Claire gained notoriety early in her career by playing manipulative Kim Tate in Emmerdale for almost a decade from 1989 to 1998.  Breaking from type, she followed this with a guest appearance in the sitcom Babes in the Wood alongside Denise Van Outen.  In 1999 she won the part of G-Wing Governor Karen Betts in prison drama Bad Girls.  She played this role until 2003 although she briefly reprised the part in 2004.

Since then, Claire has appeared in many other popular TV drama series including Hollyoaks, Doctors, Holby City, The Royal, Dalziel & Pascoe & was famously partnered with Brendan Cole in BBC1’s hit reality series Strictly Come Dancing in 2006.  In addition, Claire has lent her familiarly husky voice to a number of television & radio programmes as well as advertisements & listening books. Claire has starred on stage in the Vagina Monologues alongside Jerry Hall & Only Fools & Horses actress Sue Holderness. She has just appeared in The Gemma Factor for BBC 3 playing a character called Betty – a cross between Patsy from Ab Fab & Lady Ga Ga!.

Claire enjoys writing & released her autobiography “Confessions of a Bad Girl” in 2007.  She was also selected as a gossip columnist for ‘Best’ magazine & has also written for ‘Woman’ magazine.

Aside from acting & writing, Claire is also a keen horse rider.  She owns four racehorses & rides out for a few trainers as well as taking part in a number of charity races.  She has recently presented a documentary for This Morning on the plight of the horses in Lesotho in aid of The World Horse Welfare.