she dreamed of paradise.

On her first day of kindergarten, Gemma Hogarth had to be dragged kicking and screaming from her closet and forced into appropriate clothing, simply because she refused to change out of her Smurf night shirt, dress-up sequined high heels and princess crown. Since to little five year old Gemma, that was entirely appropriate clothing for the first day of school. After a fifteen minute conversation with her mother about how a nightgown was not appropriate for school, no matter what her sisters had told her, Gemma left for school in a dress that her mother had picked out… and her jeweled dress up shoes… and her crown safely hidden away from her mother's all-seeing eyes in her older sister's backpack, with the promise of getting it when she got to school. It's pretty safe to say that "firecracker" would be a word to describe Gemma, even from day one.

Gemma Marie Hogarth was born on June 27th, 1978, on a cool summer night in Blackpool, to a family that had impatiently been awaiting her arrival for the better part of nine months. Why so anxious? Well, each member of her already tight family unit had a different reason. Her parents had, incidentally, been trying for a second child for a year and were excited for that reason… but their intentions weren't entirely pure, all the way! Four months before the Hogarth adults had made a little bet. Her mother and her aunt and grandmother all swore that it would be a girl. Her father and his brother and her grandfathers all said that it was due time for a male (Really, Mr. Hogarth just wanted someone to suffer through the talk of nail polish and cute boys with him). Mrs. Hogarth and her co-betters clearly won the bet.

"Precocious", "Sassy", "Energetic"; All words that would continue to be describe Gemma Hogarth from day one. It was easy to be all these things, outgoing and fun-loving, when you had a good base to stand on. Her childhood was exceptionally happy and carefree. Well, besides the everyday troubles of who got to play with the brown haired pretty barbie and who had to be Ken, Gemma's early life was just about as carefree as humanly possible. Unlike a large portion of her friends, of which she had many, her parents were happily married… and married to each other! Also, unlike most of the people she associated with on a day-to-day basis, her older sister wasn't "those girls who excluded her". With all of that going on, it's really no surprise that many of Gemma's childhood memories seem watercolored and Disney-esque compared to those of her friends.

At the tender age of 12, the acting and singing bug bit Gemma and clung on like a fat person clung to cake. Gemma got herself into one of those children's theatre troopes that always guest star on local kids programming, following around a stuffed bear who sang and gave sage life advice. Her parents were as supportive as two working class parents could be, but like most parents, they thought that this too would be a fad. After a few years of talent shows and childhood programming, at age fifteen Gemma started to get serious about what her parents had long since deemed 'not a fad'. 1998 proved to be the jumpstarter year that she needed, because in a whirlwind she went from being cast in some bit television advert for a magazine to signing a record deal.

The age of Girl Pop was upon Britain and Gemma rode that wave straight to the top. The youngest in the set of pop acts, by the time she reached sixteen, her album had gone platinum in the UK and she had a handful of nominations under her belt. Her life changed completely, going from classrooms and horrible local tele programs to touring, belly shirts, platforms and music videos. Gemma got the sort of fame that she had always longed for, but at age sixteen... she wasn't necessarily ready for. Between touring the UK, Australia and New Zealand, her relationship with her parents suffered. With two other children still at home, they weren't able to pop off with her for months at a time and instead left her under the care of her manager... who didn't have the most watchful eye. The dancers and crew members served as her sort-of family between the press circuit and life on the road. Unfortunately... they were always a bit older and a bit of a party crowd and Gemma fell pretty easily into that lifestyle, transitioning quickly from binge drinking after a show, to a little bit of cocaine to stay awake and keep going. It kept her thin enough that the comments from the media were fewer and further between and it kept her awake and able to get more and more work done.

By the time that she released her second album in 2000 at age eighteen, she was steps away from full blown addiction. Her second album got a silver certification but not nearly as much success as her first. The press circuit started to dry up, the arena tours were cut back and the era of her particular brand of girl pop dying down. Her partying started to take a higher level of importance in her life, especially given a lack of focused work for her to do, and she spent a good portion of her previous savings living the club and party circuit in London. Her relationship with her parents disintegrated, her drug use increased and in 2003, she hit the bottom. Faced with the possibility of drug possession and disorderly conduct charges or rehabilitation with probation, Gemma chose the only option she thought she had: rehab.

It was a long, long and painful process for her with many set backs. The first go around wasn't successful, remotely, and it took a relapse that nearly killed her and a second stint before she found herself clean and sober. It was a turning point in her life, just like that day in 1998 when she was discovered, and not just because of her sobriety. For a hater of cliches, Gemma found a new lease on life and that was partly in due to some of the people that she met in rehab. Addicts, it seems, are always hardest on each other. Her days at the centre were often filled with yelling matches, trying to outwit the moderator of the group or the group members themselves, but through this... eventually, she found herself again. Not as something marketable but as a person. She left the program clean and sober in mid-2003 and started from the ground up, again.

With her personal life less in shambles, Gemma turned her attention towards regaining her footing professionally and turned back to her first passion: acting. It was hard going, especially given her somewhat public history. It was hard to take a previous teen pop star seriously in the first place, it was even harder given the public portrayal of her post-fame club and party girl reputation. While the extent of her drug use wasn't public, her behaviour certainly had been and once she locked down an agent and started to regain some trust with her contacts, she made the leap into acting and landed her first role in a made-for-tv drama as the titular character of Bella in Bella and her Boys. Not exactly Oscar material, but she certainly opened a few doors for herself. A leading TV role in Hex occurred just a few months after wrapping and she found herself back on a the small screen regularly. The role didn't last long, british serials seldom keep characters around for very long and soon enough, hers got the axe.

Her life was filled with made-for-television movies, mini-series and odds and ends work for several years, but she was by and large proud of what she was accomplishing -- some of the roles were pretty camp but she was working, she was sober and she had a strong group of friends. Her resume gained a few higher profile films as co-starring roles, mostly sidekicks or independent films... but then she accepted her biggest role, to date. Doctor Who was a British Institution, and the reboot had even gained some success internationally across the pond. After a series of gruelling auditions, Gemma signed on to play the titular character's time-travelling companion, Clara. It was a BBC one production with millions of viewers, internationally and at home. Despite having been told, multiple times, that this would be a different sort of attention than she was used to, Gemma still can't quite wrap her head around the idea that there are people who dress up as her and write about her life.