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1-50 of 291
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Monica was born in March 1969 into an Irish family and has a sister Gabrielle. She studied drama at the Guildhall School in London, graduating in 1991 and soon afterwards went into television. A supremely versatile character actress, she has tended to specialize in stunning portrayals of the darker side of life, as real-life stalker Maria Marchese in U Be Dead (2009), demure but deadly Miss Gilchrist in the superior Poirot adaptation After the Funeral (2006) and, particularly, as serial killer Rosemary West in Appropriate Adult (2011) for which she, along with fellow Guildhall graduate Dominic West, deservedly received a BAFTA award. Therefore it was rather a surprise when she was not the killer in Midsomer Murders episode The Great and the Good (2009), though she sort of made up for it by playing twin sisters, one nice, one less so, in Call the Midwife episode Episode #2.3 (2013). On stage she has not let the villainous side down as Regan in 'King Lear' with Ian McKellen and an unusual version of 'Macbeth', set in Africa, with her Lady Macbeth the only white protagonist. In 2014, despite a lighter role in the TV sitcom W1A (2014), she was back to being enjoyably horrid as George Mackay's bigoted mother in the film Pride (2014).- Actress
- Producer
- Executive
Joanne was born at Littlebeck, Whitby and educated at Eskdale School, Sleights Pimary and Red Roofs Theatrical School, Berkshire, Her first jobs were at Booths Fine Food Cafe and Alexanders Fish Restaurant in Whitby. She made her television debut in The Bill but became well known when she played Zoe Tattersall in Coronation Street. She was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award for Best Actress for her role in Eyewtness and won the 2010 British Independent Film Award for Most Promising Newcomerfor the film In Our Name. She got Emmy nominations in 2012 and 2014 for Downton Abbey and a Golden Globe Best Actress in 2015- Jessica Barden is an English actress. She is best known for playing Alyssa in Channel 4 series The End of the F***ing World, and the film The Lobster (2015).
She also had small roles in Tamara Drewe (2010), Hanna (2011) and Far from the Madding Crowd (2015).
In 2016 she played Justine in Penny Dreadful.
Her film debut was Mrs. Ratcliffe's Revolution (2007). - Faye Marsay was born on 30 December 1986 in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Game of Thrones (2011), Pride (2014) and Andor (2022).
- Actress
- Music Department
- Director
Dame Judi Dench was born Judith Olivia Dench in York, England, to Eleanora Olive (Jones), who was from Dublin, Ireland, and Reginald Arthur Dench, a doctor from Dorset, England. She attended Mount School in York, and studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, and at Old Vic Theatre. She is a ten-time BAFTA winner including Best Actress in a Comedy Series for A Fine Romance (1981) in which she appeared with her husband, Michael Williams, and Best Supporting Actress in A Handful of Dust (1988) and A Room with a View (1985). She received an ACE award for her performance in the television series Mr. and Mrs. Edgehill (1985). She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1970, a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1988 and a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 2005.- The avuncular star character actor Richard Griffiths grew up in a council flat in less than prosperous conditions, the son of deaf and volatile parents in a dysfunctional family setting. According to an article in the Telegraph newspaper, his father Thomas was a steelworker 'who fought in pubs for prize money'. Like most children, Richard's "mother tongue" was the same as his parents. In his case, that was sign language. Like many kids in the 50s, his world did not include television. He had to explain sounds to his parents, for example music. Griffiths made a career out of language. For instance, he developed a talent for dialects which later allowed him to shine in a number of ethnic portrayals. He attended the Manchester Polytechnic School Of Drama and then began his career in radio drama and repertory theatre. He subsequently became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company where he often excelled playing Shakespeare's comic characters.
In a 2007 interview, Griffiths said "I like playing Vernon Dursley in Harry Potter because that gives me a license to be horrible to kids. I hate the odious business of sucking up to the public." In fact, unlike those jovial characters he so often portrayed on screen, Griffiths did not tolerate fools gladly. On occasion, he would get stroppy with members of an audience, especially those failing to switch off their mobile phones during a performance (who could blame him?). He was also highly thought of as a raconteur and wit.
