EASTENDERS icon looks ageless after leaving the BBC soap 15 years ago.
Kara Tointon, 41, defies aging as she stars in the second series of the Channel 5 drama The Teacher, alongside Corrie’s Will Mellor.
The actress will take over Sheridan Smith’s role as a teacher who was accused of sexual misconduct in the first series.
Kara portrays Dani an art teacher whose night of passion on a school trip with her colleague Jimmy (Will Mellor) leads to tragedy.
The gripping four-part series kicks off with Dani bidding an awkward farewell to her distant husband Tim (Emmett J Scanlan),
She then joins her lively group of pupils and fellow teacher Jimmy on a woodland school trip.
But things take a turn after Dani confides in Jimmy about her domestic woes, leading the pair to recklessly neglect their supervising duties for a steamy rendezvous in a boathouse.
They return to face every educator’s worst fear as a student goes missing.
The mum-of-two is best known for playing Dawn Swann in EastEnders from 2005 to 2009.
She was known for her spicy affair with Phil Mitchell (Steve McFadden).
Kara left the BBC soap in a dramatic way after her affair with Phil Mitchell was revealed to Garry, whom she was supposed to marry.
Garry forgave Kara and with baby Summer, they left Albert Square on a boat journey down the canal.
Since her departure from the soap, Kara has played Kate Middleton in The Windsors West End production and Maria in ITV’s live production of The Sound of Music Live.
She has previously starred in the Channel 5 drama, Too Good To Be True, where she played Rachel, a woman struggling to make ends meet until she meets a mysterious client.
In 2010, Kara won Strictly Come Dancing with her pro partner Artem Chigvintsev.
The pair got into a relationship after their win, but they parted ways after four years.
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Before that, the actress dated some of her EastEnders co-stars including James Alexandrou, who played Martin Fowler.
Kara also dated Mickey Miller actor Joe Swash, who is now married to Stacey Solomon.
Now, Kara shares sons Frey, five, and three year old Helly with chiropractor Marius Jenson, who is Norwegian.
The actress made the life-changing decision to move her family out of the UK and to mountainous Norway.
She said: “Now I have children so my priority is to be at home as much as possible. I live in Norway now – we’ve upped sticks and we’re there.
“I travel back and forth, and in a way, I suppose I just I go with the peaks and troughs willingly because it gives me the opportunity to be at home with my children.
“At the moment, we’re settling into Norwegian lifestyle and loving it, and, and so I’m lucky.
“As promiscuous as it is, I’m lucky that I get those big moments where I was getting back on a Saturday [to Norway] and going back on a Sunday to Dublin.
“It was intense for that moment, and but it was worth getting back just for that 24 hours.
“So it kind of in a way it works, but you’ve got to be able to make it work and find balance and I think we’re all in a search for balance in our lives consistently.
“We spent a lot of time there [London] last year and we decided this year to give it a go. I love the Scandinavian lifestyle.
“It’s very relaxed and having lived in London for most of my life, I think I just was finding family life really in intense.”
Kara previously told The Sun on Sunday: “I don’t think I look young, I’m ageing like the rest of us.
“Motherhood hits you like a punchbag, so there’s no beauty regime at the moment. I’m lucky if I make it into the shower in the morning.
“But it has been such an amazing dose of reality. It’s very grounding, motherhood, I can tell you that.
“Everything goes out of the window and you just have one focus.”
The Teacher airs nightly from Monday 9th September at 9pm on Channel 5.
