Cush Jumbo

I didn't come out and roll from job to job - my first year was really tough. I had to work as a teaching assistant for an agency; I ran a pancake stall in Dulwich Market. I taught drama classes and ran my own workshops. I applied for every advert on Gumtree there possibly was.

If you don't have a sense of adventure in this job, then you're not going to do very well. You have to be prepared for the unexpected, and that's one of the reasons why you really, really, really have to trust the people you're going to work with because you don't know what's on the other end.

You see actors who make family work, but it's difficult for any woman.

My dad is the first to say that Mum deals with the mortgage payments, the bills, the rota, things like that, while my dad is the emotional one who keeps the home together. He's the nurturer, but together, they work perfectly.