Walsh was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, and grew up with two sisters and one brother in its Allerton suburb. She attended Sandy Lane First School, Stoney Lee Middle School and Bingley Grammar School and had her first taste of fame starring in an advert as a child. In 2000 she tried out for the role of Maria Sutherland in the soap opera Coronation Street, losing out to Samia Smith. Later she appeared in the television series This Is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper as Gillian Oldfield, and in the same year she starred in a BBC Educational Schools programme called Focus. In 2001 Kimberley played Tracy in Dream Back. While studying for a BA degree in English and Media at Trinity and All Saints College, University of Leeds, in 2002 during her second year Walsh auditioned for a reality television show dedicated to assembling a new girl group: Popstars: The Rivals. She and future bandmate Nicola Roberts did not originally make the final ten, but Walsh was brought back to the competition when original finalist Hazel was found to be over the age limit - she resultantly dropped out of university. On the show she performed: “Baby Can I Hold You”| “Emotion”| “Unbreak My Heart”| “Chain Reaction” Walsh was the fourth girl to be voted into Girls Aloud, much to the delight of her friend and new bandmate, Nadine Coyle, with whom she had become good friends during the course of the show. While in Girls Aloud, Walsh has been popular among the band’s male fan base. In April 2004, Heat magazine named her toned stomach as the fifth best in the world, ahead of superstar Beyoncé and singer Rachel Stevens. In 2005, Walsh was ranked forty-fourth in the “100 Sexiest Females In The World” list published by FHM magazine; in 2006, she was ranked at sixty-six. Walsh co-hosted the 25 August 2006 episode of The Friday Night Project with Cheryl Cole and Sarah Harding, on which she did an impression of Pop Idol and X Factor judge Simon Cowell. |
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