Sophia Myles

Sophia Jane Myles (/səˈfaɪ.ə/;[1] born 18 March 1980) is an English actress. She is best known in film for portraying Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward in Thunderbirds (2004), Isolde in Tristan & Isolde (2006), Darcy in Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), Erika in Underworld (2003) and Underworld: Evolution (2006) and Freya in Outlander (2008). She has also starred in the films From Hell (2001), The Abduction Club (2002), Out of Bounds (2003), Art School Confidential (2006), Hallam Foe (2007), The Damned (2013) and Blackwood (2015).

Sophia Myles
Myles at the 2007 Berlinale Film Festival
Born	Sophia Jane Myles 18 March 1980 London, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1996–present
Partner(s)	Charles Dance (2004-2005) David Tennant (2005–2007) Paul Wilson (2007-2008) James Bell (?-present)
Children	1

Myles has also received critical acclaim for her television work, particularly as Madame de Pompadour in the Doctor Who episode "The Girl in the Fireplace" (2006), Beth Turner in Moonlight (2007–2008), Beth Bailey in Spooks (2010) and Rebecca Bishop in A Discovery of Witches (2018–2021).

Myles won a BAFTA for Best Actress for her role as Kate in Hallam Foe (2007) and was also nominated for a BIFA at the British Independent Film Awards for the same film. She has also won several other awards at various other film festivals across the world including Best Actress for Two Words (2018) and Best Supporting Actress for November 1st (2019).

Early life

Myles was born in London. Her mother, Jane (née Allan), works in educational publishing, and her father, Peter R. Myles, was a retired Church of England vicar in Isleworth, West London.[2] Her paternal grandmother was Russian,[3] and Myles refers to herself as "half-Welsh, half-Russian".[4] She grew up in Notting Hill and attended Fox Primary School. At the age of 11, she moved with her family to Isleworth and attended The Green School. Following success at her A Levels, she had been planning to study philosophy at Cambridge at which she got a place, but chose to pursue an acting career after being spotted by Julian Fellowes in a school play and shortly after had a small role in his television production of The Prince and the Pauper in 1996.[3]

Career

Myles at Berlinale, 2007

Since 1996, Myles has appeared in a number of films and television productions. After roles in the television series Heartbeat and Foyle's War, in 2001 Myles starred as Victoria Abberline in the thriller film From Hell alongside Johnny Depp with Myles playing his wife. Myles played a main role in the comedy-romance film The Abduction Club (2002) before then playing the role of Erika in the 2003 vampire film Underworld with Kate Beckinsale, and reprised the character in its sequel, Underworld: Evolution (2006). In 2003, she also starred in the thriller Out of Bounds and played Lady Penelope in Thunderbirds (2004), the film version of the classic television show of the same name. Myles initially had the choice to star in either Thunderbirds or Troy but she chose the former as she said "Lady Penelope is such an iconic character".[4] In 2005, Myles starred in the two-part war drama miniseries Colditz with Damian Lewis and Tom Hardy. In 2006, she co-starred as Isolde in the epic romantic drama Tristan & Isolde opposite James Franco.

Myles appeared as Madame de Pompadour in the 2006 Doctor Who episode "The Girl in the Fireplace", which is often referred to as one of the best episodes of the series. The episode was nominated for a Nebula Award and won the 2007 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.[5] Myles also had roles as Gwenda Halliday in the British detective drama Agatha Christie's Marple: Sleeping Murder and Sophie Amsden in American thriller Covert One: The Hades Factor on television before starring in the 2006 comedy film Art School Confidential. Also in 2006, she appeared as Lucy Westenra in a BBC adaptation of Dracula.

