Rebecca 'Beth' Cordingly was born on 1 November 1977 in Brighton. She started acting at a young age and made her first major television appearance in the soap opera, Family Affairs as troubled teenager Sara Warrington; a lapdancer who blew most of her wages on cocaine. Beth started out in theatre, playing roles in adaptions of Othello and Noel Coward's Semi-Monde. At secondary school, Brighton and Hove High School, she was well known for her lead roles in plays, and her enthusiasm for acting and singing.