Background
The daughter of Jamaican immigrant parents to Abergavenny, her mother worked as a nurse
The daughter of Jamaican immigrant parents to Abergavenny, her mother worked as a nurse
Packer attended the National Youth Theatre of Wales before becoming a Bachelor in theatre and drama at the University of Warwick, she then trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.
She is the elder sister of the Olympic hurdler Colin Jackson. Whilst studying at Llanedeyrn High School in Cardiff, she already showed an interest in acting, playing the lead in school plays including Oklahoma and The King and I.
Embarking on an acting career, in the early 1990s she was most well known for her role as Mick Johnson"s wife Josie in the Channel 4 soap Brookside. She then undertook a degree in teaching at Goldsmiths College, and after graduating in 1996 taught drama in London.
After the birth their relationship began to break down, and they agreed to move back to the United Kingdom, but Newman later decided to stay in the United States of America. The couple divorced the following year.
Arriving back in Cardiff with her three-month-old son, she gained an audition for British Broadcasting Corporation drama Casualty. Three weeks later she started work as Sister Tess Bateman, first appearing on screen from September 2003.
In November 2006 Martina Laird who played the role of Comfort left casualty and this then meant that Suzanne was the second longest serving cast member. They were eliminated in the first round.
On August 22nd 2015, she quit Casualty after playing the character of Tess for nearly 12 years to become a member of the cast of Stella and of Doctors.
