Sophie Ellis-Bextor was born in Coventry to Janet Ellis , then an actress, but later better known as a presenter on the TV series Blue Peter (on which Sophie appeared with her mother at the age of six, modelling snoods ), and Robin Bextor , an award-winning film director. Ellis and Bextor divorced when Sophie was four years old. She has three sisters and two brothers. Her eldest brother Jackson is the drummer in her band. Her sister, Martha-Rose is 16. She recently revealed that her sister wanted to be a stylist on the Jonathan Ross show on Radio 2. She has often spoken about being very close to her family growing up and she often takes her brothers and sisters to work with her. Her official website hyphenates her surname, which is the joining of her parents' surnames; some other sources separate the names with a space. She went to school at Godolphin and Latymer School in Hammersmith . Among her earliest public performances were with the W11 Opera childrens' opera from the age of thirteen

An advocate for animal rights , she posed for PETA 's anti– fur clothing advertisement