Welcome to the Kellie Bright Biography.
FULL NAME: KELLIE BRIGHT
CHARACTER/S IN T-BAG:
Sally Simpkins
Anastasia/Rosie (T-Bag And The Revenge Of The T-Set Ep7)
EPISODES APPEARED IN:
21 Episodes (2 Series & 1 Christmas Special)
BIRTH DATE: 1st July 1976
BIRTH PLACE:
STAR SIGN: Cancer
Kellie Bright first appeared on Television screens in a commercial for the board game 'Knock your Block Off'. The ad starred a brother and Kellie as the snooty sister. In the advert they played the board game (similar to Jenga) with the boy rapping along to a song about how much his sister is a smart alec. The advert finished with him saying 'Just you wait, you clever clogs! One day I'll knock your block off!'
Kellie Bright first regular TV appearance was in T-Bag (T. Bag And The Revenge Of The T-Set) where she was the only girl to destroy T-Bag for good (although T-Bag appeared later in T-Bag’s Christmas Carol see A Nitpicker's Guide To T-Bag for more details). Kellie is the only one of the five girls to appear on a T-Bag Christmas special (T-Bag’s Christmas Carol) which was filmed at the same time as T-Bag And The Revenge Of The T-Set. Kellie Bright came back to T-Bag for her second series alongside John Hasler and a new T-Bag, Tabatha Bag played by Georgina Hale. As most viewers favourite girl (Vote in the Favourite T-Bag Girl vote) and most talented girl the following series seemed somehow lacking without her.
After appearing in 21 episodes of T-Bag (making Kellie the second most prolific girl in T-Bag after Jennie Stallwood’s Debbie) and a brief appearance in fellow children’s TV programme, Maid Marion And Her Merry Men, she got her most recognized role of Joanna Burrows in the ITV comedy series The Upper Hand alongside Joe McGann (Charlie Burrows); Diane Weston (Caroline Wheatley); Honor Blackman (Laura) and William Puttock (Tom Wheatley) (See image of the cast). The Upper Hand is thought by many to be her first TV appearance but they are wrong as we all know. Kellie appeared in The Upper Hand throughout all its’ series in almost all of the episodes going from a young teenager to a married woman beating Charlie Burrows (her Dad) and Caroline Wheatley to the alter!
After The Upper Hand Kellie’s acting career started to flag and she disappeared from our TV’s in a major role for several years.
Before and during this time Kellie Bright was a regular member of the BBC radio programme The Archers as Kate Madikane (nee Archer) and meanwhile had very small roles in 1997 and 2000 on TV in highly acclaimed TV series such as The Bill. Kellie also appeared with Timothy Spall (Barry in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet) in The Thing about Vince.
During her career Kellie has made a few forays into theatre acting in the plays Sparkleshank and Snake In Fridge at The Royal Exchange in Manchester (From 15th Nov-9th Dec 2000). Kellie got great reviews from the national papers for her role in Snake In Fridge:
‘An enjoyable ride, made THRILLING by some scarily GOOD PERFORMANCES, particularly from Kellie Bright as the controlling Caddie and Amy Marston as the spacey Donna.’ (The Guardian)
‘Adam Sims, Kellie Bright and the other members of Braham Murray's cast CAN'T BE FAULTED’ (The Times)
Meanwhile Kellie has been working in a clothes shop during the day and in a bar at night but in 2002 Kellie Bright got her break in The Ali G movie, as Me Julie, quite a departure from her goodie image in T-Bag. From the strength of her performance in the Ali G film Kellie has since appeared in the TV series Bad Girls (another contrast to Sally Simpkins) and the BBC comedy The House That Jack Built alongside Gillian Taylforth and Adam Faith. Although the series was panned by the critics a second series was never likely to be commissioned and with the death of Adam Faith in 2003 quashed any hope of a second series. Kellie’s role as Lisa Squire was not to be as successful as her role of Joanna Burrows in The Upper Hand all those years before.
It’s great that Kellie Bright first appeared on T-Bag all those years before, many people don’t recognise her in her most recent roles such as Me Julie and Cassie Tyler (Bad Girls).
Although Kellie has not been a prolific actress her roles do her acting career justice with her many different characters she has portrayed- a good girl; a bad girl (literally); a spoiled girl etc in many different roles- children’s TV; comedy; films; dramas etc. We’ll just have to wait and see what role Kellie dares to try next.
