A BOURNEMOUTH actress who recently had a role in top US sitcom My Name is Earl is lucky to be alive following a terrifying car crash in Los Angeles.

Nathalie Jayne Baldwin, 24, who attends the Beverly Hills Playhouse, a prestigious LA acting school, was involved in a three-car collision on Beverly Boulevard/Crescent Heights in the early hours of Saturday February 7.

Eye witnesses at the scene said Melissa Hayden, a Daytime Emmy award winning actress formerly of hit US soap opera Guiding Light, was in another car involved in the incident.

Actress Melissa, whose mother is believed to hail from Bournemouth, escaped without injury but her car was said to be a write-off.

Nathalie, however, is unable to work at present after being diagnosed with severe lumbar and cervical sprains and has to wear a neck brace.

Nathalie said: “I was in complete shock. Then the paparazzi, ambulances, police and tow trucks arrived. My neck hurt immediately. The other woman is thankfully okay although her car not so much. I have been in bed now for three days and it has interfered with some top project meetings.

“There are not too many parts for pretty girls in neckbraces,” she joked.

Nathalie, from Boscombe, went to Los Angeles two years ago and is rapidly making a name for herself as an actress.

The former RIAS worker played the part of a BBC newsreader in the popular video game Red Alert 3 – Command and Conquer, which also features former Hollyoaks actress Gemma Atkinson, Star Trek actor George Takei, Tim Curry and Jonathan Pryce.

While working on an episode of My Name is Earl, she spent four days filming with Trainspotting actor Ewen Bremnar and top US actress Di Quon – a regular in Maid in Manhattan.

Nathalie’s dad, Ieuan Llewellyn, who lives in Bournemouth, said: “She wasn’t seriously hurt. I was just relieved that she was alive.”