In 2007, Myles was cast as Beth Turner in the popular CBS supernatural television drama Moonlight, a role she would play until the show's end in 2008. Moonlight won Best New Drama in the 2007 People's Choice Awards. Myles was nominated for the Best Actress Award in 2007 for her role as Kate in Hallam Foe from the British Independent Film Award committee,[6] for which she also received a BAFTA Scotland Award. In 2008, she played Freya, the daughter of John Hurt's character, in the sci-fi action epic Outlander with Jim Caviezel and Ron Perlman.[7]

After having a cameo role in the American comedy film Etienne! in 2009, in 2010 Myles joined the cast of Spooks, a BBC television series about a counter-terrorism unit in MI5, for its ninth series, playing Beth Bailey.[8] Myles then had a starring role as Lauren in the 2013 American horror film The Damned with Peter Facinelli and Nathalia Ramos. In 2014, Myles starred as geologist Darcy Tirrel opposite Mark Wahlberg and Stanley Tucci in the Michael Bay-directed blockbuster Transformers: Age of Extinction.[9]

Later in 2014, Myles starred as Rachel in the psychological horror film Blackwood before going on to have roles as Dr. Anna Clarke in the international action-thriller Crossing Lines and the aristocratic Lady Katherine Longmore in the miniseries Our Zoo. In 2018, Myles provided her voice for an episode of the sci-fi series Firestorm.

Myles currently plays Rebecca Bishop in the fantasy-romance television series A Discovery of Witches; the first season was released in 2018 and the second in 2021 with a third series already filmed and awaiting release. After roles in the films Two Words (2018) and November 1st (2019), for which she won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively, Myles played Ann Payne, a secret agent, in the 2020 Portuguese film Listen which was selected as the Portuguese entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards.[10] However, in December 2020 the film was disqualified, as more than half of its dialogue was in English.[11] Also in 2020, Myles reprised her role as Madame de Pompadour for a minisode sequel specially written for her by Steven Moffat that aired on YouTube on 6 May 2020.[12]

Myles is set to star as Beth Barnes in the comedy-heist film Decrypted about the kidnap the creator of Bitcoin, alongside Amanda Abbington and Kevin McNally. The film is due for release in the summer of 2021.

Personal life

From 2004 to 2005, Myles was in a relationship with actor Charles Dance[13] and has also dated Damian Lewis[14] and musician Paul Wilson from the band Snow Patrol.

Myles began dating David Tennant after filming an episode of Doctor Who.[15] In October 2007, it was reported they were no longer together.[16]

Myles is reportedly good friends with fellow celebrities Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Sienna Miller, Anna Friel, Rufus Sewell and Dawn French.[17]

In September 2010, it was announced that Myles had become engaged to Brent Thomas Funston, a Texan entrepreneur, although they have since split up.[4]

In September 2014, Myles gave birth to a son with her partner James Bell.[18][19]

Her father, Peter Myles, died on 21 March 2020 after contracting COVID-19.[20]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Mansfield Park	Susan Price
	Guest House Paradiso	Saucy Wood Nymph
2001	From Hell	Victoria Abberline
2002	The Abduction Club	Anne Kennedy
2003	Underworld	Erika
	Out of Bounds	Louise Thompson
2004	Thunderbirds	Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward
2006	Tristan & Isolde	Isolde
	Underworld: Evolution	Erika
	Art School Confidential	Audrey
	Dracula	Lucy Westenra
2007	Hallam Foe	Kate Breck
2008	Outlander	Freya
2009	Etienne!	Sophia Myles
2012	A Sunny Morning	Grace
2013	The Damned	Lauren
2014	Transformers: Age of Extinction	Darcy Tirrel[21]
	Blackwood	Rachel Marshall
2018	Two Words	Victoria
2019	November 1st	Caroline
2020	Listen	Ann Payne
2021	All That Glitters	Margaret	Post-production
	Decrypted	Beth Barnes
TBA	Disarm	Megan Granger

