POPULAR actress Natalie Gavin’s latest starring role took her back to her roots.

She returned to the University of Huddersfield to open the new centre for the Careers and Employability Service.

And she has revealed she has landed a plum new role.

Next up for the woman who graduated from the university with a drama degree is a new series of BBC 1’s The Syndicate.

The series, which first aired earlier this year, is about a group of lottery winners, and Natalie is among a group of newcomers including the likes of Mark Addy, Alison Steadman, and Siobhan Finneran, who plays the scheming housemaid in Downton Abbey.

BBC 1 announced in the summer that Kay Mellor’s drama The Syndicate will return for a new series next year. The first series starred Timothy Spall, Joanna Page, Lorraine Bruce, Matthew McNulty and Matthew Lewis.

The second series of The Syndicate, which will follow the fortunes of a new batch of lottery winners, has been commissioned by Ben Stephenson, controller of BBC drama and by Danny Cohen, controller of BBC One and will air early next year.

It is the latest success for Natalie who has already landed a series of plum stage, film and TV parts – appearing in popular programmes such as Shameless and Prisoners’ Wives.

It means that at 24, Natalie’s acting career has had a dream start. And when she declared open the university’s new Careers centre, she urged other students to hold on to their dreams.

“When I was a student I found that determination was the most important thing, whatever your subject,” she told them

“It is hard work, but don’t give up on your dreams. The University of Huddersfield gave me the skills that I needed to make my dreams come true.”

Natalie, who is from Denholme near Bradford, started to land acting roles while still studying for her drama degree.

But she was determined to finish the course and she graduated in 2011.