The ever-versatile, often bespectacled and bearded Griffiths did his best work for the small screen, excelling as the inquisitive and resourceful civil servant Henry Jay in Bird of Prey (1982) and as the lovable 'cooking policeman' Henry Crabbe in Pie in the Sky (1994), a role specially created for him. As comic relief he made many a hilarious guest appearance, in, among other popular series, The Vicar of Dibley (1994) (as the Bishop of Mulberry) and as Dr. Bayham Badger in the superb BBC adaption of Bleak House (2005). He could also play evil and sinister, none more so than Swelter in Gormenghast (2000), a character Griffiths described being at once "laughably comic" and "a monster like Idi Amin". He was also much sought-after by Hollywood producers, appearing in a dual role in The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear (1991), as the ill-fated Magistrate Philipse in Tim Burton 's Sleepy Hollow (1999) and as King George in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011).
The much-acclaimed actor won a Tony Award, a Laurence Olivier Award, the Drama Desk Award and the Outer Critics Circle Award.
Griffiths was uncommonly skinny as a child and this required radiation treatment on his pituitary gland from the age of eight. It caused his metabolism to slow to such an extent that he eventually became obese, a condition which in all likelihood contributed to his death from complications during heart surgery on 28 March 2013 at the age of 65. - Penelope Wilton was born on 3 June 1946 in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Match Point (2005). She was previously married to Ian Holm and Daniel Massey.
- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Alistair Petrie was born on 30 September 1970 in Catterick, North Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor and director, known for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), The Bank Job (2008) and Victor Frankenstein (2015). He is married to Lucy Scott. They have three children.- Emma Fielding is an English actress.
The daughter of a British Army soldier, she studied acting at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.
After graduation she worked for the Royal National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, coming to the attention of critics in 1993's RNT production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, in which she created the role of Thomasina. She made her Broadway theatre debut in 2002 in Noël Coward's Private Lives for which she won a Theatre World Award. She has twice been nominated for an Olivier Award. She is an Associate Artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company. - Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, to Eliza (Conlon) and Robert Laughton, hotel keepers of Irish and English descent, respectively. He was educated at Stonyhurst (a highly esteemed Jesuit college in England) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). His first appearance on stage was in 1926. Laughton formed own film company, Mayflower Pictures Corp., with Erich Pommer, in 1937. He became an American citizen 1950. A consummate artist, Laughton achieved great success on stage and film, with many staged readings (particularly of George Bernard Shaw) to his credit. Laughton died in Hollywood, California, aged 63.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Mark Benton was born on 16 November 1965 in Guisborough, North Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Anna and the Apocalypse (2017), Early Doors (2003) and The Second Coming (2003). He has been married to Sarah Gardner since 2002. They have three children.- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Andrew Haigh is a writer and director. His film work includes Weekend, which premiered at SXSW and won the audience award. 45 Years, premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, won 2 Silver Bears, and received an Academy Award nomination for lead actress Charlotte Rampling. Lean on Pete premiered in competition at Venice and won the Marcello Mastroianni award for actor Charlie Plummer. His most recent film, All of Us Strangers, has been nominated for 6 BAFTAs. His television work includes Looking for HBO and The North Water, a limited series for BBC.- Preeti Desai is a British actress, model, and former Miss Great Britain of Gujarati Indian descent. She made history by becoming the first woman of Indian origin to win the title. Known for starring in Damien Chazelle's 2020 film The Stunt Double commissioned by Apple Desai made her acting debut with acclaimed film Shor in the City (2011) and was nominated for Best Lead Actress at the South Asian Rising Star Film Awards in New York City. Desai is listed as the Times of India's 50 Most Desirable Women and People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People
- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
He originated the role of Posner in the award winning National Theatre production of The History Boys and repeated the role in the regional and international tours of the play and on Broadway where he received a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play, He trained at LAMDA and has appeared at the National in His Dark Materials and in The Accrington Pals at the Chichester Festival Theatre. His television work includes The Royal, Doctors and Inpectot Linley- Actress
- Soundtrack
