# Raquel Cassidy

Raquel Cassidy is an English actress. She played the role of Phyllis Baxter in the television series Downton Abbey (2013–2015), winning a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. She has reprised the role for both the 2019 feature film of the same name and its 2022 sequel.
She has played leading roles in other television series including Teachers, Party Animals, Moving Wallpaper, Lead Balloon, The Worst Witch and The Good Karma Hospital.

## Early life and education

Born to a Spanish mother and an English father, she was the third child and only daughter born to the couple. Born and brought up in Fleet, Hampshire, she was educated at Farnborough Hill Convent, and then Girton College, Cambridge, where she studied modern languages. She later pursued a PhD in biological anthropology, but abandoned it to pursue a career in acting.

## Career

In an early role, Cassidy played Lola Chaves in an episode of The Bill, speaking predominantly in Spanish. In 2001 she took the role of Susan Gately in Teachers, returning for the second series in 2002. She has also played the Home Office Junior Minister Jo Porter in Party Animals, Cassie Turner in The Worst Week of My Life, Nancy Weeks in Moving Wallpaper and Mel in Lead Balloon.
In 2013 Cassidy joined the cast of Downton Abbey, playing the role of rehabilitated thief and lady's maid Phyllis Baxter for the show's final three series. In 2015 the cast won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. She reprised the role for the show's 2019 feature film, also called Downton Abbey and its 2022 sequel.
She has subsequently played the role of Miss Hardbroom in four series of the 2017 television revival of The Worst Witch. In 2022, she appeared in series 4 of The Good Karma Hospital as Frankie Martin. In 2023, she played Maria Swanson in an episode of British crime drama series The Chelsea Detective.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
| 1999 | Perdie | Miss Jennings | Short |
| 2002 | Shooters | Tess | |
| 2002 | Do I Love You | Romy | |
| 2002 | Before You Go | Felicia | |
| 2004 | Out of Time | Alice | Short |
| 2005 | Blake's Junction 7 | Jenna | Short |
| 2005 | Festival | Petra Loewenberg | |
| 2007 | The Boat People | Alice | |
| 2007 | Tick Tock Lullaby | Maya | |
| 2008 | Nightwalking | Martha | Short |
| 2010 | An Act of Love | Catherine | Short |
| 2010 | Bleach | Rebecca | Short |
| 2012 | Routine Vaccination | Nurse | Short |
| 2013 | Wisdom | Emily Eximo | Short |
| 2013 | To Leech | Mary | Short |
| 2014 | The Ballad of Langley Lane | Mother | Short |
| 2016 | The Twisted Death of a Lonely Madman | Mystic-57 | Voice role |
| 2016 | Two Is a Family | Maitresse Gloria | |
| 2019 | Cliffs of Freedom | Christina Vakrinos | |
| 2019 | Downton Abbey | Phyllis Baxter | |
| 2019 | Official Secrets | Anne Emmerson | |
| 2022 | Downton Abbey: A New Era | Phyllis Baxter | |
| 2023 | Ferryman | Mother | |
| 2025 | Untitled Downton Abbey: A New Era sequel | Phyllis Baxter | Post-production |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1998 | Killer Net | P.C. Pam Boxer | 2 episodes |
| 1999 | The Bill | Lola Chaves | Episode: "Lola" |
| 1999 | Peak Practice | Cheryl Parker | Episode: "Hearts and Minds" |
| 2000 | Nature Boy | Ros | 1 episode |
| 2000 | Hearts and Bones | Mary Jones | Episode: "Once There Was a Way to Get Back Home" |
