The Australian actress Janet Fielding was born Janet Mahoney in Brisbane, Queensland on 9 September 1953.

She studied English and Journalism at Queensland University and planned to become a reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Commission.

After graduation, Fielding joined the Popular Theatre Troupe and worked with the English writer and director Albert Hunt.

She came to England in 1977 to work with Hunt. It was Ken Campbell who persuaded her to stay. She joined his Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool. She made her UK TV debut in the Hammer House of Horror episode 'Charlie Boy', which aired in October 1980.

She was chosen by Dr Who producer, John Nathan Turner, to create the role of Tegan Jovanka, companion to the Fourth and Fifth Doctors, an Australian airline stewardess and herself a native of Brisbane.

Tegan was the first non-English companion. She became known as the 'mouth on legs' because of her argumentative exchanges with the Doctor which were new for a companion at the time.

Fielding appeared as Tegan in 19 adventures and a total of 64 episodes from 1981 to 1984. Tegan's first adventure was 'Logopolis' and her last was 'Resurrection of the Daleks'. She returned for a brief cameo appearance as Tegan in the conclusion of 'The Caves of Androzani'.

After leaving the series in 1984 she did a series of 'Murphy's Mob' for Central Television, appeared in episodes of successful TV series 'Shelley' and 'Minder' and in theatre productions of 'The Collector', 'Macbeth' and 'Time and Time Again'.

In 1990 she became a founder member of the pressure group Women in Film and Television and ran the organisation for its first four years. Fielding has been an outspoken advocate of greater women's participation in film and television.

She took over the actors' agency Marina Martin Associates which coincidentally represented Paul McGann who became the Eighth Doctor. Other clients included Simon Callow, Rhys Ifans, Hugh Bonneville, Bill Paterson and Anne Marie Duff. After six years, she sold the agency to the women who worked for her. It is now called Gordon and French.

Janet is Project Director for the charity Project Motor House. Project Motor House aims to save the derelict West Cliff Hall (aka the old motor museum) in Ramsgate by transforming it into a mixed use venue. Project Motor House also runs youth projects and when development is complete, it will be a place where young poeple can get the hands-on experience they need to be able to run their own businesses.

In 2016, Janet was inducted into The Queensland Hall Of Fame. Matt Finch, Creative in Residence at the Queensland State Library noted that Dr Who's only Australian companion was from Queensland, linking the state to a global scifi phenomenon. The library exists to inspire Queensland's creativity and archive its achievements. A full account of Janet's story is archived there for future generations to discover.