Wendy Richard, was born in Middlesborough to Henry and Beatrice Emmerton who moved to London when she was 5. and there they ran The Shepherds Tavern in Mayfair. Her father commited suicide due to depression when she was 11. She was educated at St Georges School in Mount Street, Mayfair, London and at a boarding school then while still in her teens became a shop assistant at Fortum and Masons but was fired on her second day for not selling anything. She then joined the Italia Conti stage school at 16 but refused elocution lessons as she didn't want to do voice exercises. Her first big break was when she did voice on the Mike Sarne record 'Come Outside' which went to number one in 1962 the charts but all she got out of it was £ 15. David Croft then cast her in the comedy series Hugh and I and nurtured her career resulting in appearances in such series as The Likely Lads, Newcomers, Up Pompeii, Dads Army and Eastenders. She had a part in the Beatles film Help but was cut out of it but survived in the comedy Bless This House. The day after her mothers funeral she married music publisher Leonard Black in May 1972 but it only lasted 5 months. Afraid of being on her own she then married advertising executive Will Thorpe but their relationship became turbulent and developed into violent abuse resulting in a divorce in 1984. Her 3rd marriage was to Paul Glorney, a carpet fitter, but they divorced in 1994. In February 1996 she met John Burns, a painter and decorator and they lived together before marrying in October 2008, In 1996 she had discovered a lump on her breast which turned out to be cancerous but she was given the all clear after an operation, There was a recurrence of it in 2002 and after further treatment she was again given a clean bill of health until in 2008 when a check up revealed that she had cancerous cells in her breast and that they had spread through her body. She made a half hour television Programme 'Wendy Richard: To Tell You the Truth' documenting the last few months of her life which was broadcast in March 2009- Actor
- Soundtrack
Jamie Parker is an English actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Harry Potter in the original cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: London Show (2017), for which he received an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play and a WhatsOnStage Award for Best Actor in a Play. He also received a Tony Award Nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play as a member of the original Broadway version ( The 72nd Annual Tony Awards (2018) ). Other notable include John Dudley in Becoming Elizabeth (2022) (2022), Lt Richards in 1917 (2019) (2019); Alan Greene QC in Des (2020) (2020); Scripps in The History Boys (2006) (original stage cast and film); Shakespeare's Globe Theatre: Henry V (2013) at Shakespeare's Globe, 2012; and Sky Masterson in Guys & Dolls (Olivier nomination, Best Actor in a Musical, 2015; UK Theatre Award win, Best Performance in a Musical, 2015). For his performance as Richard Rodgers in Rodgers & Hart & Hammerstein, recorded remotely from his home studio for BBC Radio 3, he has been shortlisted for a BBC Audio Award for Best Actor. He has made numerous other appearances in BBC audio dramas and as a BBC reader for Book at Bedtime and Book of the Week. He has sung at the Albert Hall in two BBC Proms: Prom 30: The John Wilson Orchestra Performs Frank Sinatra (2015), 2015 singing original Nelson Riddle arrangements with Seth MacFarlane; and 'The Golden Age of Broadway', 2021. Born in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, Jamie Parker is an actor and singer, known for Becoming Elizabeth (2022) (2022), 1917 (2019) and Des (2020) (2020). He has been married to Deborah Crowe since 2007. They have one child.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Elizabeth Carling was born on 20 October 1967 in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Casualty (1986), Goodnight Sweetheart (1993) and The Damned United (2009).- Bill was born and bred in the North-East town of Middlesbrough, close to the North Yorkshire border, and trained at the Guildford drama school in the early Eighties.
Amongst his many Theatre credits are Mickey in the West End production of Blood Brothers, alongside Stephanie Lawrence, Tony Harrison's Trackers at the Royal National Theatre, Pastoral at the Soho Theatre.
Bill has been seen on television many times, most recently in Ted Lasso starring Jason Sudeikis, This Time with Alan Partridge starring Steve Coogan, Vera with Brenda Blethyn, the hugely popular drama Broadchurch with Olivia Colman and in the multi award-winning Downton Abbey opposite Phyllis Logan - as well as starring in Alan Bleasdale's Monicled Mutineer with Paul McGann, Hallmark's Blackbeard with Stacy Keach and Jessica Chastain, and the role of Stu Carpenter in Coronation Street for ITV.
His film credits include Lady Macbeth with Florence Pugh, Final Score with Pierce Brosnan, The Tournament with Robert Carlyle, In Our Name with Joanne Froggatt, United, the story of the Munich air disaster, with Jack O'Connell and David Tennant, Harrigan with Stephen Tompkinson and Extremis with David O'Hara. - Actress
- Writer
- Producer
Donna Preston was born on 6 June 1986 in York, North Yorkshire, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018), The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) and Judwaa 2 (2017).- Actor
- Writer
- Composer
Bob Mortimer was born on 23 May 1959 in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for House of Fools (2014), Catterick (2004) and Shooting Stars (1993). He has been married to Lisa Matthews since October 2015. They have two children.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Amber Doig-Thorne is a British Actress and Producer. Amber has played leading roles in 29 Feature Films, numerous award winning short films, TV spots and comedy productions. Amber acquired her training at RADA, British Action Academy, and Beverly Hills Playhouse (USA). She is also a Comedian, Writer and Presenter. Amber has English, Irish and Scottish heritage; she is Neurodivergent (ADHD) and has previously lived in New Zealand. She played a lead role in IMDb's 2nd Most Anticipated Film of 2023 'Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023) ', which was #1 in the US box office and had a worldwide cinematic release.