| 2000 | Thin Ice | DS Beckett | TV film |
| 2001 | Table 12 | Yolanda | Episode: "Aphrodisiac" |
| 2001–2002 | Teachers | Susan Gately | Series regular |
| 2003 | Trust | Elizabeth Blackwood | 1 episode |
| 2003 | Red Cap | Staff Sergeant Neve Kirland | Recurring role |
| 2003 | Holby City | Julie Redding | Episode: "Desperate Measures" |
| 2003 | Trevor's World of Sport | Caroline Bradley | Recurring role |
| 2004 | The Worst Week of My Life | Cassie Turner | Series regular |
| 2005 | According to Bex | Chris | Series regular |
| 2005 | Last Rights | Nadine | Mini-series |
| 2005 | Twisted Tales | Lynne | 1 episode |
| 2006 | Comedy Lab | Jane | Episode: "FM" |
| 2006–2011 | Lead Balloon | Mel | Series regular |
| 2007 | Party Animals | Jo Porter | Series regular |
| 2007 | Sold | Yvette Daniels | 1 episode |
| Britz | Joy | TV film |
| 2008 | Casualty | Monica Batchelor | Episode: "Before a Fall" |
| 2008 | No Heroics | Kim the Agent | Episode: "Monkey Gone to Heaven" |
| 2008 | Agatha Christie's Poirot | Maureen Summerhayes | Episode: "Mrs McGinty's Dead" |
| 2008–2009 | Moving Wallpaper | Nancy Weeks | Series regular |
| 2009 | New Tricks | Susannah Morton | Episode: "The Truth Is Out There" |
| 2010 | On Expenses | House of Commons Counsel | TV film |
| 2011 | Land Girls | Diana Granville | Recurring role |
| 2011 | Doctor Who | Cleaves | 2 episodes |
| 2011 | DCI Banks | Dr. Elizabeth Waring | Episode: "Friend of the Devil" |
| 2012 | Midsomer Murders | Diana DeQuetteville | Episode: "The Dark Rider" |
| 2012 | Hustle | Dr. Dana Deville | Episode: "Eat Yourself Slender" |
| 2012 | A Touch of Cloth | Clare Hawkchurch | Episode: "The First Case" |
| 2013 | The Other Child [de] | DI Valerie Almond | TV series |
| 2013 | Jo | Pauline Langlois | Episode: "Notre Dame" |
| 2013 | Heading Out | Sabine | 1 episode |
| 2013 | Law & Order: UK | Lydia Smythson | Episode: "Dependent" |
| 2013–2015 | Downton Abbey | Phyllis Baxter | Series regular |
| 2014 | Jonathan Creek | Sharon | Episode: "The Letters of Septimus Noone" |
| 2015 | Vera | Gloria Edwards | Episode: "Shadows in the Sky" |
| 2015–2017 | Uncle | Teresa | Series regular |
| 2016 | Mid Morning Matters with Alan Partridge | Hayley | Episode: "Grundy + Snow" |
| 2017 | Silent Witness | Dr. Eva Vasquez | Episode: "Awakening" |
| 2017 | W1A | Tasmin Howard | 1 episode |
| 2017–2020 | The Worst Witch | Miss Hardbroom | Series regular |
| 2018 | Strangers | Rachel Hargreaves | Series regular |
| 2022 | The Good Karma Hospital | Frankie Martin | Series 4 |
| 2022 | Safe Space | Lucy Leer | Episode: "Episode 1.0" |
| 2023 | The Chelsea Detective | Maria Swanson | Episode: "Golden Years" |

### Selected radio

| Year | Programme | Role |
| 2008 | Spending My Inheritance | Jo |
| 2015 | Ed Reardon's Week | Suzan |

### Theatre

| Year | Play | Role | Theatre |
| 1997 | Twelfth Night | Viola | Royal Court Theatre |
| 1998 | Othello | Desdemona | National tour |
| 1998 | Threesome | Ruth | Old Red Lion Theatre |
| 2002 | Possible Worlds | Joyce | Tron Theatre |
| 2004 | Macbeth | Lady Macbeth | International tour |
| 2005 | Anna Karenina | Anna Arkadyevna Karenina | Royal Lyceum Theatre |
| 2006 | Mirandolina | Mirandolina | Royal Exchange Theatre |
| 2019 | Shipwreck | Jools/Donald J. Trump's Secretary | Almeida Theatre |