Miranda Richardson

Miranda Richardson was born in Southport, England, in 1958. She is one of the most prominent actresses in the United Kingdom, with several notable roles across theatre, cinema, and television. She grew up next to a cinema, which fueled her passion for acting and led her to enroll at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where she was a classmate of Daniel Day-Lewis. She made her West End debut in 1981 with the play Moving, the first of several acclaimed roles; in 1987, she was even nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actress for her performance in A Lie of the Mind (a play by Sam Shepard).

Her film debut came in 1985, in Mike Newell’s Dance with a Stranger. Her most outstanding television role (after small appearances in various series), and one of the most notable of her entire career, came the following year when she played Queen Elizabeth I in the second season of Blackadder, one of Britain’s most beloved comedy series.

Many of her best-known roles have been supporting performances, in films such as The Crying Game (1992), by Neil Jordan; Damage (1992), by Louis Malle, for which she won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress; Kansas City (1996), by Robert Altman; Sleepy Hollow (1999), by Tim Burton; The Hours (2002), by Stephen Daldry; and in the Harry Potter saga, where she played the character Rita Skeeter. Her second Academy Award nomination came in 1995, this time for Best Actress in a Leading Role, for Tom & Viv (1994), directed by Brian Gilbert.