Hello Lovelies, 

With ‘The Smoke’ out today, I have been sent a very exciting featurette lovelies, to highlight the actors and actresses who have moved from the small screen to the big screen. Now as always I like to be honest and tell you that I did not write the feature. 

While I did edit some of it, I didn’t write it and I wanted to let you all know because I think it is only fair to the person who did write it to get a little credit for it. I am unsure of their name but thank you so much for sending this across! I hope you all enjoy it…

Matt Di Angelo and Anna Passey: EastEnders and Hollyoaks to The Smoke -  After entering their careers as soap stars on EastEnders and Hollyoaks, respectfully, Matt Di Angelo and Anna Passey make their film debuts in the new gangster crime thriller, The Smoke. In Hollyoaks Passey played Sienna Blake, a beautiful, clever and calculating character who entered the village with her controlling father, Patrick, but stays with her estranged twin brother, Dodger. Di Angelo began on EastEnders as Dean Wicks in 2006, a dark, brooding man with a chip on his shoulder, leaving in a whirlwind of violence and drama in 2008, but returning to Walford this year. After his further successes on TV in Hustle and Brogia, Di Angelo has landed the starring role in The Smoke as city lawyer Brad Walker. In the worst day of his life, Brad’s high-maintenance girlfriend Sasha has unceremoniously ditched him for his so-called friend Tom and to add insult to injury he's just been fired. On a night out drowning his sorrows with old friend Dean, he happens to overhear a conversation between Phil and Ben - two drug dealers working for small-time gangster Jack. In no time at all, Brad manages to make off with a sports car, a call girl and £400,000 in cash... But that’s just the start. 

Martine McCutcheon: EastEnders to Love, Actually -  Martine McCutcheon first starred in the role of Tiffany Raymond, the abandoned child of Louise, on the popular BBC Soap Opera EastEnders. As the role of Tiffany grew, so did McCutcheon's popularity, and 22 million viewers tuned in to see her final scenes in Albert Square on New Year’s Eve in 1998. In this episode McCutcheon’s character was run over and killed by one of Frank Butcher's dodgy used cars, thereby killing her EastEnders career. In 2003, after a brief and failed attempt at a pop music career, McCutcheon featured in her first major film role. She appeared as tea-lady Natalie in the Richard Curtis romantic comedy Love Actually, now a Christmas-classic, where the British Prime Minister  falls in love with McCutcheon's character. McCutcheon and Grant’s budding relationship is exposed when a curtain is raised on them kissing at big finale of a school play.

Jude Law: Families to The Talented Mr. Ripley -  Arguably Britain's biggest soap-star-to-movie-star success is Jude Law, now one of Hollywood's finest actors. Unbeknownst to most, Law began his acting career rather unglamorously with a two-year stint as Nathan Thompson in Granada TV's ill-fated and little-watched Soap Opera, Families. This weekly Soap Opera told the relationship of two families, the Thompsons (in England) and the Stevens (in Australia). The main storyline concentrated on Mike Thompson leaving his family to move in with Diane Stevens and the complications that ensued. Law was one of the few cast-members of Families to go on to bigger and better things, since starring in Hollywood blockbusters The Talented Mr Ripley, Alfie, Enemy at the Gates and most recently Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Sir Ben Kingsley: Coronation Street to Gandhi - Like Jude Law, many forget that acting legend Sir Ben Kingsley CBE began his career rather unglamorously on a Soap Opera. In Kingsley’s case, he played Coronation Street’s Ron Jenkins from 1966-7, a character who courted the attention of Irma Barlow. Irma encouraged his attention, but when Ron stole her compact and refused to give it back until she agreed to a date, the only way she could get rid of him was to introduce him to her husband and face the consequences. Since Coronation Street, Kingsley has won an Oscar, Grammy, BAFTA, two Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild awards. He is most famously known for his starring role as Mohandas Gandhi in the Richard Attenborough 1982 film Gandhi, however he also went on to feature in award-winning blockbuster films Schindler's List , Sexy Beast, Lucky Number Slevin, Shutter Island, and Iron Man 3.

Judi Shekoni: Eastenders to Garfield 2 and Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 -  Judi Shekoni first starred on TV as Marjorie "Precious" Hudson, the glamorous girlfriend of Angel Hudson on EastEnders. Following her experience on EastEnders Shekoni moved to LA in search of work on the big screen. Whilst she was initially unsuccessful, playing small parts such as a tour guide in Garfield 2, Shekoni recently landed the role of Amazonian vampire Zafrina in Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2. Interestingly, Shekoni only landed her Twilight audition after spotting an advert for the role in a trade magazine, going to show that you need luck as well as talent to make the leap from Soap Opera to film.

Louisa Lytton: EastEnders and The Bill to American Pie: Book of Love -  Louisa Lytton starred in two Soap Operas before her efforts to make it in film. Lytton went from playing much-troubled teenager Ruby Allen in EastEnders to being Sun Hill's young and cautious PC Beth Green in The Bill. In between EastEnders and The Bill, Lytton starred successfully in the 2006 TV dance competition Strictly Come Dancing. Off the back of The Bill, Lytton played a British exchange student in the painfully contrived and unwatchable seventh straight-to-DVD American Pie instalment, Book of Love. Louisa Lytton’s case is certainly an example of how not to make it onto the big-screen.

Alan Cumming: Take the High Road to GoldenEye, Spy Kids and The X Men - Part-time Scot, naturalised American and respected film, TV and theatre actor Alan Cumming OBE is known for his political activism as well as being an established Hollywood actor. Cumming can often be seen campaigning and promoting rights for LGBT, but he established his career appearing in the likes of The X Men (and its sequels), bond film GoldenEye and the Spy Kids movies. However Cumming’s roots also lie in Soap Opera – remembered by those north of the border as evil woodcutter Jim Hunter in Scottish soap Take the High Road in the early eighties. Take the High Road started in February 1980 as an ITV daytime soap opera, but was dropped by most stations in the 1990s, although Scottish Television, Grampian Television, Border Television and Ulster Television continued to screen the programme until the last episode.

Jimi Mistry: EastEnders to East is East, Blood Diamond, 2012, Coronation Street -  Jimi Mistry is most readily recognised for playing Dr. Fred Fonseca in EastEnders during the late 1990s, a role that began his career on TV and enabled him to make the big jump to Hollywood. In 2006 Mistry starred opposite none other than Leonardo Di Caprio in Blood Diamond, and then alongside John Cuszack in apocalyptic film 2012. After experiencing a taste of Hollywood, appearing in these impressive film roles, Mistry has uniquely made the return jump back to Soap Operas and can now be seen as former army soldier and personal trainer Kal Nazir in Coronation Street. Mistry’s career path goes to show that some actors cannot help but return to their Soap Opera roots.