Tracy-Ann Oberman's life off-screen from music producer husband to 'death threats'

EastEnders actress Tracy-Ann Oberman is joining the BBC's Michael McIntyre's The Wheel as one of the celebrity experts this evening. The 58-year-old actress revived her EastEnders character Chrissie Watts for a short stint earlier this year.

She is also known for her roles in Friday Night Dinner, Toast of London and Bob Martin. Hailing from Greater London, she originally studied classics before pursuing drama.

Coming from a legal background, her family were not too happy about her desire to become an actress. However, she finally won her parents over after joining the Royal Shakespeare Company.

In 2004, she spoke of how her father's death seven years prior had meant he was unable to see her reach national success. She told The People: "I've come a long way in my career since he died and I wish he was here to see it. He was a big EastEnders fan so I know he'd be very, very proud of me."

In December 2004, she married music producer Rob Cowan at a private ceremony at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square. Her husband had proposed the day after filming scenes for EastEnders where her character found out Dirty Den was having an affair with her friend Kate. They had been together for a year before tying the knot.

In 2006 she gave birth to her first child, a girl she named Anoushka India.

Their daughter’s middle name, India, was chosen because it was where she was conceived during a romantic break.

People Magazine said: "The trip hopefully helped Tracy-Ann and Rob to put some bad memories behind them after they were caught up in the tragic 2004 South Asian tsunami whilst on their honeymoon."

The pair had been in Phuket when the Boxing Day disaster happened. "I had ten days between murdering [on-screen husband] Den [Watts] and burying him," she told The Mirror.

"EastEnders sent me on honeymoon with the script. We had four lovely days. Then the Tsunami hit. One minute all is fine, the next you're wading over bodies. It was very distressing. You saw bodies and bodies and bodies.

"The posters of the missing at Phuket airport and having thousands of relatives and friends searching for faces... that was terrible... On the plane, all you could hear was sobbing."

Elsewhere in her personal life, Tracy-Ann is Jewish and has passionately campaigned against antisemitism.

Earlier this year, she opened up about having to deal with death threats - a response to her challenging antisemitism.

She told Sky News: "My identity has never felt a huge part of my creative life, but in recent years, particularly in the arts world, which likes to see itself as progressive and inclusive, I think I've ended up becoming a spokesperson for many Jewish people and allies in the arts who have often felt like a lone voice, who have felt intimidated and often felt frightened to talk about their identity. And I don't think that is right."

After starring in a West End reinvention of Shakespeare's The Merchant Of Venice, the Criterion Theatre was forced to ramp up its security.

She said: "You know, we're living in very febrile times... I don't understand how we're living in a time where a Jewish actress who is putting on a production of The Merchant Of Venice is needing to have all this security, it just feels extraordinary."