Personal Life
Billie Paul Piper (originally registered as Lianne Piper), born on 22 September 1982, is an English actress. She began her career as a pop singer in her teens, and was well-known for her marriage to DJ Chris Evans.She is now best known for portraying Rose Tyler, companion to the Doctor in the television series Doctor Who from 2005 to 2006. Her role in Doctor Who consolidated her status as a household name in the United Kingdom. Piper was born in Swindon, Wiltshire, England to Paul Piper and Mandy Kent. Her parents changed her given name from Leanne to Billie three weeks after registering her birth. Piper has one younger brother, Charlie, and two younger sisters, Harley and Ellie. Piper grew up in Nine Elms, Swindon. She went to Brookfield Primary School in the Shaw, Swindon, and Bradon Forest Secondary School in the village of Purton. She supports Swindon Town football club. Later, she attended The Sylvia Young Theatre School. She is 1.65 metres tall. She is quoted as saying: “Weight doesn’t matter as long as you’re happy with yourself.” Piper married businessman, television presenter, and BBC Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans in a secret ceremony on May 2001 in Las Vegas after five months of dating. Their marriage attracted much comment due to the sixteen-year age gap between the two.A story in The Independent on 27 June 2006 stated that Piper has declared that she does not wish to claim any money from Evans’ reported £30m wealth or his £540,000 salary from Radio Two. “I’m not taking a penny from him,” she told the Radio Times. “I think that’s disgusting.” Piper also revealed in her interview with Radio Times that she left her pop star career with very little money. The couple got divorced on 31st May 2007. She married actor Laurence Fox, son of James Fox, on 31 December 2007 at St. Marys Church in Easebourne, West Sussex.They live in their home in Easebourne, Midhurst in West Sussex. The couple have one child – a son named Winston James Fox, born 21 October 2008.
Music
Piper’s first break in the entertainment world came as a teenager, when she was selected to appear on the Saturday morning kids’ television show Scratchy & Co. Piper later landed a role in a television commercial promoting the pop magazine Smash Hits. Her role was to run up to the camera, blow a bubblegum bubble and shout “Pop!” Soon after she was offered a record deal at the age of fifteen, and in 1998 became the youngest artist to ever debut at number one in the UK singles chart with “Because We Want To”, released under the artist name “Billie”. Her follow-up single “Girlfriend” also debuted at Number One, and her first album, Honey to the B (released immediately afterwards) debuted at Number 14 in the UK album charts and went platinum. She released two further singles off the album, “She Wants You” and “Honey to the Bee”; both songs debuted at Number 3. In 1999, Piper was nominated for two Brit Awards and was named Best Female Star at the Smash Hits Poll Winners’ party, although at the latter ceremony she was reduced to tears after being viciously booed by jealous fans of Ritchie Neville, member of boyband Five, whom she was dating at the time. Piper then took a year off to record her second album. She decided to release further records under her full name, Billie Piper. She returned to the Singles Chart in May 2000 with a new, sexier sound.She hit the Number 1 spot with “Day & Night”, but her success wasn’t to continue. She waited until the following September to release “Something Deep Inside”. That reached Number 4 in the UK Singles Chart. In October 2000, Piper released her second album, Walk of Life, which reached Number 14 in the UK Album Chart. The song “Walk of Life”, the final single off this album, was released in December 2000 and reached Number 25 in the UK Singles Chart. This proved to be Piper’s last musical release, a low-key exit from the world of pop. On 15 January 2007, BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles started a campaign to get “Honey to the Bee” back into the Top 100 on download sales as a way of testing out new chart rules that favour download sales. The campaign was highly successful, with “Honey to the Bee” re-entering the official UK singles chart at #17, eight years after it was first released.
