Jane Leeves shot to stardom and quickly became a household name when she took on the role of Daphne Moon in NBC's Frasier.
The British actress, 64, joined the cast from the very beginning and played the Mancunian physiotherapist and live-in housekeeper, hired by Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) to help his father Martin (John Mahoney).
In the sitcom, Niles Crane (David Hyde Pierce) becomes obsessed with Daphne and the series followed their slow-burning love affair, which culminated in them getting married.
Despite opting not to take part in the show's 2023 reboot, Jane has remained in the entertainment sphere since the end of the original Frasier in 2004.
However, what some fans won't know is that Jane, who was once Britain's highest paid actress, has a little-known past.
Jane made her screen debut with a small role in 1983 on the British television comedy programme The Benny Hill show.
Jane Leeves shot to stardom and quickly became a household name when she took on the role of Daphne Moon in NBC's Frasier
At 18 and just out of drama school, she landed an audition with Benny Hill as one of the scantily-clad dancers of his Hill's Angels troupe (pictured top right)
Growing up in East Grinstead, Sussex, Jane trained as a ballet dancer until an ankle injury forced her to turn her attentions to acting, instead.
At 18 and just out of drama school, she landed an audition with Benny as one of the scantily-clad dancers of his Hill's Angels troupe.
'They asked me to audition for him and so I went to his house which was a bit naive,' she said in an interview in 2010.
Adding: 'Luckily, there wasn't anything overly sexual about him, shall we say. We read the sketches together and I got on his show.'
When her career failed to take off in the manner she had envisaged, Jane packed her suitcases and headed for LA at the age of 21.
'I look back on the person I was and think: "So young and so stupid - thank God!" I just wanted to act and when you' re that young and that driven, you just go for it.'
Once in LA, she took up acting classes and would offer to clean up after rehearsals if food had been involved in the scenes, 'just so I could have a little snack' and found herself sharing a class with Ellen DeGeneres, Winona Ryder and Jim Carrey.
'Jim was living out of his car at some point, but even then he was so charming. I recall thinking: "This comedy thing he does is all well and good, but he should do some proper acting instead. Thank goodness he didn't listen to me.'
For fun, few jobs could seemingly top Frasier - an experience Jane described as, 'one of those great times where we laughed all the time'.
'They asked me to audition for him and so I went to his house which was a bit naive,' she said in an interview in 2010
Despite opting not to take part in the show's 2023 reboot, Jane has remained in the entertainment sphere since the end of the original Frasier in 2004 (pictured in 2019)
The show, a spin-off from the sitcom Cheers, won a record-breaking 37 Emmy nominations and critical as well as commercial acclaim
In the sitcom, Niles Crane (David Hyde Pierce) becomes obsessed with Daphne and the series followed their slow-burning love affair, which culminated in them getting married
'I'd already had offers for two different shows - The Incredigirls, which was going to be myself and Nicolette Sheridan (of Desperate Housewives) and an established show called Nurses. My agent said: "Take the show that's already on", but I was such a fan of Cheers and of Kelsey that I took Frasier, instead.'
It turned out to be the best career decision Jane ever made. The role brought her Emmy and Golden Globe nominations and having signed a three-year deal reputed to be worth around £20million, it turned Jane into the highest-earning British actress at the time.
Admitting that parting from the show was difficult, Jane quipped: 'It took us all a long time to get over the fact that the show had ended.
'It was a decade of some of the most fantastic experiences of my life, and there were times I'd wake up crying that it was all over.'
It's a sentiment shared by the show's fans for whom the pomposity and comic misadventures of radio show psychiatrist Frasier Crane - played by Kelsey Grammer - were a must-see for almost 11 years.
The show, a spin-off from the sitcom Cheers, won a record-breaking 37 Emmy nominations and critical as well as commercial acclaim.
It followed the fortunes of Crane alongside his equally refined yet uptight brother Niles (David Hyde Pierce), their disabled blue-collar father Martin (John Mahoney) and Martin's Jack Russell terrier, Eddie (played by canine star Moose).
It was Daphne though, Martin's physical therapist and the Cranes' housekeeper, who was called upon to inject a touch of common sense, 'and something about her earthiness appealed to people,' said Jane.
The slightly bizarre accent she deployed on the show, likened by one writer to that of 'an American Bet Lynch', was, says Jane, the producers' idea.
For fun, few jobs could seemingly top Frasier - an experience Jane described as, 'one of those great times where we laughed all the time'
In 2018, she went on to appear in the medical drama The Resident playing orthapaedic surgeon Kit Voss for its entire six season run
'The accent we settled on was one which sounded like I'd grown up in Manchester but had lived in the States for a while.
'It was such fun. We'd always joke on set, but they weren't sophisticated Frasier-style jokes - they were crude. We would leave phone messages for Peri Gilpin , pretending to be her gynaecologist, reminding her that she was due for an examination. It was childish, but it would crack us up.
'And Kelsey, far from being as uptight as onscreen character Frasier, was a real beach boy and would wander around the set in shorts and flip-flops.'
Were there lots of on-set crushes?
'Well, because Niles and Daphne got together in the end, I had a soft spot for David.'
Frasier also inadvertently introduced her to her husband, Marshall Coben, an executive at Paramount - the studio which filmed the show.
'We met at the Christmas party,' says Jane. 'Someone introduced us and we jus t couldn't take our eyes off each other.
'It was love at first sight for me, but he told me afterwards that he wouldn't have imagined anything would happen in his wildest dreams and had to be marched over by another executive who said: "You are going to ask her out".
'It took him a couple of days to ask me out for a drink and I said: "How about tonight?", so I obviously played it very cool! We were married a year later.'
Between 2010 and 2015 Jane played Joy Scroggs in the TV Land Comedy, Hot in Cleveland. The series ended in 2015 after six seasons and 128 episodes
The couple tied the knot in December 1996 and now have two children - Isabella and Finn.
Her first pregnancy with Isabella was written into the Frasier plot as a weight-gaining problem for her character caused by stressed over her relationship with the character Niles.
In a sign of how strong her relationship is with her Frasier co-stars, Peri Gilpin was in the delivery room during Isabella's birth and is her godmother. The pair of friends live next door to each other in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, David Hyde Pierce and the late John Mahoney are Finn's godfathers.
Between 2010 and 2015 Jane played Joy Scroggs in the TV Land Comedy, Hot in Cleveland. The series ended in 2015 after six seasons and 128 episodes.
In 2018, she went on to appear in the medical drama The Resident playing orthapaedic surgeon Kit Voss for its entire six season run.