Cheryl Fergison

Cheryl Fergison (born 27 August 1965) is an English actress most notable for playing Heather Trott in the long-running BBC soap opera EastEnders.

After training at Rose Bruford College, Fergison started playing the role of Heather Trott on 26 June 2007. The idea of Heather was conceived by the EastEnders executive producer Diederick Santer. Prior to starring as Heather, Fergison made a brief appearance on the show as a friend of Mo Harris (Laila Morse) in 2005.

Fergison's stage credits include Measure For Measure, for the Royal Shakespeare Company and most recently the 2006 season at the Scoop at More London.

Fergison is also known for playing Joanna Harding, the "Big Fat Lezza" in the Linda Flint sketches of Little Britain, opposite David Walliams and also played Judy in The IT Crowd. Other notable appearances include 'Allo 'Allo!, Little Miss Jocelyn, Bad Girls and Casualty, as well as playing Mrs. Lloyd in two episodes of Doctor Who, "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances". Fergison also starred in a Keane promotional video for Atlantic, which is on the Under The Iron Sea DVD.

In November 2007, Fergison participated in the Children in Need charity appeal with her EastEnders co-stars which was broadcast on BBC One. On 26 June 2008, she appeared and won an EastEnders special of quiz show The Weakest Link.

Since appearing on EastEnders,Fergison has made a variety of television appearances on shows such as GMTV, The Paul O'Grady Show, This Morning and Loose Women. She won 'Best Comedy Performance' Award in the 2008 Inside Soap Awards. She was also nominated in the same category and for the Best Onscreen Partnership Award (alongside Linda Henry) at the 2008 British Soap Awards. Fergison starred in Lets Dance For Sport Relief dancing to Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice and appeared in an episode of BBC Two's Shooting Stars in August 2010.

On 17 September 2011, Fergison was axed from EastEnders and would leave at the end of her current contract, departing the show on 21 March 2012. Heather was killed off after being hit with a photoframe by Ben Mitchell (Joshua Pascoe). Fergison later commented that she left because she now wanted to "try other things", and she also said that she still keeps in regular contact with Linda Henry and Ricky Grover, who played her best friend Shirley Carter and her fiancé Andrew Cotton.

In March 2012, Fergison appeared on The Saturday Night Show.

In April and June 2012, Fergison made two guest panellist appearances on ITV's Loose Women.

On 15 August 2012, Fergison entered the Celebrity Big Brother 10 house. On 24 August 2012, she became the second housemate to be evicted.

Fergison was one of the celebritiy contestants on Your Face Sounds Familiar. During the series, she sang as Dusty Springfield, Anastacia, Meatloaf, Lulu, Madonna, Cher and Adele.

She played the role of Jo in the 2014 series of Big School on BBC One.

On 24 December 2016, Fergison came back on Eastenders as Heather Trott. Heather's audio-only cameo was just one of the poignant moments that Dot Cotton found the festive mixtape made for her by Hev and Shirl – and the first song was Wham’s Last Christmas. Despite her being murdered by Ben Mitchell in 2012, Reprising her role for one night only, Hev gushed about how Christmas wasn’t Christmas “without a bit of George”.

Fergison divorced her husband, Jamshed Saddiqi in 2008. She currently lives in Sidcup, in southeast London, with her son. Fergison said giving birth on EastEnders was more difficult than giving birth in real life, due to the many takes needed to complete the scene compared to having a caesarean whilst having her real son. In May 2011, Fergison married Yassine Al-Jermoni.

In 2009, Fergison revealed that she is diabetic.