Amber is an incredibly versatile actor who brings her characters to life with great depth, emotional vulnerability and naturalism. She is also known for producing original comedy sketches - from which she has amassed over 3 million combined followers online. She was previously commissioned by BBC Comedy as a performer/writer - her sketch is available to view on BBC Three and iPlayer.
A talented sportswoman, Amber has competed at a national level in several sports. She has Firearms, Weapons and Screen Combat training, enjoys horse riding, archery, gymnastics, boxing and martial arts, and has danced in a West End Production. Amber speaks conversational French and Spanish, and is learning Russian.
A well-versed all rounder, Amber is also an established Presenter and Host - she has been flown around the world by the globe's most celebrated film studios to interview over 60 internationally renowned actors and directors about their upcoming films.
Amber is a Qualified Scientist and has a University Degree in Theoretical Physics. She interviewed Former US Vice President Al Gore regarding his stance on Climate Change, and is an active supporter of women in STEM.- Music Department
- Composer
- Actor
John Barry was born in York, England in 1933, and was the youngest of three children. His father, Jack, owned several local cinemas and by the age of fourteen, Barry was capable of running the projection box on his own - in particular, The Rialto in York. As he was brought up in a cinematic environment, he soon began to assimilate the music which accompanied the films he saw nightly to a point when, even before he'd left St. Peters school, he had decided to become a film music composer. Helped by lessons provided locally on piano and trumpet, followed by the more exacting theory taught by tutors as diverse as Dr Francis Jackson of York Minster and William Russo, formerly arranger to Stan Kenton and His Orchestra, he soon became equipped to embark upon his chosen career, but had no knowledge of how one actually got a start in the business. A three year sojourn in the army as a bandsman combined with his evening stints with local jazz bands gave him the idea to ease this passage by forming a small band of his own. This was how The John Barry Seven came into existence, and Barry successfully launched them during 1957 via a succession of tours and TV appearances. A recording contract with EMI soon followed, and although initial releases made by them failed to chart, Barry's undoubted talent showed enough promise to influence the studio management at Abbey Road in allowing him to make his debut as an arranger and conductor for other artists on the EMI roster.
A chance meeting with a young singer named Adam Faith, whilst both were appearing on astage show version of the innovative BBC TV programme, Six-Five Special (1957), led Barry to recommend Faith for a later BBC TV series, Drumbeat (1959), which was broadcast in 1959. Faith had made two or three commercially unsuccessful records before singer/songwriter Johnny Worth, also appearing on Drumbeat, offered him a song he'd just finished entitled What Do You Want? With the assistance of the JB7 pianist, Les Reed, Barry contrived an arrangement considered suited to Faith's soft vocal delivery, and within weeks, the record was number one. Barry (and Faith) then went from strength to strength; Faith achieving a swift succession of chart hits, with Barry joining him soon afterwards when the Seven, riding high on the wave of the early sixties instrumental boom, scored with Hit & Miss, Walk Don't Run and Black Stockings.
Faith had long harboured ambitions to act even before his first hit record and was offered a part in the up and coming British movie, Wild for Kicks (1960), at that time. As Barry was by then arranging not only his recordings but also his live Drumbeat material, it came as no surprise when the film company asked him to write the score to accompany Faith's big screen debut. It should be emphasised that the film was hardly a cinematic masterpiece. However, it did give Faith a chance to demonstrate his acting potential, and Barry the chance to show just how quickly he'd mastered the technique of film music writing. Although the film and soundtrack album were both commercial successes, further film score offers failed to flood in. On those that did, such as Never Let Go (1960) and The Amorous Mr. Prawn (1962), Barry proved highly inventive, diverse and adaptable and, as a result, built up a reputation as an emerging talent. It was with this in mind that Noel Rogers, of United Artists Music, approached him in the summer of '62, with a view to involving him in the music for the forthcoming James Bond film, Dr. No (1962).
