Sonia Ritter (born 20 July 1958) is an English actress, theatre director and practitioner, and teacher. She is known for portraying Doreen 'Dor' Coleman in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders.

Sonia Ritter was born in Surrey Northern, Surrey, England in 20 July 1958, as the younger child to Hans Wolfgang Ritter and Madeleine Gwen (née Arnup). She has an elder sister, Phyllida.^[1]

Ritter attended the University of Birmingham; graduating in 1979.^[2][3] She studied at Bristol Old Vic; graduating in 1981.^[4]

Ritter has worked as an actress since August 1981. She began her career in theatre.^[5]

Ritter made her television debut on 29 August 1989, with the role of Charlie on the final episode of the ITV crime drama series Hard Cases.^[6] She has appeared in The Bill, Casualty,^[7][8] Performance,^[9] Doctors,^{[10][11][12][13]} Dickens,^[14] Holby City,^[15][16] Silk,^[17] and Requiem.^[18][19][20]

Ritter has appeared in three roles on the BBC One soap opera EastEnders. Her first appearance was as a welfare office in 1995. She then portrayed a registrar during the first part of the New Year's Eve 1999 episodes. She portrayed Doreen 'Dor' Coleman, a prison friend of Chrissie Watts (Tracy-Ann Oberman) and later the cellmate of Sharon Watts (Letitia Dean), who was imprisoned for shoplifting, for five episodes in September 2024.^[21][22][23]

Ritter has previously worked at Coventry University.^[24][25][26] She has works as a creative coordinator at the Lions part since 1995.^[4] She has worked as a tutor at the East 15 Acting School in Loughton, Essex since 2010.^[27]