Background
Cordingly was born in Brighton and went to Brighton and Hove High School. She is the daughter of writer and historian David Cordingly.
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Beth Cordingly
Edit ProfileEducation
Cordingly was born in Brighton and went to Brighton and Hove High School. She is the daughter of writer and historian David Cordingly.
Cordingly went to the University of Birmingham where she gained a double First in English and Drama. She went on to train as an actor at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
Career
She made her first major television appearance in the soap opera, Family Affairs as troubled teenager Sara Warrington. A lapdancer who blew most of her wages on cocaine. She left the soap after a year to play the lead in Noel Coward"s Semi-Monde at the Lyric, West End.
The play was directed by Philip Prowse and produced by Thelma Holt.
She then played Rose, a cabinet secretary reporting to Derek Jacobi"s Major Merton, in Two Men went to War, a film starring Kenneth Cranham and Leo Bill. In 2002, she joined The Bill as Personal Computer Kerry Young After her departure from the show when her character was murdered in 2004, Independent Television made an hour-long spin off called Kerry"s Story that aired on ITV3.
She has played a variety of roles on television, notably filming two series for Charlie Brooker, playing Veronica in his zombie series Dead Secretariat and featuring in his sketch show, How television Ruined Your Life with Kevin Eldon. In theatre she has worked nationally and abroad.
In 2006 she played the role of Nina in the Menier Chocolate Factory"s production of Breakfast with Jonny Wilkinson.
In 2013 it was made into an independent feature film and she reprised her role, this time opposite George MacKay, Nigel Lindsay and Norman Pace. When playing Amy in Salt at Manchester Royal Exchange she was nominated for the Manchester Evening News Award for Best Performance in a Studio Production (2010). She worked with Sharon Gless on A Round Heeled Woman in the West End (2012) and has twice played lead roles in Feydeau farces for Sam Walters at the Orange Tree In 2012 she played Louisa in Children"s Children at the Almeida, a play directed by Jeremy Herrin and written by Matthew Dunster.
In 2015 Dunster directed her in Love"s Sacrifice for the Royal Society of Chemistry , in the Swan, Stratford-upon-Avon.
In the same Royal Society of Chemistry season she played Bellamira in The Jew of Malta, starring Jasper Britton. Cordingly has an Master of Arts in Creative from Birkbeck, University of London.
Cordingly is an Ambassador for ChildLine and regularly speaks on their behalf. She ran the London Marathon in 2004 for them and spoke at the 2006 Anti-bullying week conference at Westminster Central Hall.
In 2009 she was given an award at the House of Commons of the United Kingdom for her outstanding contributions to the NSPCC.
