My Favourite British Actresses
by Bourne1886 | created - 21 Feb 2012 | updated - 18 Sep 2022 | Public1. Hayley Atwell
Actress | Captain America: The First Avenger
Born in London, England, Hayley Elizabeth Atwell has dual citizenship of the United Kingdom and the United States. An only child, Hayley was named after actress Hayley Mills. Her parents, Alison (Cain) and Grant Atwell, both motivational speakers, met at a London workshop of Dale Carnegie's ...
2. Karen Gillan
Actress | Selfie
Karen Sheila Gillan was born and raised in Inverness, Scotland, as the only child of Marie Paterson and husband John Gillan, who is a singer and recording artist. She developed a love for acting very early on, attending several youth theatre groups and taking part in a wide range of productions at ...
3. Jennie Jacques
Actress | Shank
Jennie Jacques is an English actress. Her first major role was as Annie Miller in Desperate Romantics (2009), a six-part BBC Two television drama serial about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood that was broadcast in July and August 2009. From 2013-2014 she played the lead role of WPC Gina Dawson on the...
4. Patsy Kensit
Actress | Lethal Weapon 2
Patsy started acting at 4 as the daughter of Robert Redford and Mia Farrow in The Great Gatsby and continued to study acting and working during school holidays. In 1973 she was in the television productions of For the Love of Ada and King Arthur and at 8 she spent 9 months in Russia with Elizabeth ...
5. Liz White
Actress | Unforgotten
Liz White was born on November 5, 1979 in Rotherham, Yorkshire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Unforgotten (2015), Ackley Bridge (2017) and Life on Mars (2006).
6. Gemma Arterton
Actress | Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Gemma Christina Arterton was born in Gravesend, Kent, England, where she was raised. She is the daughter of Sally-Anne (Heap), a cleaner, and Barry J. Arterton, a welder. Her mother's cousin is singer-songwriter Eric Goulden.
Her parents divorced when she was age five, and Gemma subsequently lived ...
7. Rhona Mitra
Actress | Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
Mitra was born in Paddington, London, England, the daughter of Nora Downey and Anthony Mitra, a cosmetic surgeon. She has an older and a younger brother. Her father is of Bengali Indian and English descent, and her mother is Irish. In 1984, when Mitra was eight, her parents divorced, and she was ...
8. Catherine Zeta-Jones
Actress | Chicago
Catherine Zeta-Jones was born September 25, 1969 in Swansea, Wales (and raised in the nearby town of Mumbles), the only daughter of Patricia (nee Fair) and David James "Dai" Jones, who formerly owned a sweet factory. She attended Dumbarton House School (Swansea). Her father (the son of Bertram (...
9. Helen Mirren
Actress | The Queen
Dame Helen Mirren was born in Queen Charlotte's Hospital in West London. Her mother, Kathleen Alexandrina Eva Matilda (Rogers), was from a working-class English family, and her father, Vasiliy Petrovich Mironov, was a Russian-born civil servant, from Kuryanovo, whose own father was a diplomat. ...
10. Kate Winslet
Actress | Titanic
Ask Kate Winslet what she likes about any of her characters, and the word "ballsy" is bound to pop up at least once. The British actress has made a point of eschewing straightforward pretty-girl parts in favor of more devilish damsels; as a result, she's built an eclectic resume that runs the gamut...
11. Judi Trott
Actress | Robin of Sherwood
Judi Trott was born on November 11, 1962 in Plymouth, Devon, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Robin Hood (1984), Circles in a Forest (1989) and Heaven's Gate (1980). She is married to Gary Spratling. They have three children.
12. Rachel Weisz
Actress | The Constant Gardener
Rachel Hannah Weisz was born on 7 March, 1970, in London, U.K., to Edith Ruth (Teich), a psychoanalyst, and George Weisz, an inventor. Her parents both came to England around 1938. Her father is a Hungarian Jewish immigrant, and her mother, from Vienna, was of Italian and Austrian Jewish heritage. ...
13. Anna Friel
Actress | Land of the Lost
Anna Friel is an English actress, born in Rochdale. She has been acting since the age of 13, appearing in a number of British television programmes. She made her West End stage debut in London in 2001, and has subsequently appeared on stage in several productions, including an adaptation of ...
14. Emily Blunt
Actress | Edge of Tomorrow
Emily Olivia Leah Blunt is a British actress known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), The Young Victoria (2009), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), and The Girl on the Train (2016), among many others.
Blunt was born on February 23, 1983, in Roehampton, South West London, England, the second of ...
