Detailed Biography

Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton, OBE, is an Oscar-nominated Anglo-Irish actress best known for her performances in the British comedy television series Up the Garden Path and the films Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Vera Drake. For the latter, she drew widespread critical acclaim as Vera Drake, earning her a Best Actress Oscar nomination and a number of wins including the BAFTA and Venice Film Festival Awards for best actress in a leading role.

Early life

Staunton was born in Archway, North London, the daughter of Bridie , a hairdresser, and Joseph Staunton, a road-worker and labourer. Both of her parents are first-generation Catholic immigrants from County Mayo, Ireland, with her father coming from Ballyvary and her mother from Bohola. She attended La Sainte Union Convent School, an all-girls Catholic school on the edge of Hampstead Heath, from years 11 to 17. She then went on to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

Career

Theatre

Staunton trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, then spent six years in English repertory, including a period at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter where she had the title role in Shaw's Saint Joan , before moving back to London. Staunton has stated that her first job was a play by Goldoni. She is also known for her performance as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

She has twice received an Olivier Award, Britain's highest theatre honour, for roles in two 1985 productions: A Chorus of Disapproval and The Corn Is Green and for the 1991 Into the Woods. She was nominated for her performance as Miss Adelaide in the 1996 revival of Guys and Dolls at the National Theatre.

More recently, she appeared in the premiere of Frank McGuinness's There Came a Gypsy Riding at the Almeida in 2007 and opened in 2009 in Entertaining Mr Sloane alongside Mathew Horne at the Trafalgar Studios.

Film

One of her first films was an appearance in the 1992 movie Peter's Friends. Other early roles include performances in Much Ado About Nothing , Deadly Advice , Sense and Sensibility Twelfth Night , Chicken Run , Another Life , Bright Young Things , Nanny McPhee and Freedom Writers .

Staunton shared a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Performance by a Cast in 1998 for Shakespeare in Love. In 2004, she received the Best Actress honours at the European Film Awards, the BAFTAs, and the Venice Film Festival for her performance of the title role in Mike Leigh's Vera Drake, which also won Best Picture. For the same role, she received Best Actress nominations for the 2005 Golden Globes and Academy Awards.

Staunton portrayed Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix , a performance described as "coming close to stealing the show." She was nominated in the "British Actress in a Supporting Role" category at the London Film Critics Circle Awards. On July 13 2009, Producer David Heyman confirmed Staunton will reprise her role as Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Her most recent film role is her scene stealing character of Sonia Teichberg in Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock .

Other work

In 1993 she appeared on television alongside Richard Briers and Adrian Edmondson in If You See God, Tell Him. She has had other television parts in The Singing Detective , Midsomer Murders, and the comedy drama series Is it Legal? . She was a voice artist on Mole's Christmas . She had a guest role playing Mrs. Mead in Little Britain in 2005, and in 2007 played the free-thinking gossip, Miss Pole, in Cranford, the five-part BBC series based on Mrs Gaskell's novels.

On radio, she has appeared in the title role of detective drama series Julie Enfield Investigates, as the lead, Izzy Comyn, in the comedy Up the Garden Path , in Diary of a Provincial Lady and Acropolis Now.

She also supplies the voices of Ruby and Twiba in the Children's TV show "Big and Small"

Personal life

Staunton is married to the English actor Jim Carter and they have a daughter, Bessie, born 1993. She is also long time friends with Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and best friends with Emma Thompson, her neighbour.

She was awarded the O.B.E. in the 2006 New Year's Honours List for her services to drama.

Theatre work

Repertory theatre: Waiting for Godot , Birmingham Rep
Hay Fever, Watermill, Newbury
Grease, York Theatre Royal
Henry V, Leeds Playhouse
The Gingerbread Man, Leeds Playhouse

Two seasons at the Northcott Theatre Exeter: Travesties Northcott Exeter
A Man for All Seasons Northcott Exeter
Elektra Northcott Exeter
Dear Daddy Northcott Exeter
Cinderella Northcott Exeter
'Tis Pity She's a Whore Northcott Exeter:
Macbeth Northcott Exeter
Cabaret Northcott Exeter
As You Like It Northcott Exeter
Saint Joan Northcott Exeter
The Beggar's Opera Northcott Exeter
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat Northcott Exeter
Side by Side by Sondheim Northcott Exeter

Two seasons at the Nottingham Playhouse : Pam Gems' Piaf Nottingham Playhouse
Mack and Mabel Nottingham Playhouse
Mrs Warren's Profession, Nottingham Playhouse
A Little Night Music, Nottingham Playhouse

Touring : She Stoops to Conquer Oxford Playhouse UK tour

Theatre roles in London:: Guys and Dolls , Royal National Theatre Olivier
The Beggar's Opera , Royal National Theatre Cottesloe
Schweyk in the Second World War National Olivier
Guys and Dolls National Olivier
A Mad World, My Masters Theatre Royal Stratford East
Us Good Girls Soho Poly
The Corn Is Green , Old Vic - Olivier award
A Chorus of Disapproval National Olivier - Olivier award
The Fair Maid of the West RSC Mermaid Theatre
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? RSC Mermaid
The Wizard of Oz RSC Barbican Theatre
Uncle Vanya Vaudeville Theatre
The Lady and the Clarinet The King's Head Theatre, Islington
Into the Woods Phoenix Theatre - Olivier award
Rona Munro's Bold Girls Hampstead Theatre
Tony Kushner's Slavs! Hampstead Theatre
Habeas Corpus Donmar Warehouse
Guys and Dolls National Olivier - Olivier nomination
Divas at the Donmar: Imelda Staunton and Her Big Band Donmar Warehouse
Yasmina Reza's Life X Three National Cottesloe, then transferring to the Old Vic
Michael Hastings' Calico Duke of York's Theatre
Frank McGuinness's There Came a Gypsy Riding Almeida
Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane Trafalgar Studios