Kara Tointon is back on our screens in the second season of Channel 5's hit drama, The Teacher. While Sheridan Smith starred in series one, the new episodes follow a new cast of characters led by Kara and her co-stars Emmett J. Scanlan and Will Mellor.
The story follows dedicated art teacher Dani, who quickly becomes entangled in a "web of desire and deceit" when a student's death is revealed to be murder. Kara is a familiar face on our screens, having starred in a range of major dramas over the years, including Mr Selfridge, EastEnders and Too Good to Be True. But how much do you know about her life away from the cameras? Keep reading to find out more…
Kara's family life in Norway
When she's not busy filming in the UK for her latest drama, Kara can be found in Norway with her two children, Frey, five, and Helly, three, whom she shares with Norwegian chiropractor, Marius Jensen.
The pair, who met back in 2016, announced their engagement in 2018. At the time, Kara revealed their plans to wed in Norway. "We are hoping next year, perhaps in Norway or maybe in London," the actress told HELLO!. "My mum hasn't been too well over the last year or so and I want her to be able to enjoy it. Seeing her with Frey and dealing with everything she has to right now is overwhelming and I couldn't be more proud. I just want her to be back to herself again. That's our priority."
© Karwai TangWhile it was reported that the couple had split in October 2022, Kara opened up about their life as a family in a recent interview.
"Now I have children so my priority is to be at home as much as possible. I live in Norway now - we've upped sticks and we're there," Kara told The Mirror.
"At the moment, we're settling into Norwegian lifestyle and loving it, and, and so I'm lucky," said the actress, who flew back and forth between her home in Norway to Ireland – where The Teacher was filmed – while working on the show.
© Channel 5 Television/Steffan HillSharing an insight into her filming schedule, she continued: "As promiscuous as it is, I'm lucky that I get those big moments where I was getting back on a Saturday [to Norway] and going back on a Sunday to Dublin. It was intense for that moment, and but it was worth getting back just for that 24 hours."
On her decision to move from London to Norway, Kara explained that she spent most of last year in Norway before deciding to move there full-time". "It happened really naturally as we were spending more and more time over here. It's so easy to get back to London and it just seems to work," she told the MailOnline.
© Photo: Getty ImagesSharing her love of the Scandinavian country, the 41-year-old continued: "It's such a beautiful country and a great place to bring up children and I'm definitely adapting to the Scandinavian lifestyle. We live at the most Southern point and in the summer it's just beautiful. You'd never think of going to Norway for a beach holiday but we've spent most of the summer on the boat. The colour of the sky is incredible and the scenery is hypnotizing."
Kara's adorable two children
Kara became a mum for the first time back in 2018 with the arrival of Frey, whose name in Norse mythology means the God of prosperity, peace and fertility.
Three years later, Kara and Marius welcomed Helly, who the actress described as an "incredibly cool little man" during an exclusive interview with HELLO! at the time.
"He is very Zen, he has a calming effect. He is so chilled and wonderful," she said of her little boy, whose name links to Marius's native Norway. Explaining the name's origins, Marius told us: "The first Helly we found was an old Norwegian sea captain, from a place in Norway called Moss, a tiny little town where my grandmother is from. We looked him up and he was a big, bearded guy like myself and it sort of fell into place."
Kara's famous sister
Kara isn't the only famous face in her family as her younger sister Hannah, 36, is also an actress. Viewers may recognise her as Katy Fox in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks and as Tara Brown in the sitcom The Inbetweeners.
© Dan Wooller/ShutterstockThe actress is in a long-term relationship with actor Joe Thomas, who played her on-screen boyfriend in The Inbetweeners.
