KARA Tointon’s star is rising. The actress, who found fame in EastEnders, can justifiably be happy about a storming debut in the West End as Eliza Dolittle in Pygmalion and acclaim for her role in The Sweeney, the movie remake of the 1970s police series.

She’s starring in the upcoming Dougray Scott film, Last Passenger, and in May will appear opposite Felicity Kendal in Alan Ayckbourn’s Relative Values at the Wyndham’s Theatre, London.

It’s pretty impressive for someone who says: “I’m terribly self-critical, sometimes I think I need to ease up on myself.

“I always give 100 per cent to what I do but I rarely watch myself and think, ‘That was really good’. I always think, ‘Hmmm, I could have done that better’.”

But others disagree and the petite actress admits: “I have had a fantastic couple of years and yet there was a point after EastEnders that I strongly considered giving up on acting and resorting to my plan B, training to be an interior designer.

“At that point, I started to think it wasn’t going to happen for me.

“After you’ve been in a soap, people can assume you can’t do anything else, because you’re associated with your TV character.

“It can be demoralising, going to audition after audition and getting rejected, and you have to be pretty strong to carry on in this business.”

Tointon’s talent first shone when in 2005 she joined EastEnders as ruthless Dawn Swann. It was a great break for the Essex girl – born in Basildon and raised in Southend – and she became a firm favourite until her role was written out in 2009.

It was also a great personal achievement. The 29-year-old has dyslexia, a learning disability which she subsequently explored in a 2010 BBC Three documentary, Kara Tointon: Don’t Call Me Stupid.

“I was diagnosed with dyslexia when I was seven, and that’s why I got into drama.

“My parents encouraged me into it when they found out about my problems with reading, because they thought it would give me confidence,” says Tointon, who’s an ambassador for Galaxy Quick Reads, new bite-sized books by renowned authors such as Andy McNab and Kathy Lette which are aimed at encouraging more people to get into reading.

“I did worry about coming out, as an actress, and talking about dyslexia, but I can honestly say that because I had so much support as a child, dyslexia has not been a problem for me.

“I’ve found ways round it – even though at one time I learnt a script by writing out the lines 100 times!

“I found the EastEnders scripts were harder than any theatre role because it was such a fast turnaround and then on to the next scene.

“My attention span is short and sporadic, so I’d read five pages before realising I hadn’t taken any of it in, and have to keep going back.

“Luckily, since doing the dyslexia documentary, I’ve learnt far better techniques.

“I’m so passionate about promoting Quick Reads. I know how off-putting a big novel can be, so these short books are brilliant.

“I love the fact they’ll help others like me and people will realise they’re not alone in their struggle with reading.

“In fact, more people come up to me and talk about this than any of the roles I’ve been in.”

Her own struggle to break free from the soap star pigeonhole was finally resolved when she appeared in BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2010, and not only won the competition but waltzed off with her Russian partner, Artem Chigvintsev.

“I’d turned it down once before,”

she reveals. “I’m like that. I panic and worry about doing the right thing.

“It’s all right going into a realitybased show if you’re a singer, presenter or sportsman, as you’re always projecting yourself, the real you, but as an actress, you’re supposed to be this mysterious person who morphs into different characters. I worried I might reveal too much about myself.”

Self-deprecatingly, she laughs as she says: “I also thought, ‘How am I going to come across, people might think I’m a right twit!’ Then I worried that I’d love the show too much, which I did.

“People who take it too seriously are really unappealing to watch.

“I kept reminding myself, ‘This isn’t a war, calm down’, but I really cared about it inside, so I just tried to make myself look cooler than I felt.”

She also tried to disguise her feelings for Chigvintsev, aged 31, until after she’d lifted the glitter ball trophy.

The couple split their time between their homes in London and Los Angeles, and she says: “Meeting Artem was fantastic.

“We’re really happy and everything’s going really well. I don’t like saying too much more than that because I always think you jinx things if you talk about them too much. I just like to go with the flow and let life unfold.”

While her profile undoubtedly benefited from nationwide attention on Strictly, her health suffered.

In December 2011, after a hectic schedule filming and appearing in her first Ayckbourn play, Absent Friends, in the West End, she felt so exhausted she became worried that she had was suffering from a serious illness.

“It was really frightening because I wasn’t actually ill but I had no energy.

“But it turned out that working in the theatre and filming meant I’d get up late in the day and get home very late at night, so I’d hardly seen daylight.

“You need to be exposed to a certain amount of sunlight to absorb essential vitamin D, so I ended up with a deficiency. That can give you chronic fatigue, but fortunately I was cured with a mouth spray which I now use daily to help keep my levels up.”

This summer she will be 30, a birthday she’s eagerly anticipating rather than dreading.

“I think it’s an age where after kidding yourself you’re still a teenager, you suddenly think, ‘Hey, what happened? – that must mean I’m an adult’.

“But I’m so happy to be in a place where I’m enjoying the work I’m doing, there’s nothing better than that, and I feel comfortable in who I am.”

And she clearly revels in her new-found stage career. “Working in the theatre is something I’ve dreamt of since I was a kid.

“Although I didn’t go to stage school, I was on the books of an agent and got my first paid job at 11, but somehow I was always only ever put forward for television.

“Getting theatre roles over the last couple of years has been a massive gift and even though it was scary at first, I now feel in my element on stage.

“The last few years have taught me that I have to put away my doubts which plague me when opportunities come up.

“I should take risks because they can certainly pay off. Doing something out of your comfort zone always spurs you on and you become a better person.

“It’s hard sometimes but it’s worth it. I couldn’t be happier.”

Å The new Galaxy Quick Reads are available now. For more information, visit quickreads.org.uk.