What to know about Michelle Keegan, the British star of Netflix's hit thriller 'Fool Me Once'

• Michelle Keegan leads Netflix's new thriller "Fool Me Once."

• Based on Harlan Coben's book, it follows a grieving widow who sees her dead husband on a nanny cam.

• Here's what you need to know about Keegan.

Netflix's latest thriller from writer Harlan Coben, "Fool Me Once," follows Maya Stern (Michelle Keegan), an ex-soldier who is grieving the death of her husband Joe (Richard Armitage) when she suddenly spots him on a nanny cam talking to their young daughter inside her house.

This forces Maya to question everything she thought she knew about her husband, while also coming to terms with her murky past in the armed forces.

Subscribers were hooked by the show, which is understandable considering all the twists that lead up to the show's shocking ending.

Many fans were also left wanting more of Keegan, the thriller's captivating lead. Here's what you need to know about the 36-year-old British actor.

Michelle Keegan starred in the British soap 'Coronation Street' for six years.

British Netflix subscribers may already be familiar with the "Fool Me Once" star. She played Tina McIntyre on the long-running soap "Coronation Street" from 2008 to 2014.

Keegan was given serious storylines throughout her tenure on the show, including abortion, surrogacy, and deportation.

She departed the series in 2014 when Tina was killed by Rob Donovan (Marc Baylis) after she threatened to go to the police with information that the shop he worked at, Barlow's Buys, was selling stolen goods.

Donovan pushed Tina off a balcony in the builder's yard, before beating her unconscious with a metal pole. Although she survived the initial assault, Tina died later after suffering a heart attack following brain surgery.

Keegan played Lance Corporal Georgie Lane in 'Our Girl.'

Keegan's next role after "Coronation Street" saw her don a military uniform as Lance Corporal Georgie Lane for "Our Girl." She joined the BBC series in its second season after Molly Dawes (Lacey Turner) was written out of the show.

The second season mainly takes place in Kenya, where Lane and the rest of the soldiers in 2 Section try to stop a terrorist organization. Aside from the combat, much of Georgie's story involves her ex-fiancé Elvis Harte trying to win her back even though she has a new boyfriend.

Keegan returned for season three, split into two parts over 2017 and 2018, before leaving "Our Girl" following season four in 2020. The star told the Evening Standard that she left the show because she wanted to try different roles.

"I'd done four series. It was just me saying, I wanted to explore other opportunities, that's it. I love the show so much, and this show helped me grow into who I am now," Keegan explained.

She added: "I've had such an amazing time and I'm very lucky for them to have had me on the show. I'm going to miss it, and I'm going to miss Georgie. It's very hard."

Keegan married reality TV star Mark Wright in 2015.

In 2012, Keegan started dating "The Only Way Is Essex" star Mark Wright after they kept bumping into each other at events. Wright said on Jamie Laing's "Private Parts" podcast that he first met Keegan when they were both in the audience for "The X Factor."

"We were in the green room backstage, and it was her and her mum and me and my cousin," he recalled. "We got talking, and I think it was about three days later we ended up being on a table next to each other at a Manchester United charity dinner."

"We got talking and got on really well," Wright explained. "Then I saw her at the NTAs a week later — I just kept seeing her."

Wright added that they started dating a year after they first met, admitting he'd "chased her for a while."

The couple tied the knot in 2015 in the town of Bury St. Edmunds in the UK, per BBC News, with various "The Only Way is Essex" and "Coronation Street" stars in attendance.

Keegan and Wright's house was finished while she was filming a BBC drama in Australia.

Another of Keegan's most recent roles was in the 2023 BBC drama "Ten Pound Poms," about the British people who emigrated to Australia after World War II. She shot the six-part series on location down under.

But while she was away, work was still being done on finishing the home in Essex that she owns with her husband. Keegan told The Guardian in December that she was overwhelmed when she returned from filming the BBC drama.

"I was filming in Australia and hadn't seen the house for months. And when I walked in, Mark had lit all the candles and… I couldn't speak for five minutes. He was like, 'What do you think?'" Keegan recalled.

"I couldn't find the words to say how I felt, because I was so overwhelmed. I just burst out crying. It still gets me emotional. Because we've worked really hard for it."

Keegan said she found it difficult to swear at Joanna Lumley on 'Fool Me Once.'

Keegan's character in "Fool Me Once," Maya Stern, butt heads with plenty of suspicious individuals throughout the mystery. On that list is Maya's mother-in-law Judith Burkett, who's played by British icon Joanna Lumley.

Lumley is best known for her role as Patsy Stone in "Absolutely Fabulous" opposite Jennifer Saunders as Eddie Monsoon. She has also appeared in films like "James and the Giant Peach," "The Wolf of Wall Street," and "Paddington 2" before "Fool Me Once."

Lumley plays the wealthy matriarch of the Burkett family in the Netflix series, and she also runs the pharmaceutical company that made them a fortune. The family and their nefarious secrets play a key role in the thriller, and Keegan shares plenty of scenes with Lumley as a result.

But when appearing on "The Graham Norton Show" in early January, Keegan admitted that she found it hard to swear in front of Lumley.

She explained: "There were a lot of F-bombs dropped in the show, but I just couldn't bring myself to swear at her in rehearsal. I was just so embarrassed to say the word."

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