# Juliet Stevenson

Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson, CBE (born 30 October 1956) is an English actress of stage and screen. She is known for her role in the film Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991), for which she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Her other film appearances include Emma (1996), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Mona Lisa Smile (2003), Being Julia (2004), Infamous (2006), The Enfield Haunting (2015), Wolf (2023), and Reawakening (2024).
In theatre, she has starred in numerous Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre productions, including Olivier Award nominated roles in Measure for Measure (1984), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1986), and Yerma (1987). For her role as Paulina in Death and the Maiden (1991–92), she won the 1992 Olivier Award for Best Actress. Her fifth Olivier nomination was for her work in the 2009 revival of Duet for One. She has also received three nominations for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress: for A Doll's House (1992), The Politician's Wife (1995) and Accused (2010). Other stage roles include The Heretic (2011) and Happy Days (2014).

## Early life

Stevenson was born in Kelvedon, Essex, England, the daughter of Virginia Ruth (née Marshall), a teacher, and Michael Guy Stevenson, an army officer. Stevenson's father was assigned a new posting every two and a half years. When Stevenson was nine, she attended Berkshire's Hurst Lodge School in Ascot, and she was later educated at the independent St Catherine's School in Bramley, near Guildford, Surrey, and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Stevenson was part of the 'new wave' of actors to emerge from the Academy. Others included Jonathan Pryce, Bruce Payne, Alan Rickman, Anton Lesser, Kenneth Branagh, Imelda Staunton and Fiona Shaw. She started her stage career in 1978 with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

## Career

Although she has gained fame through her television and film work and has often undertaken roles for BBC Radio, she is known as a stage actress. Significant stage roles include her performances as Isabella in Measure for Measure, Madame de Tourvel in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Anna in the UK premiere of Burn This in 1990 and Paulina in Death and the Maiden at the Royal Court theatre and the West End (1991–92). For the last she was awarded the 1992 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress.
In the 1987 TV film Life Story, Stevenson played the part of scientist Rosalind Franklin, for which she won a Cable Ace award. She played the leading role in the Anthony Minghella film Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991) and her roles in The Secret Rapture (1993), Emma (1996), Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Mona Lisa Smile (2003). She has more recently starred in Pierrepoint (2006), Infamous (2006) as Diana Vreeland and Breaking and Entering (2006) as Rosemary, the therapist. In 2003, she played the mother of an autistic child in the television film Hear the Silence, a film promoting the now debunked claims of Andrew Wakefield that the MMR vaccine was responsible for autism in children. The film makers and Stevenson were criticised as Wakefield's professionalism was already seriously in doubt.
In 2009, she starred in ITV's A Place of Execution. The role won her the Best Actress Dagger at the 2009 Crime Thriller Awards. She performs as a book reader, and has recorded all of Jane Austen's novels as unabridged audiobooks, as well as a number of other novels, such as Lady Windermere's Fan, Hedda Gabler, Stories from Shakespeare, and To the Lighthouse. She received lifetime achievement prize at Women in Film And TV awards.
In 2024, she played Mary, the mother of a returning missing child in the British psychological thriller film Reawakening, alongside Erin Doherty and Jared Harris.