15. Kate Magowan
Actress | Stardust
Kate Magowan was born on June 1, 1975 in Harrow, London, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Stardust (2007), Spotless (2015) and A Lonely Place to Die (2011). She has been married to John Simm since April 2004. They have two children.
16. Parminder Nagra
Actress | Bend It Like Beckham
Parminder Nagra was born in Leicester, Leicestershire, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Bend It Like Beckham (2002), ER (1994) and The Blacklist (2013). She was previously married to James Stenson.
17. Ashley Jensen
Actress | Arthur Christmas
Ashley Jensen (born on 11 August 1969) is a Scottish actress and narrator. She was nominated for an Emmy for her role on the television series Extras (2005), on which she appeared from 2005-2007. She was also a cast member on the ABC show Ugly Betty (2006) and the brief-lived CBS sitcom ...
18. Kate Beckinsale
Actress | Underworld: Evolution
Kate Beckinsale was born on 26 July 1973 in Hounslow, Middlesex, England, and has resided in London for most of her life. Her mother is Judy Loe, who has appeared in a number of British dramas and sitcoms and continues to work as an actress, predominantly in British television productions. Her ...
19. Billie Piper
Actress | Secret Diary of a Call Girl
Billie Piper studied at the prestigious Sylvia Young Theatre School. She caught the eyes of record producers who were interested in signing a young vocalist when she was the poster girl for the ad campaign of a British pop music magazine, "Smash Hits". She released her first single, "Because We ...
20. Minnie Driver
Actress | Circle of Friends
Minnie Driver was born January 31, 1970 in London and raised in Barbados until she was seven. Her mother, Gaynor Churchward, was a designer and former couture model. Her father, Charles Ronald "Ronnie" Driver, was a businessman. Minnie's mother was her father's mistress while he was still married ...
21. Kelly Reilly
Actress | Pride & Prejudice
Jessica Kelly Siobhán Reilly (born July 18, 1977) is an English actress. Her performance in After Miss Julie at the Donmar Warehouse made her a star of the London stage and earned her a nomination for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress of 2003. Reilly was born and brought up in Chessington, ...
22. Nathalie Cox
Actress | Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop
Nathalie Cox was born in 1978 in Leicestershire, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop (2021), Exam (2009) and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008).
23. Judi Dench
Actress | Skyfall
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 ...
24. Imogen Stubbs
Actress | Sense and Sensibility
Imogen Stubbs was born in Rothbury, Northumberland, lived briefly in Portsmouth, where her father was a naval officer, and then moved with her parents to London, where they inhabited an elderly river barge on the Thames. Educated at St. Paul's and then Westminster, where she was one of the "token ...
25. Rosamund Pike
Actress | Gone Girl
Born in 1979 in London, England, actress Rosamund Mary Elizabeth Pike is the only child of a classical violinist mother, Caroline (Friend), and an opera singer father, Julian Pike. Due to her parents' work, she spent her early childhood traveling around Europe. Pike attended Badminton School in ...
26. Keira Knightley
Actress | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Keira Christina Knightley was born March 26, 1985 in the South West Greater London suburb of Richmond. She is the daughter of actor Will Knightley and actress turned playwright Sharman Macdonald. An older brother, Caleb Knightley, was born in 1979. Her father is English, while her Scottish-born ...
27. Rebecca Night
Actress | Suspension of Disbelief
Rebecca Night broke onto the scene leading Andrew Davies' BBC hit show "Fanny Hill" - directed by James Hawes (Slow Horses) alongside Alison Steadman and Samantha Bond.
She and her husband actor Harry Hadden-Paton and their children split their time between New York & London.
With great range of ...
28. Charlotte Church
Soundtrack | I'll Be There
Charlotte Maria Church was born on February 21, 1986 in Llandaff, Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom to Steven Reed and his wife Maria. The couple separated shortly after the child's birth, and she was left in her mother's care. She started singing publicly when she was only three and a half years old,...
29. Sophie Winkleman
Actress | Wonka
Sophie Winkleman was born on August 5, 1980 in London, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Wonka (2023), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and Peep Show (2003). She has been married to Lord Frederick Windsor since September 12, 2009. They have ...
30. Emily Mortimer
Actress | Mary Poppins Returns
British actress Emily Kathleen Anne Mortimer was born in Hammersmith, London, England, to writer and barrister Sir John Mortimer and his second wife, Penelope (née Gollop). She was educated at St Paul's Girls' School in West London, and it was whilst there she began acting. Mortimer moved on from ...
31. Zoë Tapper
Actress | Stage Beauty
Zoë Tapper was born on October 26, 1981 in Bromley, Kent, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Stage Beauty (2004), Affinity (2008) and Blood (2012). She has been married to Oliver Dimsdale since December 30, 2008. They have one child.
