Lesley Sharp (born in Liverpool, Lancashire) is an English stage, film and television actress, particularly well known for her variety of British television roles including Clocking Off, Bob & Rose and afterlife.

Lesley was adopted when she was 6 weeks old as the second daughter of mature Scottish parents, and grew up in Formby, Lancashire.

Her father worked for the Inland Revenue and was not keen on her taking up acting, preferring her to follow in his footsteps by becoming a civil servant. Her adoptive mother died of cancer when Sharp was 15. The adoption was never a secret in the family, but it was only after leaving home that she met her genetic mother — a working class woman unable to keep her because the father was a married man.

Her late biological father already had two children when he cheated on his wife and got Lesley's mother pregnant.

"The strangeness of being adopted doesn't diminish with age For me, growing up, there was always this sense of otherness. Most humans define themselves by their tribe. But if you're adopted, you don't know where your [biological] father is and you can grow up in a family and wonder why it's not quite working. To some extent I'm always looking to see where I belong."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesley_Sharp