Tracy Shaw is a British actress. Shaw was born into the hotel and pub trade, at the time when her parents ran the Talbot Hotel in Belper, Derbyshire. She attended St. Benedict's School in Derbyshire, and went to the Arden School of Theatre in Manchester in 1990, where she got a degree in theatre studies.

Her best known work at present is hairdresser Maxine Peacock in the long-running, popular British soap opera Coronation Street which is set and filmed in Manchester, England.

However, Shaw came into conflict with the show's bosses after they tried to cut her pay by £20,000 a year and she bowed out from her famous role as a result.

Shaws's character met a tragic and unfortunate end in the episode screened on 13 January 2003, when she was murdered by Richard Hillman (played by Brian Capron).

She has also appeared in numerous ITV dramas. In 2003 Shaw appeared as Sally in the stage play The Blue Room, starring alongside Jason Connery.

She also had a short lived pop career in 1998, releasing two singles under the PWL label, Riding High (#82) and Happening all over again (#46).