice acting for Sister Hannah (a.k.a. "Hammer"), a main character in the 2008 Xbox 360 video game Fable II. In autumn 2014, Julia played the part of Jan Ward in BBC One's thriller miniseries Remember Me, featuring Michael Palin. On 9 May 2015 she read the account of a member of the Women's Land Army at VE Day 70: A Party to Remember in Horse Guards Parade, London that was broadcast live on BBC1.
Personal Life
Sawalha lived with Press Gang co-star Dexter Fletcher, and subsequently comedian Richard Herring. She also had a relationship with Patrick Marber. She had a relationship with Keith Allen, whom she met on the set of Martin Chuzzlewit.
She met Rich Annetts at the Glastonbury Festival in 2005. The couple moved to Bath, Somerset, and lived in a flat close to the Royal Crescent. Sawalha started growing her own vegetables, attending yoga lessons and studying for an Open University English degree. Sawalha and Annetts have since separated.