Daniela Nardini (Anna)
Daniela Nardini played acid-tongued Anna. The Nardini name is well known across Scotland as a brand of ice cream, which was established by Daniela's great-grandparents. Poor immigrants from Tuscany, Pietro and Rosa Nardini set up the company in Paisley in 1890, before moving to Ayrshire in 1935. The ice cream is now sold in over 300 outlets.

Jack Davenport (Miles)
Jack Davenport's mother is actress Maria Aitken, who played John Cleese's wife in A Fish Called Wanda. She encouraged Jack to write to Cleese and ask for work as a runner on Fierce Creatures, in which she was cast as a secretary. Cleese passed the letter on to the casting department, and Jack was given his first on-screen acting role - as a student zookeeper.

Amita Dhiri (Milly)
Amita Dhiri's talents are not confined to acting. The daughter of a French mother and Indian father, Amita is fluent in both her parent's native languages. She can sing in alto and has performed ballet, contemporary and modern dance.

Andrew Lincoln (Egg)
Andrew Lincoln's real name is Andrew Clutterbuck. He is a good friend of Jack Davenport (Miles) in real life, and was even best man at Jack's wedding. As well as starring in Teachers, Andrew has one of the most recognisable voices in the UK thanks to his many advertisement voice-overs and TV narrations.

Natasha Little (Rachel)
Natasha, who played ice-queen Rachel, spent most of her childhood travelling the Middle East with her family. By the time she was ten, Natasha had lived in eleven countries. Her big movie break nearly came in the film Enigma, but her proposed role was given to Kate Winslet when the star unexpectedly became available. Natasha got to keep her £300,000 fee.

Steve John Shepherd (Jo)
To the shock of his East End parents, Steve originally wanted to become a ballet dancer. Steve says he was "kicked out of ballet school for being dire", and then decided to give acting a try. Since This Life, he has appeared in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, although it wasn't quite his big break into Hollywood movies: he played a Naboo Lieutenant.