Connie Fisher

She also featured on the 50th Anniversary studio recording of West Side Story, singing "Somewhere".

Connie Fisher (born 17 June 1983) is a British actress, singer and TV presenter, who won the BBC One talent contest, How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?

She successfully became a member of National Youth Music Theatre (1999–2002), where she played the Lady of the Lake in the UK tour of Pendragon, and played the lead role, Morgan Le Fay, when the production toured Japan in 2001.

From an early age Fisher was a member of Côr Newyddion Da (English translation – "Good News Choir"), which introduced her to the Eisteddfodic field and encouraged her to perform as a soloist.

She competed annually in the Urdd Gobaith Cymru, National and International Eisteddfods.

In 2002 Fisher won the Wilbert Lloyd Roberts Scholarship in the National Eisteddfod "Songs from the Shows" competition and the Milford and West Wales Mercury talent competition.

Fisher received her professional vocational training at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, winning a Dance and Drama Award to have her training fully funded by the Government.

She graduated in 2005 with a First Class BA Hons degree in Musical Theatre, as well as the Gyearbuor Asante prize for the highest score.

At Mountview she performed in Annie Get Your Gun, A…my name is Alice, Jerry's Girls and played Julie Jordan in Carousel.

Fisher made television appearances on Jane McDonald's Star for a Night when she was sixteen; Owen Money's Just Up Your Street, and BBC Children in Need.

She also recorded a Welsh song called Curiad Calon (Heartbeat) which was released on the compilation album Cân i Gymru (A Song for Wales).

She released a charity single for the Noah's Ark Appeal entitled 'Eyes of a Child'.

Fisher's first professional theatre appearance was at Milford Haven's Torch Theatre, Christmas 2005, where she played Princess Samina in a pantomime of Aladdin.

On 15 November 2006, she opened to excellent reviews in the part of Maria von Trapp in The Sound of Music in the West End, London on a six-month contract, which was extended until 23 February 2008.

She then took the £1,000 cash prize and the Gower Trophy in the Welsh Musical Theatre Young Singer of the Year Competition in 2006.

Before being cast as Maria, she worked in media telesales, whilst auditioning for West End parts but failing to get cast.

Fisher came to prominence on winning the 2006 BBC One talent contest How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?.

In early March 2007, she was ordered by her doctor to take two weeks' rest from The Sound of Music, after straining her vocal cords singing through a cold.

On her return to the show, it was announced that Fisher would be reducing her workload to six shows a week, with Maria being played in the Monday evening and Wednesday matinee shows by Aoife Mulholland, one of the runners-up in How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?.

On 1 July 2007, Fisher performed alongside artists including Sarah Brightman, Josh Groban, Donny Osmond and Andrea Bocelli in Lloyd Webber's segment of the Concert for Diana at London's Wembley Stadium in front of 63,000 people.

She also appeared at Bryn Terfel's Faenol Festival during the August bank holiday weekend, 2007.

In October 2007, she won the 2007 lastminute.com People's Choice Theatre Award for Favourite Theatre Actress.

She was also awarded the whatsonstage.com Theatregoers Choice Award for London Newcomer of the Year.

On 24 December 2007, Fisher performed with Lee Mead and some of the other Maria and Any Dream finalists in a BBC special 'festive' reunion show called When Joseph met Maria! – celebrating both the hit Andrew Lloyd Webber BBC shows – it was recorded earlier on 2 December 2007.

The BBC show, How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?, featuring Fisher, won an Emmy Award in New York (2007) for best non-scripted entertainment.

Fisher ended her run as Maria on 23 February 2008.

Fisher was soon co-starring with Alistair McGowan in a revival of the musical They're Playing Our Song at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

Also, in November Fisher appeared in concerts at Truro Cathedral and at the Great Fosters Hotel in Surrey.

On 11 December 2008 Fisher appeared in the Christmas Sparkler Concert at the Royal Festival Hall London and sang the Welsh lullaby "Suo Gan"; on the same night, at the London Palladium she introduced an act for the Royal Variety Performance.

Also in December 2008, Fisher appeared with her mother in an episode of Bargain Hunt, Famous Finds.

She also starred in her first TV drama.

Caught in a Trap aired on ITV1 in it she plays a young woman with an Elvis Presley obsession.

She resumed the role of Maria in The Sound of Music UK tour starting in July 2009.

She had a recurring role as a patient in the British medical drama series Casualty in 2012.

Fisher was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, and is the daughter of a major in the Royal Corps of Signals.

Fisher lived in Dorset, England until the age of four, when she moved to a village near Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, Wales.

She attended Hayscastle Junior School, and then went on to Sir Thomas Picton School.

She is a fluent Welsh speaker.

During her teenage years she was a member of Haverfordwest Operatic Society where she performed in The Pirates of Penzance and played Nellie Forbush in South Pacific.

She was also a member of the Torch Youth Theatre where she performed in Georg Büchner's play Woyzeck.