Lucy takes on America

Lucy Davis, who played long-suffering receptionist Dawn in hit comedy The Office, is set to take on US audiences.

The 31-year-old daughter of comedian Jasper Carrott has won a starring role in a new comedy on the American TV channel CBS.

Written by actress Aisha Tyler - who plays Ross's palaeontologist girlfriend Charlie Wheeler in Friends - the plot centres on a single woman (Tyler) from New York who leaves an edgy fashion house to try to make it in the corporate world.

It is yet unclear what role Davis will be playing in the comedy, but she told of her excitement at the premiere of her latest film, Shaun Of The Dead, in Leicester Square last night. She said: "It's very exciting to have so much work and so many offers coming in."

Davis is not completely unknown in the US, where The Office scooped two Golden Globes in January. But she said of the ceremony: "People kept stopping me on the red carpet and asking if I would speak. Then they asked, 'Who are you?'"

The actress dismissed reports she had turned down a film role because she would have to play Cameron Diaz's "fat, ugly sister". She said she had auditioned for the part but had not won it.

Aside from playing the downtrodden secretary to Ricky Gervais's David Brent in The Office, Davis also starred in the 1995 TV series Pride And Prejudice and played Hayley in The Archers.

Davis's Shaun Of The Dead co-star Bill Nighy said he had laughed through most of the filming. Of its creators, he said: "They are very clever but have obviously got very sick imaginations and probably need psychiatric help."

Nighy, whose career has taken off since he starred in Love Actually, is taking part in the animation The Magic Roundabout alongside Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue.

"It is going very well," he said. "But unfortunately we aren't in the same room at the same time. I am recording my part separately."