Biography

Melanie Walters is a Welsh actress, who has worked frequently in television. She is best known for playing Gwen West in the BBC comedy-drama Gavin & Stacey. Walters was born and raised in the Mumbles, near Swansea. Her father died when she was very young, leaving her mother to raise four children under four years old. In 1973, aged 11, she took over her brother's paper round, covering Mumbles Head every day, an experience she described at length on BBC Radio 4 in January 2012. When she was 14 she qualified as a lifeguard, working on the local beaches.