Sarah Hadland: The worst thing anyone's said to me: you'll never, ever work'

"Born in Hertfordshire, Sarah Hadland, 54, attended Laine Theatre Arts college in Surrey. From 2009 to 2015, she played Stevie in the Bafta-nominated sitcom Miranda, and her other television work includes Horrible Histories, Waterloo Road, W1A, The Job Lot and Daddy Issues. This Christmas, she appears on The Festive Pottery Throwdown and The Celebrity Apprentice, and stars as the Wicked Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Marlowe theatre in Canterbury."

"I remember putting on my sister's dungarees they were purple and flared to do an Elvis impression and my family laughing, and thinking: Oh, this is good. Which living person do you most admire, and why? Lemn Sissay. What happened to him and what he's done with his life is extraordinary. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Very impatient, bossy, always late. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Laziness, lack of empathy, lack of humour."

"What was your most embarrassing moment? Years ago, I was trying to get with one of the big agencies and I cobbled together a VHS tape of me in adverts and sobbing in The Bill, and took it United Agents for the attention of Dallas Smith. A week later I went back and said, Has she looked at the tape? And they were, like, Dallas is a he, no he hasn't and he doesn't want to, and handed it back to me."

Sarah Hadland was born in Hertfordshire and trained at Laine Theatre Arts college in Surrey. She played Stevie in the BAFTA-nominated sitcom Miranda from 2009 to 2015. Her television credits include Horrible Histories, Waterloo Road, W1A, The Job Lot and Daddy Issues. She appears this Christmas on The Festive Pottery Throwdown and The Celebrity Apprentice and stars as the Wicked Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury. She lives in London with her child. She describes herself as speedy, bossy and loving, admits to impatience and nail-biting, and recounts personal memories and an embarrassing VHS agency incident.

Read at www.theguardian.com