Lisa Maxwell (born 24 November 1963)[1] is an English actress, television presenter and singer, best known for her role in The Bill as Samantha Nixon. Between 2009 and 2014, she was a regular panellist on ITV chat show series Loose Women.
Maxwell was born in the Elephant & Castle district of Southwark, South London, in November 1963. When she was conceived, her father, John Murphy, already had a pregnant wife. Her 22-year-old mother, Valerie Maxwell, returned to her parents' home, where the three of them brought up Lisa. She met her father for the first time when she was 45. She has three paternal half-siblings.[2]
She played Detective Inspector Samantha Nixon in the ITV1 drama The Bill between 2002 and 2009.[3] She joined the cast in late 2001 and filmed her last scenes on The Bill on 20 March 2009.
In May 2018, it was announced that she would be appearing in Celebrity MasterChef later that year.[7]
Comedy
Maxwell appeared on The Russ Abbot Show[3] in 1990, which led to her getting her own short-lived TV show, The Lisa Maxwell Show, on BBC television in 1991.[3]
Presenting
In 1985, Maxwell won a television vote[citation needed] to become a presenter on the BBC Two pop music show No Limits.[3] The other winning presenter was Jeremy Legg.
She then went on to become a presenter on a number of children's programmes, including Children's ITV flagship magazine programme Splash!.
In March 2009, Maxwell began appearing as a regular panellist on ITV's lunchtime chat show, Loose Women. However, soon after starting, she was forced to take a break after she fractured two ribs.[citation needed] She returned to the show on 10 June 2009. In March 2014, it was announced that she was to leave the show immediately, saying: "It's not the same show".[8]
On 28 December 2013, Maxwell took part in a celebrity edition of the ITV game show The Cube in a Loose Women special alongside Sherrie Hewson and Denise Welch. Together, they were defeated by The Cube, but took away £1,000, which they split between their three chosen charities.
On 3 May 2014, Maxwell appeared in a special Crime episode of Pointless Celebrities[9] and, on 14 April 2018, in another episode, alongside fellow cast member of The BillTrudie Goodwin.[10]
On 15 January 2022, Maxwell appeared in an episode of Casualty, "She's My Baby", playing Alison.
On 1 February 2024, she appeared in an episode of The Madame Blanc Mysteries, playing Nancy.
Personal life
In April 2009, during an appearance on The Paul O'Grady Show, Maxwell revealed the deciding factor in her leaving The Bill was the long hours worked and that she had suffered two miscarriages during 2008. She also said her friend and co-star Roberta Taylor had convinced her to leave the show for the sake of her health.[11]
On 28 February 2012, just before a leap day (which would be the traditional day for a woman to propose), she proposed to her long-term partner, Paul Jessup, with whom she has been in a relationship since 1997. She has one child with Jessup, a daughter called Beau, who was born on 11 October 1999.[11][12] They married in 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