32. Camilla Arfwedson
Actress | The Lincoln Lawyer
Camilla Arfwedson was born on October 16, 1981 in Westminster, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for The Lincoln Lawyer (2022), The Stranger (2020) and Holby City (1999). She has been married to Jack Hawkins since October 2018. They have one child.
33. Michelle Ryan
Actress | Bionic Woman
Michelle Ryan was born on April 22nd, 1984 in Enfield, Middlesex, England.
She started her career performing in a Dance Gala at The London Palladium with "Wayne Sleep" (1998), with her first television role being "Dolores" in the children's program, The Worst Witch: Fair Is Foul and Fouls Are Fair (...
34. Lacey Turner
Actress | EastEnders
Lacey Turner was born on March 28, 1988 in Hendon, London, England, UK. She is an actress, known for EastEnders (1985), Our Girl (2013) and Our Girl (2013). She has been married to Matt Kay since September 2, 2017. They have two children.
35. Suranne Jones
Actress | Doctor Foster
Suranne Jones was born on August 27, 1978 in Greater Manchester, England, UK. She is an actress and writer, known for Doctor Foster: A Woman Scorned (2015), Scott & Bailey (2011) and Coronation Street (1960). She has been married to Laurence Akers since August 4, 2015. They have one child.
36. Andrea Riseborough
Actress | Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
Andrea Louise Riseborough is an English actress and producer. She made her film debut with a small part in Venus (2006), and has since appeared in more prominent roles in Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), Never Let Me Go, Brighton Rock, Made in Dagenham (all 2010), W.E. (2011), Shadow Dancer, Disconnect (both...
37. Carey Mulligan
Actress | Never Let Me Go
Carey Hannah Mulligan is a British actress. She was born May 28, 1985, in Westminster, London, England, to Nano (Booth), a university lecturer, and Stephen Mulligan, a hotel manager. Her mother is from Llandeilo, Wales, and Carey also has Irish and English ancestry.
Her first major appearance was ...
38. Rebecca Hall
Actress | Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Rebecca Hall was born in London, England, the daughter of Peter Hall, a stage director and founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and Maria Ewing, an opera singer. Her father was English. Her mother, who is American, is of Dutch and African-American origin. Her parents separated when she was ...
39. Shelley Conn
Actress | Gen V
Shelley Conn is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her roles as Dean Indira Shetty in Amazon's No.1 show, Gen V (2023), as Beelzebub in Good Omens 2 (2023), and as Lady Mary Sharma in the hugely successful Netflix series, Bridgerton (2022). Other notable appearances include Isabella ...
40. Jodhi May
Actress | The Last of the Mohicans
Jodhi was born in 1975. She was born and brought up in London, England, UK. She went to Wadham College, Oxford University 1994-1997. She studied and received a Masters in English. During her time at Wadham she read a lot of literature. She has been acting since she was twelve.
41. Felicity Jones
Actress | Rogue One
Felicity Rose Hadley Jones is an English actress and producer. Jones started her professional acting career as a child, appearing at age 12 in The Treasure Seekers (1996). She went on to play Ethel Hallow for one series in the television show The Worst Witch and its sequel Weirdsister College. ...
42. Vicky McClure
Actress | This Is England
Vicky McClure, born Nottingham, May 1983, is an actress best known for her work in the films of Shane Meadows. She starred as Ladine, Romeo's sister, in A Room for Romeo Brass and in Meadows' most successful film, This Is England. Similarly she went on to continue playing Lol in Meadows' critically...
43. Lena Headey
Actress | 300
Lena Headey is a Bermudian-British actress. Headey is best known for her role as "Cersei Lannister" in Game of Thrones (2011) (2011-2019) and The Brothers Grimm (2005), Possession (2002), and The Remains of the Day (1993). Headey stars as "Queen Gorgo", a heroic Spartan woman in the period film, 300...
44. Florence Pugh
Actress | The Falling
Florence Pugh is an English actress. She is known for Midsommar (2019), Little Women (2019), her MCU debut Black Widow (2021), and Fighting with My Family (2019).
Pugh made her film debut in The Falling (2014). She also appears in Lady Macbeth (2016), Outlaw King (2018), Malevolent (2018), and the ...
45. Sonya Walger
Actress | The Librarian: Quest for the Spear
Sonya Walger is a British actress who also holds American citizenship. She had starring roles in the short-lived sitcoms The Mind of the Married Man (2001-2002) and Coupling (2003) before landing her role as Penny Widmore in the ABC drama series Lost (2006-2010). Walger later starred on Tell Me You...
Tell Your Friends