Natasha Little
Natasha Little (born 2 October 1969) is an English actress. She is best known for her roles as Edith Thompson in the film Another Life, Lady Caroline Langbourne in the BBC miniseries The Night Manager, and Christina Moxam in the BBC miniseries Thirteen.
Natasha Little | |
---|---|
Born | Liverpool, England | 2 October 1969
Occupation | Actress |
Spouse(s) | |
Children | 2 |
Early life
Little was born in Liverpool on 2 October 1969. Her mother is a teacher and her father an NHS manager. For the first decade of her life, she lived in the Middle East, where her father set up immunisation clinics for the WHO and her mother taught at an English speaking school. Her family then moved back to England and settled in Loughton, Essex. She attended Loughton County High School for Girls, and joined a Saturday drama group called the Epping Youth Theatre.[1] She originally planned on a career in law, but was persuaded to apply to drama school by her teacher after her role in a school production of the musical Chicago. She attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and graduated in 1994 with a BA in drama.[1]
Career
Little's first acting role after graduating was a part in the play The Tenth Man at the New End Theatre. She was talent-spotted whilst performing a play at the Latchmere pub theatre and subsequently won the role of Jenny in the successful ITV drama London's Burning in 1995. She had roles in the Lynda La Plante televised series Supply & Demand in 1997 and that same year she won the role of Rachel in the critically acclaimed BBC drama This Life (series 2).[2]
Other television credits include The Bill (1998); Big Women (1998); Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair (1998); Cadfael (1998); The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything (1999); Man and Boy; Far from the Madding Crowd; Murder in Mind (2003); playing Vicki Westbrook in the spy drama, Spooks (2003); The Crooked Man (2003); Angell's Hell (2005) and playing Lady Hamilton in the Ricky Gervais comedy Extras (2005).
Film credits include The Clandestine Marriage (1999); The Criminal (1999); Kevin & Perry Go Large (2000); Greenfingers (2000); Another Life (2001); Byron (2003); Vanity Fair (2004), where she played Lady Jane Sheepshanks Crawley; The Queen of Sheba's Pearls (2004) and A Congregation of Ghosts 2009) among others.
Theatre roles include Voyage Round My Father; The Vagina Monologues; Les Mains; The Alchemist and the Richard Eyre play The Novice. Little took her role in The Novice at the last minute. She was originally contracted to star in the film Enigma (2001), but the role was subsequently given to the actress Kate Winslet, who had previously turned the part down due to her pregnancy, but changed her mind.[2] Little was paid her full fee of £300,000[2][3] and appeared in The Novice at the Almeida Theatre instead.
Little won the award for Best Actress in a Drama Series at the 1999 Biarritz International Television Festival for her role as Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair and she also received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series for the same role. In 2001, Little won the award for Best Actress at the Cherbourg Film Festival for her role in Another Life.
She also played Ann Shapland in Agatha Christie's Poirot (Cat Among the Pigeons), Megan Hudson in Mistresses, Nemo's mother in Mr. Nobody, Flick in The Boys Are Back and Allanah Mountstuart in Any Human Heart.
In 2008, she appeared as a guest star in Foyle's War. In 2011 she portrayed the wife of hostage negotiator Dominic King (played by Trevor Eve) in the three-part drama Kidnap and Ransom,[4] a role which she reprised in the 2012 second series,[5] and played Elspeth Munro in the BBC drama Young James Herriot.[6]
In 2013 she appeared in the premiere production of the play Longing. In 2015 she played Liz Cromwell in the BBC production of Wolf Hall.
In 2016, she appeared in "Shut Up and Dance", an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror.
In 2018, she appeared in "Birches" UK based feature,. based on the novel 'Silver Birches' (published in 2009 by Adrian Plass), which was turned into a film directed by Randall Stevens, with screenplay by Mark Freiburger and it also starred Anna Acton and Todd Carty.[7][8]
Little appeared in Seasons 2 and 3 (during 2018 and 2019) of the Amazon Original "Absentia (TV series)".
Personal life
Little lives in the Leytonstone area of London with her husband, Polish actor Bo Poraj, whom she married in May 2003. They have two sons.
Little is a trained singer with a mezzo-soprano voice and is trained in basic jazz, ballroom and period dance. Her other hobbies include dancing and playing the flute.
Selected filmography
- Between the Lines (1994) (TV series)
- London's Burning (1996)
- This Life (1997)
- Vanity Fair (1998)
- Far from the Madding Crowd (1998)
- The Bill (1998–2009) (TV series)
- The Criminal (1999)
- The Clandestine Marriage (1999)
- The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything (1999)
- Kevin & Perry Go Large (2000)
- Greenfingers (2000)
- Another Life (2001)
- The Island of the Mapmaker's Wife (2001)
- Man and Boy (2002)
- Murder in Mind (2003) (TV series)
- Spooks (2003) (TV series)
- Byron (2003)
- The Queen of Sheba's Pearls (2004)
- Extras (2005) (TV series)
- Silent Witness (2007) (TV series)
- Foyle's War (2008) (TV series)
- Mistresses (2009) (TV series)
- The Boys Are Back (2009)
- Mr. Nobody (2009)
- Dragon Age: Origins (2009) (Video game)
- A Congregation of Ghosts (2009)
- Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening (2010) (Video game)
- Any Human Heart (2010) (TV series)
- Dragon Age II (2011) (Video game)
- New Tricks (2011)
- Young James Herriot (2011) (TV series)
- Case Histories (2011–2013)
- Star Wars: The Old Republic (2011) (Video game)
- Kidnap and Ransom (2011–2013) (TV miniseries)
- 007 Legends (2012) (Video game)
- Blood (2013)
- Moving On (2013)
- Welcome to the Punch (2013)
- Breathless (2013) (TV series)
- Masterpiece Mystery (2014)
- Father Brown (2015) (TV series)
- Wolf Hall (2015) (TV series)
- DCI Banks (2015) (TV series)
- The Night Manager (2016) (TV series)
- Thirteen (2016) (TV series)
- Una (2016)
- Black Mirror: "Shut Up and Dance" (2016) TV series)
- Death in Paradise (2017) (TV series) Episode 6.1
- Absentia (2018-) (TV series)
- War of the Worlds (2019) (TV series)
References
- Natasha Little Biography Lenin Imports UK
- Natasha Little: Life after Vanity Fair The Independent, 8 June 2006. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
- How Kate Stole My Role; Hollywood big gun Kate Winslet nipped in to take Natasha Little's part in Enigma, but the former This Life actress isn't bitter Daily Record, 30 March 2002 (archived)
- Loughton actress in new TV drama, Kidnap and Ransom Archived 23 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Newham Recorder, 17 January 2011
- "Kidnap and Ransom". TV Pixie. Retrieved 15 February 2012.
- Young James Herriot – Mrs Elspeth Munro, BBC One, December 2011.
- "'Silver Birches' Feature Film Coming to Theaters in 2017". christiancinema.com. 19 December 2016. Archived from the original on 20 April 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
- "Adrian and Bridget Plass Day with Film Premiere Wednesday 16th May". baylink.org. 29 March 2018. Archived from the original on 20 April 2018. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
External links
- Natasha Little at IMDb
- Natasha Little CV, hamiltonhodell.co.uk. Retrieved 19 March 2016.