He was also assisted onto the cinematic ladder as a result of a burgeoning relationship with actor/writer turned director Bryan Forbes, who asked him to write a couple of jazz numbers for use in a club scene in Forbes' then latest film, The L-Shaped Room (1962). From this very modest beginning, the couple went on to collaborate on five subsequent films, including the highly acclaimed Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), King Rat (1965) and The Whisperers (1967). Other highlights from the sixties included five more Bond films, Zulu (1964), Born Free (1966) (a double Oscar), The Lion in Winter (1968) (another Oscar) and Midnight Cowboy (1969).
In the seventies he scored the cult film Walkabout (1971), The Last Valley (1971), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) (Oscar nomination), wrote the theme for The Persuaders! (1971), a musical version of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and the hit musical Billy. Then, in 1974, he made the decision to leave his Thameside penthouse apartment for the peace of a remote villa he was having built in Majorca. He had been living there for about a year, during which time he turned down all film scoring opportunities, until he received an invitation to write the score for the American TV movie, Eleanor and Franklin (1976). In order to accomplish the task, he booked into the Beverly Hills Hotel for six weeks in October 1975. However, during this period, he was also offered Robin and Marian (1976) and King Kong (1976), which caused his stay to be extended. He was eventually to live and work in the hotel for almost a year, as more assignments were offered and accepted. His stay on America's West Coast eventually lasted almost five years, during which time he met and married his wife, Laurie, who lived with him at his Beverly Hills residence. They moved to Oyster Bay, New York and have since split their time between there and a house in Cadogan Square, London.
After adopting a seemingly lower profile towards the end of the seventies, largely due to the relatively obscure nature of the commissions he accepted, the eighties saw John Barry re-emerge once more into the cinematic limelight. This was achieved, not only by continuing to experiment and diversify, but also by mixing larger budget commissions of the calibre of Body Heat (1981), Jagged Edge (1985), Out of Africa (1985) (another Oscar) and The Cotton Club (1984) with smaller ones such as the TV movies, Touched by Love (1980) and Svengali (1983). Other successes included: Somewhere in Time (1980), Frances (1982), three more Bond films, and Peggy Sue Got Married (1986).
After serious illness in the late eighties, Barry returned with yet another Oscar success with Dances with Wolves (1990) and was also nominated for Chaplin (1992). Since then he scored the controversial Indecent Proposal (1993), My Life (1993), Deception (1992), Cry, the Beloved Country (1995) and has made compilation albums for Sony (Moviola and Moviola II) and non-soundtrack albums for Decca ('The Beyondness Of Things' & 'Eternal Echoes').
In the late nineties he made a staggeringly successful return to the concert arena, playing to sell-out audiences at the Royal Albert Hall. Since then he has appeared as a guest conductor at a RAH concert celebrating the life and career of Elizabeth Taylor and made brief appearances at a couple of London concerts dedicated to his music. In 2004 he re-united with Don Black to write his fifth stage musical, Brighton Rock, which enjoyed a limited run at The Almeida Theatre in London.
He continued to appear at concerts of his own music, often making brief appearances at the podium. In November 2007, Christine Albanel, the French Minister for Culture, appointed him Commander in the National Order of Arts and Letters. The award was made at the eighth International Festival Music and Cinema, in Auxerre, France, when, in his honour, a concert of his music also took place.
In August 2008 he was working on a new album, provisionally entitled Seasons, which he has described as "a soundtrack of his life." A new biography, "John Barry: The Man with The Midas Touch", by Geoff Leonard, Pete Walker, and Gareth Bramley, was published in November 2008.
He died following a heart-attack on 30th January 2011, at his home in Oyster Bay, New York.- Actress
- Producer
Born in Thornaby-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, in the North-east of England, Marlene Sidaway originally trained as an adding-machine operator when she left school, but in 1961 she left for London to join a childrens' theatre group and studied acting at the East 15 acting school. Although she has been a familiar character player on television since the 1970s she is also the secretary of the International Brigade Society, commemorating the volunteers who enlisted to fight Fascism in the Spanish Civil War, Marlene's much older partner, David Marshall, having been a member of the Brigade. They lived together from 1990 until his death in 2005.- Tom Ainsley is a British actor from Scarborough, North Yorkshire best known for his role as Charlie in How I Met Your Father as well as Benoit in Versailles and Nick in The Royals. He is based out of Los Angeles where he is represented professionally by Greene & Associates and managed by Luber Roklin Entertainment. In the UK he is represented by United Agents.
- Actor
- Producer
Anand Desai-Barochia was born in Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for The Outpost (2018), Bridgerton (2020) and The Tiger Hunter (2016).