REBECCA Cawthra had her career mapped out as an actress.

The 23-year-old got the stage bug at a young age through Whiteleys' Academy of Performing Arts, Halifax, and Stage 84, Bradford.

Her claim to fame was mugging the late Seth Armstrong in Emmerdale, but Rebecca, of Claremount, Halifax, also had speaking parts in other well known Yorkshire TV programmes such as Where The Heart Is, The Royal and Fat Friends.

Casting directors believed she had a promising future in the profession but the former Halifax Catholic High pupil gave it all up to concentrate on something she feels even more passionate about – make-up.

Now instead of working in front of the camera, she's behind it making others look the part for stage and screen. And her latest work is certainly getting people talking because rather than making them look glamorous – she's doing the exact opposite.

Rebecca is doing the make-up and special effects for Halifax Amateur Operatic Society's latest show, The Wizard Of Oz at The Victoria Theatre, Halifax, in May. She's making latex masks from scratch for the lion and three flying monkeys, turning the munchkins into dolls and using her creative skills to make the Wicked Witch of the West look terrifying and very green.

It's a major project for her but one that will hopefully help her get a BA honours degree in make-up artistry and special effects from Bradford College. She's coming to the end of her three year course and her work with the society is going towards her final assessment.

She's had to make plaster face casts of the actors for the latex masks which have then been sculptured out. "It's a long process but hopefully worth it in the end," says Rebecca who is now working as a freelance make-up artist and does everything from weddings to magazine, film, TV and special events work.

She's also just got a part-time job with her favourite make-up brand, MAC at Selfridges in the Trafford Centre, Manchester, and says she's thrilled because it will be brilliant experience.

"I'm a 100-per-cent Mac girl I always use their products. What I like about them is that the job is not about sales or commission it's all about the make-up and making women look good." She had four interviews with MAC bosses before being offered the job and had to show them her portfolio and make-up a model in front of them. Before she starts work with the company she has to go to London for an intensive MAC course.

She says it was her love of amateur operatics that got her interested in make-up in the first place. "We used to do our own make-up when we did shows at Whiteleys' and getting made-up for my TV roles sparked my interest yet again," says Rebecca who used to have a London agent for her acting roles and says in an ideal world it would be good if she could perhaps do both.

She's not the first actress to mix the two. According to her, Jessie Wallace who played Kat Slater in EastEnders was a make-up artist before she went into acting.

Like Jessie she loves wearing make-up herself but only for special occasions. Her next big special event is her wedding next May to Adam Porter-Smith who teaches performing arts at Calderdale College. She is already working under the name Rebecca Porter-Smith and says her ambition is still to see her name in lights, even if it's not as a leading lady!