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Luana Santos has joined ITV’s Coronation Street as a new character named Bec who develops an interest in Max Turner.

It was the first screen part for the 17-year-old from Leigh who auditioned after signing with Scream Management while at Pendleton College.

Luana said: “As a kid, I was always a performing type of character so I suppose I always knew that acting was something I’d do in the future.

Luana Santos, 17, from Leigh is an actress and has landed a part in Coronation Street

"Initially I started voice acting through Little Projects online and once I joined college that was mostly TV and theatre, and that’s when I got my agent through college.

"Once I got my agency, it was my first self-tape that I got around February and it was for the role of Bec and I ended up landing it as my first job.

"I was so surprised because I was panicking about everything I did in the self-tape, I was criticising myself constantly.

"I thought ‘it’s my first one, I’m obviously not going to get it’ and when I got the email I was in college. It was a huge shock.”

Bec (Luana Santos) with Max Turner (Paddy Beaver)

Bec is the girlfriend of Gav Adetiba with whom Max strikes up a friendship while serving time at the Secure Training Centre for inciting right-wing violence.

Once Max is released, he tracks down Bec at Gav’s request and the pair end up in a relationship and she is unaware of why Max was in the STC.

But viewers will be wondering whether everything is as it seems with Bec.

The former Westleigh High pupil said: “She is very feisty, very fun and very blunt. She likes to get her way and makes sure that she does.

"She’s very clever, I’d say, in the way she speaks and presents herself.

"She and Max are in a bit of a situation because she’s currently Gav’s girlfriend but doesn’t want anything to do with him.

"But she’s grown quite fond of Max and I think she finds him quite charismatic and is very intrigued by him I suppose.

"She has got a little bit of a secret that is going to be quite interesting when that gets exposed which could affect the relationship between her and Max quite a bit.”

Wigan borough teen lands first professional role in Coronation Street