Meet the new queen of cosy crime, Return To Paradise star Anna Samson

If you binged Death In Paradise, chances are you’re excited to learn more about the spin-off Return To Paradise.

Anna Samson fronts the show which started on the BBC in November and has already been dubbed the queen of cosy crime by some.

But who is the actress – and what else has she been? Here’s what we know…

Early life

Anna, 34, is from Haywards Heath, West Sussex, but she grew up in Africa with her parents when they moved to Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria.

Her dad is an engineer and he left his job at Thames Water to build a dam to deliver fresh water to more parts of West Africa when Anna was two.

The family then came back to England before relocating to Australia when Anna was a teenager. When Anna turned 17, she started drama school in Melbourne, at the Victorian College of the Arts.

Home And Away role

Perhaps unsurprisingly for an actor who trained in Australia, Anna has starred in Home and Away. She got the part of Mia Anderson in 2021.

‘It’s hard to find an actor in Australia who hasn’t at least done a guest appearance as some baddie from out of town coming into Summer Bay,’ she told the Daily Mail’s You Magazine.

Away from acting

As well as her TV roles, Anna has starred in several theatre shows and is also studying for an MA in literature at university in Sydney.

Her studies are currently on hold although she does plan to go back to them and would even like to earn a PhD.

She told You Magazine that she’s considering doing it in something like ‘the intersection of literature and performance’.

Role in Return To Paradise

Anna plays DI Mackenzie Clarke in Return To Paradise, which is set in the fictional Australian place of Dolphin Cove.

A synopsis of the show reads that she’s ‘an Australian expat who’s made a name for herself in London’s Metropolitan Police for cracking uncrackable murder cases.

‘When she is accused of tampering with evidence, Mackenzie returns to Australia, back to the last place she ever wanted to be – her hometown of Dolphin Cove.’

Complicating matters, her new boss is the mother of the fiancé Glenn she’s left jilted in London.