Julie Hesmondhalgh
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Julie Hesmondhalgh (born February 25, 1970 in Accrington, Lancashire) is an English actress.
As a teenager, Hesmondhalgh was moderately interested in acting, but wished to become a social worker. She applied to drama school to be with her friends, and studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art from 1988 to 1991 (one of her classmates was Benito Martinez). On finishing her training, she was a part of Arts Threshold, a small independent theatre in London, for several years. In the 1990s, she appeared in such television dramas as The Bill, Catherine Cookson's The Dwelling Place, and in the Victoria Wood comedic television movie Pat and Margaret.
However, she is best known for playing Hayley Cropper (née Harold Patterson) on the soap opera Coronation Street. Debuting on the show in 1998, she plays the first transsexual character on a British serial.
Hesmondhalgh is married to actor and playwright Ian Kershaw. The couple live near Manchester with their daughter, Martha, born in 2001.
