Character: Samantha Bloom

Gugu, short for Gugulethu, which means "Our Pride" in South African Nguni language Xhosa, was born in the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, England to South African doctor Patrick Mbatha and his wife, nurse Anne Raw.

Her parents separated when she was a year old, but she is still close to her father, and she was brought up by her mother in the town of Witney, Oxfordshire. Here she joined the local acting group Dramascope and, from the age of eleven, appeared in the pantomime at Oxford Playhouse every year.

A talented singer and dancer as well as playing the saxophone, Gugu joined the Oxford Youth Music Theatre in her teens. In 2001 she won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.

Since graduation in 2004 she has appeared in all media, including as an acclaimed Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre and on television in such varied series as Bad Girls (1999), Doctor Who? (2005) and Marple.

Gugu stars as Samantha Bloom, wife of Steven Bloom (Boris Kodjoe) and one of the best operatives the CIA has known in M-Net Africa's drama series, Undercovers.