At the 2002 National Music Awards Kellie collected an award for the 'Me Julie' song by Shaggy and Ali G (from the film Ali G Indahouse) on behalf of Ali G and Shaggy. Kellie said when accepting the award that she didn’t think she’d ever be accepting an award for music, after her singing ‘They say that the desert is romantic’ (T-Bag And The Pearls Of Wisdom Ep9) I wouldn’t be so sure!
Over the past few years Kellie has appeared in numerous plays including 'Relatively Speaking' and Paul at the National theatre. Kellie has also recorded a couple of 'talking books' including 'The Magicians Guild' released in February 2006.
In 2005 Kellie reappeared on our TV screens in the ITV drama Jericho. She even dyed her hair black for the character of WPC Penny Collins. Kellie also appeared on the big screen in the film Kinky Boots.
In recent years Kellie has been in major productions in the theatre accross the country, some of the programmes for the plays Kellie has featured in can be seen below:
 Be My Baby |
 Exchange |
 Lady Of Leisure |
 Love And Money |
 Mary Barton |
 Paul |
 Relatively Speaking |
 Whipping It Up |
 Whipping It Up |
There is a board dedicated to Kellie Bright on The T-Bag Forum!
| KELLIE BRIGHT TV & FILM APPEARANCES | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Programme | As | Date Aired (UK) | Type | Episode/Series | More Details |
| 1980's | |||||
| 1989 | |||||
| T. Bag And The Revenge Of The T-Set | Sally Simpkins | 3.1.1989-7.3.1989 | Kids TV Series | All | CiTV |
| Maid Marion And Her Merry Men | Little Girl | 23.11.1989; 30.11.1989 & 7.12.1989 | Kids TV Series | Robert The Incredible Chicken (#1.2); A Game Called John (#1.3) & The Miracle Of St Charlene (#1.4) | ? |
| T. Bag’s Christmas Carol | Sally Simpkins | 26.12.1989 | Kids TV Special | All | CiTV |
| 1990's | |||||
| 1990 | |||||
| T. Bag And The Pearls Of Wisdom | Sally Simpkins | 2.1.1990-6.3.1990 | Kids TV Series | All | CiTV |
| The Upper Hand | Joanna Burrows | 1990-1996 | TV Series | All | ITV |
| 1997 | |||||
| Blackrock | Leesha | 1997 | Film | ? | ? |
| McDonald's Advert | A Hungry Commuter | 1997 | TV Commercial | ? | ? |
| 1998 | |||||
| The Bill | Lianne Clark | 3.3.1998 | TV Series | A Little Help (Ep1294) | ITV |
| 2000's | |||||
| 2000 | |||||
| Nature Boy | Katy | 2000 | Mini Film | ? | BBC Mini Film |
| Cor Blimey! | Viola | 2000 | TV Film | ? | Based on Carry On Films |
| The Thing About Vince | Sally | 2000 | TV | Mini Series (3 Episodes) | ? |
| 2001 | |||||
| Outriders | Julia's Mother | 11 & 13.07.01 | TV Series | Eye of the Dragon: Part 3 (#1.3) Eye of the Dragon: Part 5 (#1.5) | ? |
| 2002 | |||||
| Ali G Indahouse | Me Julie | 24.3.2002 (Premiere) | Film | ? | ? |
| Bad Girls | Cassie Tyler | 2002 | TV Series | Series 4 (Eps 4.4-4.16) 13 Episodes | ITV |
| The House That Jack Built | Lisa Squire | 2.8.2002-30.8.2002 | TV Series | All 6 Eps | BBC |
| This Morning | as Herself | 2002 | TV | 1 Show | To talk about Bad Girls |
| National Music Awards | Herself | 2002 | TV Awards | ? | To collect an award for the Ali G & Shaggy song, Me Julie |
| Silent Witness | DC Mona Westlake | 26.10.2002 | TV Series | Closed Ranks (#6.4) | ? |
| 2003 | |||||
| How (Not) to Make a Short Film | Stefania | 6.11.2003 | Short Film | ? | ? |
| 2005 | |||||
| Imagine Me & You | Terri | 2005 | Film | ? | ? |
| Kinky Boots | Jeannie | 2005 | Film | ? | ? |
| Jericho | WPC Penny Collins | 23.10.05 - 07.11.05 | TV Series | All 4 episodes | ITV1 |
| Unknown Dates | |||||
| Knock your Block Off Board game Advert | Sister | Before 1989 | TV Commercial | ||
