I’m trying to get a clip for the site, but in the meantime – and if you weren’t aware that Elize used her silky tones for voiceover work – you can listen to some of Elize’s other work on the Mouth 2 Mouth website…

Being the first episode you can probably expect most of the plot to revolve around setting up the characters, but Elize has a fairly crucial role, playing a star who the team have to dress for Paris fashion week. The official synopsis from the BBC site is:

“It’s Paris Fashion Week and Ali Redcliffe has a huge flare-up with her boss, leading fashion designer, Davina Bailey. Back in London, the renowned Marco Keriliak offers Ali the chance of a lifetime: to set up her own label. But her friends all tell her he’s a nightmare. Probably not the ideal time to take a chance on love with new man Chris.”

The official site for the project has also recently been launched, where you can see clips of Infidel amongst the other two shorts – http://sinsoflondon.com/film-info/infidel/ and there’s a Facebook fan page for it too, though admittedly it doesn’t have a lot on!

Congratulations to Elize and all the team behind the film – you can catch it for yourself at various short film festivals around the country, and with a Raindance win under their belt, it’s sure to get a DVD release soon enough.

Director – Richard Shelton

Studio – Kudos for BBC

Character – Sydney Barbour

Other Cast – Rachel Petladwala, Charlene Osuagwu, Ben Kerfoot, Jonny Freeman

Synopsis – Children’s TV series following the adventures of three secondary school pupils, who work as undercover spies.

In Elize’s words – “I play a famous actress who comes to the school to shoot a movie there, but it turns out I am not what I say I am. This was really fun to film, as the kids were all amazing, and because its a children’s show, anything is possible, so the imagination involved was great.”

CBBC M.I. High Official Site
M.I. High Episode Guide on Wikipedia

-Video clips coming soon-

You cam visit the 17th Annual Raindance site to find out what films it’s up against, but I’m sure you’ll agree it would be really great if Elize’s film won.

Nine years ago Elize du Toit put her academic work on hold to star in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks. Since leaving the show fve years ago, Elize has returned to her studies by taking up an OU degree in psychology. She takes time out from working hard on a TMA to talk to Sesame…

Elize du Toit was studying history at Edinburgh University when she went along to a Hollyoaks audition “for the ride” and managed to beat thousands of other hopefuls.

The 27-year-old said: “It wasn’t a difficult decision to leave university to join Hollyoaks because i had two years of the university experience and I always wanted to be an actress.

“My original plan was to take a year out, but it didn’t work out that way. “i was working long hours, six or seven days a week on Hollyoaks. I always thought i would do an OU degree but it took longer to get it together. But i always had it at the back of my mind that I could do that.”

Elize transferred her credits from Edinburgh and initially considered working towards an Open degree, but instead decided to go for psychology.

“i did not want to do history,” she said. “I figured I might want to pursue a different career in my 30s and to study something I would use. I am really interested in psychology and there are things I could do with the subject. i could do a Masters in a lot of different subjects.”

She started in 2007 with the short course Understanding health (Y178) before Exploring psychology (DSE212). At present she is spending 20 hours a week studying two courses: Social psychology (DD307) and Child development (ED209). Next year she hopes to complete her degree after studying Biological psychology (SD226) and Cognitive psychology (dd303), plus a short course.

“I’m finding two courses at the same time really hard because i am working as well. last year, i did Exploring psychology, a level 2 course, and I found it was fine.

“I went away a lot and wasn’t able to make any tutorials, but it was absolutely fine. This year I am doing a level 2 course and a level 3 course and I’m finding it really difficult.”

Since leaving Hollyoaks for three years, Elize has been living in london and been working less regularly than before, using the opportunity to focus on her OU degree. Last year she appeared in Casualty and The Bill, and her next role is in Waterloo Road.

“The nature of my job makes it easier to do distance learning. My jobs are very sporadic and even if i’m working, i’m not filming a lot of the time so it works out quite well.

“Sometimes it is quite hard to make yourself do the work, but deadlines do help. This year i have been able to make it to a couple of tutorials and I’m going to try to go to a few more. But i have been quite isolated, particularly with this latest assignment, because there aren’t many people around me who can help. There is a forum i could join, but i haven’t registered with it yet.”

Elize says she doesn’t have any firm ambitions at the present and is instead focusing on her course while keeping her options open, but will continue acting for the time being.

She added: “I think The Open University is amazing. it is a brilliant opportunity for people to do things they would not have otherwise have had the chance to do at other points in their lives. When I took my exams last year, i was struck by the diversity of people who were there.”

Director – Cilla Ware, Sarah O’Gorman and Philip John

Studio – Carnival Film & Television

Character – Katy Stephens, Episode 1

Other Cast – Leonora Crichlow and Dervla Kirwan.

Synopsis – From Brand Republic: “The BBC has revealed details of ‘Material Girl’, its much-hyped new six-part drama in the mould of ‘Mistresses’, starring ‘Sugar Rush’ actress Leonora Crichlow and ‘Ballykissangel’s Dervla Kirwan. The romantic comedy, which is set in London’s Brick Lane, tells the story of Ali Redcliffe (Crichlow), a talented young fashion designer who comes up again Kirwan’s Davina Bailey, an established designer who will do anything to make her new rival fail.”

In Elize’s words – “I am in the first episode of this series. I play an actress who is the hot actress of the moment, so all the designers want to dress her. This was filmed in London. In the script my character wears what is supposed to be a terrible dress to the Baftas. After I filmed this, it was in the press that it was actually me who chose the dress and wore it, which was very embarrassing!”

Unreality TV
BBC ONE Autumn Schedule

-Video clips coming soon-