Alison King has been a firm fixture on the cobbles for 18 years and has become a soap legend
Alison King has been a constant presence on the cobbles for 18 years, having joined the cast in 2006. At 51, Alison has been involved in numerous major storylines during her tenure on Coronation Street. These include being targeted by serial killer Stephen Reid, enduring kidnapping, rape by her boyfriend Frank Foster, struggling with alcoholism, engaging in an affair, and even being suspected of murder.
Her character is currently embroiled in a new romantic plot, with Carla growing increasingly close to DS Lisa Swain (Vicky Myers) in recent months. Fortunately, Alison’s real life off the Cobbles is vastly different – and significantly less dramatic – than that of her character.
Born in Leicester, she relocated to Newquay at 18 to work in a surf shack. A passionate surfer in her free time, she spent four years working as a dental nurse before joining the North Cheshire Theatre School at 22. In the subsequent years, Alison modelled in the late 1990s, becoming the face of Boddington beer and featuring regularly in Daz adverts, reports the Mirror.
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Alison’s initial significant acting role was in the soap Brookside, which made a comeback in 2023 after a two-decade break. She featured in two episodes of the Channel 4 soap as a hair salon stylist. Her subsequent role and most recognised apart from Corrie is as Lynda Block in Sky One’s Dream Team. She began dating her co-star Jim Alexander, to whom she got engaged, but they ended their relationship shortly afterwards.
In 2004, she made an appearance in Corrie as a one-time character named Mrs Fanshaw, introduced to spice up Ryan Thomas’ character Jason Grimshaw. After impressing the soap executives, Alison was chosen to play Carla Connor and made her first appearance on the cobbles in 2006.
Off the cobbles, Alison was previously engaged to Adam Huckett, a Coronation Street sound technician, with whom she has a teenage daughter Daisy. The ex-couple never tied the knot and separated in 2012, and Alison later embarked on a five-year relationship with Corrie co-star Philip Middlemiss, who portrayed Des Barnes.
In November 2018, Alison was seen with a new ‘mystery man’, who she disclosed was IT consultant David Stuckley when they announced their engagement in OK! magazine a year later. However, in May 2022 it was reported that the couple had parted ways after ‘growing apart’ during lockdown.
The actress shared that she’s previously taken steps to enhance her smile due to early childhood habits. She opened up about how thumb-sucking as a youngster left her insecure about her dental appearance. To address her misaligned teeth, she opted for cosmetic surgery during her days as a drama student, yet she confessed in 2015 to further aesthetic treatments.
Speaking to dentistry.co.uk, she revealed: “As an actress onscreen I’d begun to notice how my top and bottom front teeth had been pushed into the middle where my thumb had been. The inside bottom four teeth around the gum line were much shorter than the rest of the teeth. It was during my time at drama school that I decided to undergo cosmetic surgery at a dental practice in London. However, I wasn’t completely satisfied with the final result and always felt there was room for improvement.”