Mandip Gill

You can get a job, but you have to actually start doing it before you can be like 'Yeah, I've really got that job.'

No, I went through a process just like I would any other job in which my agent received the breakdown for 'Doctor Who' and I went for my audition. In the original audition, it said you can bring as much to the character, we're looking for what the actor can bring.

We were filming 'Doctors' in Birmingham and they have the highest percentage of homeless people outside of London. You just have to walk down one of their busy streets to see that this issue is massive.

But there are still so many other roles that I would love to play, and hopefully I'm in a position after 'Doctor Who' to be a bit choosier about which ones I do. I want to play Wonder Woman.

When I was younger I didn't feel I was represented in popular culture - you couldn't get a brown doll in the shops and you didn't see many brown people on TV.

Years ago, there was one Asian person in a soap and the entire Asian acting community was going for that role. Now, you can find a few different Asian people, and their character isn't entirely based on their religion or culture: they just happen to be in a soap.

As I got to about 9/10 years old I started to see roles on television that I wanted to play like a police officer in 'The Bill' or be a part of the 'Goodness Gracious Me Family' which I think further fuelled the desire to do this professionally.

As a child I was paid 50p by my family to sing/mime or put on little shows. They probably pay me #50 now to stop!

I want to be an Actress that is forced to change in order to play certain characters or tell stories. I don't want to just play a version of myself.

I just want to play really strong characters that get to do really interesting things. But I would also love to play someone really vulnerable. When I first started my career, I tended to do a lot of things just to get the work.

I look for a great story. One that I would like to watch, or tell, or that I think needs to be told, because I know that, as an actress, I have a responsibility to tell certain stories and to tell them properly.

I'll never forget how I started off and I'll never talk down about 'Hollyoaks'. Leaving was a business move for me, rather than a personal decision.