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Friel's acting career began with the role of Beth Jordache on the British Channel 4 soap opera, Brookside from 1993–1995; her character was part of British TV's first pre-watershed lesbian kiss. In 1995, Friel won the National Television Award for Most popular actress for her work on Brookside.

In 1996, Friel courted further controversy when she appeared in the television film The Tribe by Stephen Poliakoff, which included nudity and a much discussed menage-a-trois sex scene between characters played by Friel, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Jeremy Northam.

In 1998, Friel appeared in the original broadway run of Closer by Patrick Marber at the Music Box Theatre, winning Drama Desk and Theatre World awards for her performance as Alice and in 2001, Friel made her West End stage debut in a fringe production of Lulu.

Her film credits include Rogue Trader opposite Ewan McGregor, David Leland's The Land Girls, which also starred Rachel Weisz and Catherine McCormack, All For Love with Richard E. Grant, A Midsummer Night's Dream with Michelle Pfeiffer and Christian Bale, Timeline, Me Without You opposite Michelle Williams, and Goal! and Goal! 2. Currently she is filming the follow-up and final instalment of the Goal series with Goal! 3.

Friel's television work includes the short lived The Jury for the Fox Network and ITV1's Watermelon which was based on the novel by Marian Keyes. She currently plays "Chuck" in Pushing Daisies, a new TV series from the creator of Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls, for the 2007 season on the American network ABC.

(wikipedia.org)