A drama school graduate who has never had a professional role is to star in the West End production of Hairspray.

Leanne Jones, 22, has been working in a shop since completing her course at Mountview Theatre School in Crouch Hill and, apart from two minor productions, was struggling for a break.

Now she has been cast as Tracy Turnblad in the musical, starring a cross-dressing Michael Ball and Mel Smith as her mother and father.

Jones was 11 when she was given a soundtrack of Les Miserables - featuring Ball in the leading role. "I was completely hooked," she said. "I'd done singing and dancing in after-school clubs but I didn't know what a musical was. I thought, 'Gosh, this is amazing.'"

Jones said that at Mountview she realised her larger physique meant she was unlikely to land a part like Les MisËrables' waiflike heroine Eponine.

"I said I wanted to be Eponine and everyone laughed," she said.

"I realised I'm a character actress, I will never be Eponine. It was a tiny blow but I found so many other roles when I started to look. When I was a student I played Mabel in Fame, the big girl who wants to be a ballerina but eats cake all the time.

"I realised there were loads of middle-size and skinny girls but not so many like me, so, fingers crossed, I'd get some really interesting parts."

Jones, originally from Cambridge and now living with her boyfriend in Alexandra Palace, added: "I'm really happy with the way I look. I've been working with a personal trainer for the past 12 weeks to get me ready for two and a half hours on stage every night, which has made me much fitter."

• Hairspray opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre on 30 October with previews from 11 October.