Film & Television
In 2003, Piper decided to end her pop career and return to her original ambition, acting. She took acting lessons while living in Los Angeles and, still a high-profile figure, quickly earned roles in the BBC Television series The Canterbury Tales (modern retellings of Chaucer’s stories) and the one-off drama Bella and the Boys. Piper gained very positive reviews for these appearances, critics seemingly feeling that she was a far better actress than she was a singer. In 2004, Piper appeared in the films The Calcium Kid, as the romantic interest of Orlando Bloom’s character, and Things to do Before You’re Thirty. Shortly before starting work on Doctor Who, she filmed a starring role in the horror movie Spirit Trap along side Russian pop star Alsou, released in the summer of 2005 to generally poor reviews. In November 2005, Piper starred as Hero in a BBC adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing, updated for the modern day in a similar manner to the Canterbury Tales series in which she featured, with Hero now being a weather presenter in a television station. Piper has completed work on two stand-alone television productions. In the first, a BBC adaptation of Philip Pullman’s historical novel The Ruby in the Smoke broadcast in December 2006, Piper played protagonist Sally Lockhart, a Victorian orphan. The BBC plans to film all four of Pullman’s Sally Lockhart novels, presumably with Piper continuing in the role. In 2007 she appeared as the main character, Fanny Price, in an adaptation of Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park, screened on ITV1. This was her first acting role on television for a broadcaster other than the BBC. Piper also appears in Secret Diary of a Call Girl, an ITV2 adaptation of Belle de Jour’s The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl, a memoir detailing the life of a high-class prostitute. The series, which aired from 27 September 2007, saw Piper in several semi-nude scenes, including a lesbian romp and one scene featuring her saddling a client and riding him like a horse. A second series, with Piper in the starring role, started filming in May 2008. A body double was hired for scenes in which Piper’s pregnancy would be apparent.
Doctor Who
In May 2004, it was announced that Piper was to play the character Rose Tyler, companion to the Doctor in the revived series of Doctor Who, beginning in 2005. Piper won the Most Popular Actress category at the 2005 and 2006 National Television Awards for her work on Doctor Who. BBC News named Piper as one of its “Faces of the Year” for 2005, primarily due to her success in Doctor Who. At The South Bank Show Awards on 27 January 2006 Piper was awarded The Times Breakthrough Award for her successful transition from singing to acting. In March 2006, the Television and Radio Industries Club named Piper as best new TV talent in their annual Tric awards. In September 2006, Piper was named Best Actress at the TV Quick and TV Choice Awards. After the completion of the very successful first series of the revamped Doctor Who, the British media regularly released conflicting reports about how long Piper would be staying with the programme. In March 2006, she claimed that she would continue on Doctor Who into its third season in 2007. On 10 May 2006, however, she was reported to be considering quitting the series, although she did express an interest in playing a female version of the Doctor in the future (possibly related to a proposed Doctor Who spin-off series about Rose which was later dropped) On 15 June 2006, the BBC announced that she was to depart in the final episode of the second series, “Doomsday”. Piper’s decision to leave had been taken a year previously, but remained a secret until news of her departure became public. On 27 November 2007, the BBC confirmed that she would reprise her role as Rose Tyler in the fourth series for three episodes. Later, it was confirmed by Russell T Davies in Doctor Who Magazine that this return had been planned since she left. It was also revealed in the Turn Left Doctor Who Confidential that Billie had made arrangements to return as Rose since she decided to leave and lied to journalists when she claimed that she would never return. The series began in April 2008, and after several cameos, Piper made her official return as Rose in the series four final episodes Turn Left, Stolen Earth and The Journeys End.
Theatre
Piper’s first theatre credit was working with a touring production of Christopher Hampton’s play Treats, which opened early 2007 in Windsor. Treats also showed in the West End, at the Garrick Theatre, starting on 28 February (with previews began on 20 February) and ran through 26 May, 2007. This was Piper’s West End debut. She played Ann, with Kris Marshall and Laurence Fox as costars. Her role and portrayal as Ann received acclaim and positive reviews from many critics.