Piper: Pop Princess to stage star

Piper has won awards for her role in Doctor Who

Billie Piper, who married for the second time on New Year's Eve, has gone from teen pop star to teen bride to popular actress in the last 10 years.

The 25-year-old from Swindon began her showbusiness career training at the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London before embarking on a pop career.

In June 1998 she became the youngest artist to debut at number one in the UK singles chart with Because We Want To, and she went on to win the Smash Hits Award for best female artist.

Age gap

But her music career took a back seat after Piper met broadcaster Chris Evans while appearing on his television programme TFI Friday in May 2000.

The pair embarked on a whirlwind romance following her break-up from fiance Ritchie Neville of boy band 5ive.

Piper left the sci-fi show after two series

Piper and Evans, who had a 16-year age gap, married in Las Vegas in 2001 but the couple separated after three years and divorced amicably in 2007.

Meanwhile, Piper returned to pursue her dream of becoming a serious actress and landed a major part in a BBC One adaptation of Chaucer's The Miller's Tale in 2003 alongside James Nesbitt.

But it was the announcement the following year that Piper was to play Doctor Who's assistant Rose Tyler that truly brought her back into the spotlight.

She only stayed in the show for two series but in that time she was named most popular actress two years running at the National Television Awards.

Acting dynasty

Her other lead roles have included Hero in a BBC adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing and Sally Lockhart in the BBC adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel The Ruby in the Smoke.

Piper made her stage debut in the West End play Treats earlier this year where she met husband-to-be Laurence Fox.

Her latest acting role saw Piper star in raunchy ITV2 drama Secret Diary of a Call Girl and the actress recently announced a reprisal of her role as Rose Tyler in three episodes of next year's Doctor Who series.

Now she has married into the Fox acting dynasty - Laurence Fox is the son of actor James Fox and nephew of actor Edward and producer Robert - Piper will hope her ambition to be taken seriously on stage and screen is complete.