Early life

Tully's father was a watch-case maker, her mother a housewife, and she was brought up on a London council estate.

She attended school in Barnsbury, Islington. While at school she took up acting as a hobby and attended the Anna Scher children's theatre, which turned out to be a fast track into television work.

Career

At the age of nine Tully hosted the live television children's programme, Our Show, and she later went on to work on The Saturday Banana with Bill Oddie.

She was then cast in the BBC children's television serial Grange Hill. She played schoolgirl Suzanne Ross for three years (1981-1984). She had left Grange Hill and was about to go to sixth form college when she got her next big acting break.

At the age of 16, Tully secured a major role in the BBC's new soap opera EastEnders. She played Michelle Fowler from the show's inception in 1985 to 1995. During her time on the show, her character was famously made pregnant at the age of 16 after having an affair with the 39-year-old adulterer Den Watts. Since quitting the soap in 1995, Tully has allegedly been made several offers to return, but has turned each offer down, including the latest offer to return for her on-screen mother Pauline's funeral in early 2007.

In the late 1990s Tully began concentrating on directing for television (credited as "Sue Tully"). Shows of which she has directed episodes include EastEnders, London's Burning, 55 Degrees North (2004), The Bill (1999-2004), Funland (2005), Secret Diary of a Call Girl (2007), Lark Rise to Candleford (2009), Silent Witness (2010), Stella (2012), Good Cop (2012), Getting On (2009-2012), Truckers (2013) and Puppy Love (2014). She is currently directing episodes of Being Eileen. She will appear as herself in the documentary about her drama teacher alongside EastEnders and former Grange Hill star Patsy Palmer.

She directed the BBC Drama 'The A Word' that aired April 2016.

Personal life

Tully is a supporter of The Meningitis Trust and she has also been involved in the Comic Relief fundraising event. She is close friends with Letitia Dean, who played her best friend Sharon Watts in EastEnders. Tully was a bridesmaid at Dean's wedding to Jason Pethers in 2002.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]