Talented singer, dancer and harpist Eloise, from Cuckfield, is starring alongside Coronation Street star Bradley Walsh and Eric Potts in Aladdin at Milton Keynes Theatre.

Her biggest roles to date have been in the BBC's How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, where she reached the final 20 candidates, and a part in the channel's hospital drama Holby City.

Aladdin, which opened on Friday, has a run of 80 shows in six weeks and it gives Eloise her biggest professional contract since she graduated from Central School of Speech and Drama last summer.

During a five minute break in rehearsals she told the Mid Sussex Times: "It's going very well so far and it's very exciting to be working in a big theatre like Milton Keynes."

Eloise, aged 22, plays Princess Jasmine alongside star Bradley Walsh as Aladdin's silly brother Wishee Washee and Eric Potts as Widow Twankey. As the love interest in the show her affections are the target of Aladdin played by Michael Quinn, who comes fresh from ITV's Grease Is The Word.

Eloise said there was not a day that went by when she did not think of her father, Peter, who was killed in a powerboat accident in The Solent in May 2006.

Peter, 49, was a self-made city finance expert and chief executive of leading Asian investment specialist Atlantis Investment Management, which he started 12 years before.

At the time Eloise, one of four children and a former BBC Radio 2 Choirgirl of the Year, paid tribute to him as a great influence and support in her chosen career.

This week she said her father's death had made her more determined than ever to make the most of her life and every opportunity she was given.
"I miss him and I would have loved him to have been here and seen me in this show now and I know he would have loved it," she said. "There isn't a day goes by when I don't think of him, he was a great influence on my life."

Eloise, whose family live in Courtmead Road, Cuckfield, has just completed a three-year BA at Central School of Speech and Drama and is a former choral scholar at Kings College, London.

"As long as I am acting, singing or dancing whether it's in television, cinema or stage I'm happy," she said.