Karen Gillan

 The BBC have announced that little-known actress Karen Gillan will be the next assistant.

The 21-year-old will star alongside new Time Lord Matt Smith in the new series, to be broadcast in 2010.

Karen Gillan has already appeared in the show, having played a Soothsayer in "The Fires of Pompeii".

‘I am absolutely over the moon at being chosen to play the Doctor's new companion. - I just can't wait to get started’, she has been reported as saying. ‘The show is such a massive phenomenon that I can't quite believe I am going to be a part of it. Matt Smith is an incredible actor and it is going to be so much fun to act alongside him’.

Head of Drama, BBC Wales, Piers Wenger has said that she brings ‘energy and excitement’ to the role. ‘When she auditioned alongside Matt we knew we had something special’.

Writer and new Executive Producer Steven Moffat has revealed we saw some ‘amazing actresses’ but Gillan ‘walked through the door the game was up’. He has described her as ‘funny, and clever, and gorgeous, and sexy’.

Karen Gillan, from Inverness, Scotland, developed a love for acting after attending several youth theatre groups and taking part in various school productions. At the age of 16, she decided to pursue her career further and left school to study acting at Edinburgh's Telford College. She went on to secure a place at the Italia Conti drama school in London and landed her first role in the Scottish drama Rebus. Parts in Channel 4's Stacked, The Kevin Bishop Show and James Nesbitt's forthcoming film Outcast followed, but being a companion in Doctor Who will become her first high profile acting role to date.