A NEWPORT schoolgirl will be taking her first step to acting success when she appears in a children's television drama tomorrow.

Alicia Hooper, of Oakfield Road, Newport, pictured, has been performing since she was five, but tomorrow could be her first big break.

The 16-year-old Duffryn High School pupil stars in a children's BBC adaptation of the Jacqueline Wilson book, The Story of Tracy Beaker.

Tracy Beaker is a girl who lives in a children's home and has to write a book about herself, including her dreams and hopes for the future.

Tracy hopes to be a writer one day, and a professional writer who visits the children's home eventually adopts her.

Alicia, who filmed her part during the summer holidays, plays Amber Hearst, a 13-year-old 'bad' girl who is friends with Tracy Beaker.

Alicia said: "Amber is a very bad girl, very different to me, she finds it hard to be nice to people and has had a very hard background, but she does have a heart."

For Alicia acting and singing has always been a way of life. Her father Jeff Hooper won one of the rounds in New Faces in 1974 by singing solo and playing the guitar - and then appeared as a finalist in the all-winners' show.

He now sings with the BBC Big Band, travelling the world.

Alicia said: "My dad is a fantastic singer and I have always really looked up to him and always wanted to perform."

When Alicia was only five she joined the New Venture Players in Newport and took the lead role in Annie.

Alicia landed the role of Amber through a Cardiff acting workshop which she attends every week.

She said: " We were told about filming for Tracy Beaker and they wanted new characters but I couldn't believe it when they told me that I had got the part."

Alicia said that she was crying, screaming and trying to let her family know the good news all at once.

Alicia, who is in every episode of the show, said: "One of the highlights for me was getting to meet Jacqueline Wilson, who wrote Tracy Beaker."

She said that she has every book that Jacqueline Wilson has written and meeting her was a dream come true.

She said that she has kept in touch with most of the other children from the show, but she does not know whether she will feature in any future series.

Alicia said: "I am still going to the drama groups but at the moment I am concentrating on my GCSEs.

"I have been rejected before and know that talent doesn't mean you will be successful, but if it is not meant to be then I will have to move on, which is why I want to get good qualifications."

Alicia's mum, Dawn, said: "Both myself and Jeff are so proud of her and what she has achieved.

"We want her to be happy and if performing makes her happy then we will always support her."

* The Story of Tracy Beaker will be shown at 4.20pm tomorrow, on BBC1.