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	The Prince and the Pauper	Lady Jane Grey	4 episodes
1998	Big Women	Saffron	Episode: "Saffron's Search"
1999	Oliver Twist	Agnes Fleming	Miniseries
2001	The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby	Kate Nickleby	Television film
2001	Heartbeat	Heather Conway	Episode: "No Hiding Place"
2002	Foyle's War	Susan Gascoigne	Episode: "A Lesson in Murder"
2003	Coming Up	Nina	1 episode
2005	Colditz	Lizzie Carter	Television film
2006	Agatha Christie's Marple	Gwenda Halliday	Episode: "Sleeping Murder"
2006	Covert One: The Hades Factor	Sophie Amsden	Television film
2006;2020	Doctor Who	Madame de Pompadour	Episode: "The Girl in the Fireplace"; Webcast Episode: "Pompadour"[12]
2006	Extras	Defence Lawyer	Episode: "Orlando Bloom"
2007	Moonlight	Beth Turner	16 episodes
2010	Spooks	Beth Bailey	8 episodes
2014	Crossing Lines	Dr. Anna Clarke	2 episodes
2014	Our Zoo	Lady Katherine Longmore	All 6 episodes
2014	Panorama	Narrator	Episode: "Last Chance Academy"
2018-2021	A Discovery of Witches	Rebecca Bishop	6 episodes
2018	Firestorm	Laura Hope/Operative 19	Voice

Music videos

Year	Artist	Song
2002	Bush	"Inflatable"
2003	Ronan Keating	"Love Won't Work (If We Don't Try)"
2006	Gavin DeGraw	"We Belong Together"

References

1. Sophia says her own name at the start of the video commentary for "The Girl in the Fireplace" in the DVD collection Doctor Who: The Complete Second Series.
2. Sheffield, Emily (8 August 2003). "Myles ahead; Sophia Myles beat Sophie Dahl and Rosamund Pike to the coveted role of Lady Penelope in next year's 'Thunderbirds'. Now she's about to star in Hollywood's vampire tale 'Underworld'. Not bad for a vicar's daughter from Isleworth, says Emily Sheffield". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 8 February 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2012 – via Questia Online Library.
3. Husband, Stuart (5 August 2007). "Curtain call for Miss Myles". Guardian Unlimited. Archived from the original on 15 October 2007. Retrieved 5 August 2007.
4. Hoggard, Liz (20 September 2010). "From wronged maiden to kickass spy: Spooks star Sophia Myles". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 3 March 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
5. "2006 Final Nebula Award Ballot". sfwa.org. Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. Archived from the original on 22 March 2007. Retrieved 12 April 2007.; "2007 Hugo Awards". thehugoawards.org. World Science Fiction Society. 1 September 2007. Archived from the original on 11 July 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2007.
6. "Nominations 2007: BIFA". Bifa.org.uk. British Independent Film Awards. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
7. "Moviefone | Movies | Movie Times | Movie Trailers | Movie News". Movies.aol.com. 13 November 2016. Archived from the original on 15 December 2018. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
8. "Press Office – Network TV Programme Information BBC Week 38 Spooks Feature". BBC. 29 October 2014. Archived from the original on 6 January 2018. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
9. Sneider, Jeff. "Sophia Myles to Join Mark Wahlberg in Michael Bay's 'Transformers 4' (Exclusive)". Thewrap.com. Archived from the original on 9 October 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
10. "The film that will represent Portugal in the Oscar race is already chosen". re Jerusalem. 16 November 2020. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
11. "North American Academy vetoes "Listen" as Portuguese candidate for Oscars – Observer". Time24. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
12. Moffatt, Steven (2020). Pompadour. Archived from the original on 8 February 2021. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
13. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 November 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2020.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
14. "Red hot: The irresistible rise of Damian Lewis". The Independent. 9 September 2006. Archived from the original on 16 June 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
15. "David Tennant & Sophia Myles". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
16. "David Tennant splits from girlfriend Sophia Myles". Hello!. 8 October 2007. Archived from the original on 19 March 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
17. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 January 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2021.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
18. "Sophia gives birth to baby boy!". Simply Sophia Myles. 27 September 2014. Archived from the original on 8 June 2016. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
19. "Sophia Myles on Twitter: "He melts my heart and lights up my life."". Twitter. Archived from the original on 8 February 2021. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
20. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 23 March 2020. Retrieved 23 March 2020.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
21. "Transformers: Age of Extinction Interview with Stanley Tucci". Collider.com. 17 June 2014. Archived from the original on 24 July 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2014.

External links

• Sophia Myles at IMDb