Call the Midwife is back for a 14th series of the hit BBC One period drama, with Helen George having starred as Nurse Trixie since series one.

The show has made a huge star of George, but what does she do when she's not on screen at Nonnatus House?

Here's all you need to know about her, including her other well-known work and her romance with a Call the Midwife co-star.

George is from Birmingham, where she started out hoping to pursue a different kind of life as a performer.

She was a member of the Birmingham Royal Ballet as a child, but teenage George had her head turned by musical theatre after seeing a production of Les Miserables.

The star is a graduate of London's prestigious Royal Academy of Music, where she studied musical theatre, and started out in stage productions before securing TV work. She also landed jobs singing, including as a backing vocalist for an Elton John tour.

George still occasionally puts her musical talents to good use - in 2020, she sang Vera Lynn classic (There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover for a BBC broadcast from Buckingham Palace to celebrate the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

Early in her career, George popped up in the likes of Hollyoaks, Doctors and Hotel Babylon, but her most notable role by far came when she joined the cast of Call the Midwife for its launch in 2012.

George stars as Nurse Trixie, a midwife who has risen through the ranks at Nonnatus House to become a senior member of staff.

She's a favourite with the BBC show's fans and a regular fixture in each of the series as well as Christmas specials. George has occasionally taken short breaks from the series as part of storylines which have included following screen husband Matthew Aylward (Olly Rix) to New York, but delighted fans by confirming she was definitely back this series.

Asked at the 2024 National Television Awards about rumours that she was leaving the show, George said: "I don't know if that's the truth. I just think she's not been in it for a while. I think some of the tabloids might've got the wrong end of the stick."

Luckily, she was later announced to be back in this year's cast.

She has said of being in the show for so long: "Being with a character that long, you see them grow and change. When I look back to Trixie very early on, the journey she has gone on has been huge."

George added: "I feel very proud to be in a show that is watched throughout the world, and by so many different age groups as well. I feel really honoured to be part of it."

Praising Call the Midwife to The Guardian in 2019, she said: "Since the #MeToo movement, there’s been a real influx of female creatives and female-led casts, but it was much more unusual in 2012, when we first aired. Our mix of younger and older actresses was rare too. It was in the midst of the BBC ageism scandal, but we had Jenny Agutter, Judy Parfitt and Pam Ferris – all fantastic actresses, back on primetime TV. The likes of Fleabag have come through in the past few years, but we were a step ahead in some ways."

As her Call the Midwife star continued to rise, George was a big coup for the 2015 cast of Strictly Come Dancing where she finished sixth with Aljaž Škorjanec.

But having only been a TV star for a few years, she admitted she had no idea at the time how much she would be under the spotlight while competing in the show.

During her time on Strictly, it emerged that her marriage to fellow actor Oliver Boot had come to an end, which led to a huge amount of press attention.

Later, in 2023 she told You magazine of taking part in Strictly: "I really struggled with just being Helen on screen. I get nervous and intimidated by [the fear of] saying or doing the wrong thing. I’m an actress for a reason."

She added of the attention her divorce got: "I was so naive that I thought no one would be interested in me, so that was a shock. I soon realised I didn’t want all that celebrity stuff."

In 2016, George began dating her Call the Midwife co-star Jack Ashton, who played Reverend Tom Hereward from series three to seven.

The pair kept their relationship private by rarely talking about their life together. They welcomed eldest daughter Wren in 2017, with George having to undergo a Caesarian section three weeks early after being diagnosed with potentially dangerous condition ICP during her pregnancy.

She told the Daily Mail in 2019 that becoming a mum had made her a better midwife on set: "When I came back to film this new series after giving birth to my daughter, the consultant midwife on set, Terri Coates, said to me, 'Goodness, you can tell you're a mum now.'

"I suppose I am a bit more caring – not that I wasn't caring with the babies before – and more motherly, something the viewers might notice. I think becoming a mother has definitely changed me and helped me with the role."

George and Ashton had another daughter, Lark, in 2021, but the couple split in 2023 and more recently George has opened up about life as a single parent.

In 2024 she spoke to The Times about playing Anna Leonowens in a theatre production of The King and I, drawing parallels between the character and her own life.

"She has to make this work," she said of Anna. "And it's something that I have lived through. I am a single mother who has to be financially responsible for both of my children."

"There's no man in my life currently, and there's no man in Anna's life," she added. "So I thought, this is a perfect match for me, especially now."

George said of taking on the theatre run: "Of course you feel guilty, but you want to show your children, especially my girls, that women can work and can also mother."