Cheryl Fergison

Cheryl Fergison
Fergison in 2011
Born	(1965-08-27) 27 August 1965 (age 59) London, England
Education	Rose Bruford College
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1992–present
Television	EastEnders Celebrity Big Brother The Spa Big School
Spouses	Jamshed Saddiqi (divorced) Yassine El Jamouni ​ (m. 2011)​
Children	1

Cheryl El Jamouni (born 27 August 1965), known professionally as Cheryl Fergison^[1] is an English actress. She is known for portraying the role of Heather Trott in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, a role in which she starred in from 2007 until 2012.^[2]

After training at Rose Bruford College, Fergison started playing the role of Heather Trott on the BBC soap opera EastEnders on 26 June 2007. The character was conceived by the former executive producer, Diederick Santer. Prior to this, Fergison made a brief appearance on the series as a friend of Mo Harris (Laila Morse) in 2005.

Fergison's stage credits include Measure for Measure, for the Royal Shakespeare Company^[3] and the 2006 season at The Scoop.^[4]

Fergison is also known for playing Joanna Harding in the Linda Flint sketches of Little Britain, opposite David Walliams and also played Judy in The IT Crowd. Other notable appearances include 'Allo 'Allo!, Little Miss Jocelyn, Bad Girls and Casualty, as well as playing Mrs. Lloyd in two episodes of Doctor Who, "The Empty Child" and "The Doctor Dances". Fergison also starred in a promotional video for the band Keane's single "Atlantic", which was included on their Under the Iron Sea DVD.

In November 2007, Fergison participated in the Children in Need charity appeal with her EastEnders co-stars which was broadcast on BBC One. On 26 June 2008, she appeared on and won an EastEnders special of quiz show The Weakest Link.

Since appearing on EastEnders, Fergison has made a variety of television appearances on shows such as GMTV, The Paul O'Grady Show, This Morning and Loose Women. She won the Best Comedy Performance award at the 2008 Inside Soap Awards, and was then nominated for Best Comedy Performance and Best Onscreen Partnership Award (alongside Linda Henry) at the 2008 British Soap Awards. Fergison later appeared in Let's Dance For Sport Relief, dancing to "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice, and appeared in an episode of BBC Two's Shooting Stars in August 2010.

On 17 September 2011, Fergison was axed from EastEnders and it was announced that she would leave at the end of her current contract, departing the show on 21 March 2012.^[5] Heather was killed-off after being murdered by Ben Mitchell (Joshua Pascoe).^[6]

In March 2012, Fergison appeared on The Saturday Night Show.^[7] In April and June 2012, Fergison made two guest panellist appearances on ITV's Loose Women. On 15 August 2012, Fergison entered the Celebrity Big Brother 10 house. On 24 August 2012, she became the second housemate to be evicted.

Fergison was one of the celebrity contestants on Your Face Sounds Familiar.^[8] During the series, she sang as Dusty Springfield, Anastacia, Meatloaf, Lulu, Madonna, Cher and Adele. She played the role of Jo in the 2014 series of Big School on BBC One.^[9] On 24 December 2016, Fergison reprised her role on EastEnders as Heather, in the form of a recorded voiceover.^[10] The recording was a taped message left by Heather for Dot Branning (June Brown), who discovered it on her last day working in the launderette.^[10][11]

From October to November 2018, she played the part of Mrs Bird in the musical production of Maggie May at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool.^[12]

In 2022, she played a fictionalised version of herself in Catherine Tate's six-part mockumentary sitcom Hard Cell, released on Netflix.^[13][14][15]

Fergison is also a keen singer and has posted numerous singing videos to her YouTube account. In 2022, she sang at various pubs and venues and was also seen busking outside a local takeaway. She regularly performs at events, including Mullingar Pride in July 2022.^[16]

Fergison divorced her husband, Jamshed Saddiqi, in 2008. She and Saddiqi have one child, a son named Alex. In May 2011, Fergison married Yassine Al-Jermoni.^[17]

In 2015, Fergison was diagnosed with stage II womb cancer.^[18] After attending a regular smear test, which came back clear, Fergison began experiencing back pain and spotting blood, which she recognised as abnormal. She did not make her diagnosis public until April 2024.^[19]

In 2024, Fergison revealed that after leaving EastEnders, she was struggling with money problems and ended up using food banks which she had “cried and cried” when arriving at one for the first time.^[20]

• Cheryl Fergison at IMDb