## Personal life

Stevenson married her long-time partner, British anthropologist Hugh Brody, in 2021. They have a daughter and a son and live in Suffolk, but she also has an apartment in New York.
She is an atheist but considers herself a spiritual and superstitious person.
In 1992 she appeared in a political broadcast for the Labour Party.
In 2008 she campaigned on behalf of refugee women with a reading of "Motherland" at the Young Vic. She is patron of the UK registered charity LAM Action, which provides support, information and encouragement to patients with Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) and their families, and raises funds to advance research into LAM. Stevenson is an Amnesty Ambassador. She is patron of two charities: Young Roots, a charity for young refugees; and Antenatal Results and Choices, which supports parents who have had a diagnosis of fetal anomaly.
On 12 September 2016, Stevenson, as well as Cate Blanchett, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Peter Capaldi, Douglas Booth, Neil Gaiman, Keira Knightley, Jesse Eisenberg, Kit Harington and Stanley Tucci, featured in a video from the United Nations' refugee agency UNHCR to help raise awareness of the global refugee crisis. The video, titled "What They Took With Them", has the actors reading a poem written by Jenifer Toksvig and inspired by primary accounts of refugees, and is part of UNHCR's #WithRefugees campaign, which also includes a petition to governments to expand asylum to provide further shelter, integrating job opportunities and education.
Stevenson's friends and frequent collaborators include director Robert Icke, comedian and feminist broadcaster Deborah Frances-White, poet Aviva Dautch and concert pianist Lucy Parham.
Stevenson is also a painter and has talked about how her art has helped her through difficult moments such as the COVID-19 lockdown and the death of her stepson.
Stevenson regularly attends protests in support of the people of Palestine. On 30th November 2024 she spoke at the National March for Palestine in London, highlighting the difference in the way the plight of the Palestinian people is portrayed in comparison to other people, and saying: As artists we cannot remain silent in the face of such gross violations. Violations of human rights and of international law. Violations of the truth and of every human instinct.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1988 | Drowning by Numbers | Cissie Colpitts 2 | |
| 1990 | Ladder of Swords | Alice Howard | |
| 1990 | The March | Clare Fitzgerald | |
| 1990 | Truly, Madly, Deeply | Nina | |
| 1993 | The Trial | Fräulein Bürstner | |
| 1993 | The Secret Rapture | Isobel Coleridge | |
| 1996 | Emma | Augusta Hawkins Elton | |
| 1997 | Treasure Island | Jane (voice) | Video |
| 2001 | Play | Second Woman | Short film |
| 2001 | Christmas Carol: The Movie | Mrs. Cratchit / Mother Gimlet (voice) | |
| 2001 | The Search for John Gissing | Gwenyth Moore | |
| 2002 | Food of Love | Pamela Porterfield | |
| 2002 | Bend It Like Beckham | Paula Paxton | |
| 2002 | Nicholas Nickleby | Mrs. Squeers | |
| 2003 | Mona Lisa Smile | Amanda Armstrong | |
| 2004 | Being Julia | Evie | |
| 2005 | Red Mercury | Sofia Warburton | |
| 2005 | Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman | Anne Fletcher | |
| 2006 | Infamous | Diana Vreeland | |
| 2006 | In Search of Mozart | Narrator | |
| 2006 | Breaking and Entering | Rosemary McCloud | |
| 2007 | And When Did You Last See Your Father? | Kim Morrison | |
| 2008 | A Previous Engagement | Julia Reynolds | |
| 2008 | The Secret of Moonacre | Miss Heliotrope | |
| 2009 | Quietus | Jayne | Short film |
| 2009 | In Search of Beethoven | Narrator | |
| 2009 | Desert Flower | Lucinda | |
| 2009 | Triage | Amy | |
| 2012 | In Search of Haydn | Narrator | |
| 2013 | Penelope | Penny | Short film |
| 2013 | Diana | Sonia | |
| 2014 | The Letters | Mother Teresa | |
| 2014 | In Search of Chopin | Narrator | |
| 2014 | The Portrait | Laura Burrell | Short film |
| 2015 | Departure | Beatrice | |
| 2016 | Let Me Go | Helga | Post-production |
| 2016 | Love Is Thicker Than Water | Ethel | |
| 2018 | London Unplugged | Jayne | |
| 2019 | Four | The Dowager | Short film |
| 2022 | Walls Like Windows | Maggie | Short film |
| 2022 | Ceres | Ceres | Short film |
| 2024 | Reawakening | Mary | |
| TBA | Switzerland | | Filming |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1980 | The Mallens | Barbara Mallen | 6 episodes |
| 1981 | Maybury | Joanna Langston | "A Fall from Grace", "What I Mean Is...", "Ten Green Bottles" |
| 1983 | Bazaar and Rummage | Fliss | TV film |
| 1984 | Crown Court | Catherine Lloyd | "Dirty Washing: Part 1" |
| 1984 | Freud | Elizabeth von Reitberg | "The Secret of Dreams" |
| 1984 | Pericles, Prince of Tyre | Thaisa | TV film |
| 1986 | The Theban Plays by Sophocles | Antigone | "Oedipus at Colonus", "Antigone" |
| 1987 | Life Story | Rosalind Franklin | |
| 1988 | Screenplay | Ruth | "Out of Love" |
| 1988 | Screen Two | Hilda Carline | "Stanley Spencer" |
| 1988 | This is David Lander | Penny Foster | "The Nicholson Story" |
| 1989 | Living with Dinosaurs | Vicky | TV film |
| 1990 | The Jim Henson Hour | Vicky | "Living with Dinosaurs" |
| 1991 | 4 Play | Margaret | "In the Border Country" |
| 1991 | Screen Two | Lucy | "Aimée" |
| 1992 | Performance | Nora Helmer | "A Doll's House" |
| 1993 | The World of Eric Carle | Narrator (voice) | TV series short |
| 1993 | The Legends of Treasure Island | Jane (voice) | Main role |
| 1993 | Who Dealt? | Tom's Wife | Short story in the form of a monologue by Ring Lardner. |
| 1994 | Verdi | Giuseppina Strepponi (voice) | TV film |
| 1995 | The Politician's Wife | Flora Matlock | All 3 episodes |
| 1997 | Screen Two | Jean | "Stone, Scissors, Paper" |
| 1998 | Cider with Rosie | Annie Lee | TV film |
| 1999 | Trial by Fire | Helen West | TV film |
| 2002 | The Road from Coorain | Eve | TV film |
| 2002 | The Pact | Gus Harte | TV film |
| 2003 | Hear the Silence | Christine Shields | TV film |
| 2005 | The Snow Queen | Gerda's Mother | TV film |
| 2007 | Agatha Christie's Marple | Gwenda Vaughn | "Ordeal by Innocence" |
| 2008 | 10 Days to War | Elizabeth Wilmshurst | "A Simple Private Matter" |
| 2008 | Place of Execution | Catherine Heathcote | TV miniseries |
| 2008 | Dustbin Baby | Marion | TV film |
| 2010 | Law & Order: UK | Rachel Callaghan | "Denial" |
| 2010 | Accused | Helen Ryland | "Helen's Story" |
| 2011 | Lewis | Diana Ellerby | "Old, Unhappy, Far Off Things" |
| 2011 | The Hour | Lady Elms | Recurring role |
| 2012 | White Heat | Charlotte | TV miniseries |
| 2013–14 | The Village | Clem Allingham | Main role |
| 2013–15 | Atlantis | The Oracle | Main role |
| 2014 | On Angel Wings | Mary | TV short |
| 2015 | X Company | Mayor Marie Bellaire | "Walk with the Devil" |
| 2015 | The Enfield Haunting | Betty Grosse | TV miniseries |
| 2015 | Artsnight | Contributor | "Richard Wilson on Samuel Beckett" |
| 2016 | One of Us | Louise Elliot | TV miniseries |
| 2017 | 1066: A Year to Conquer England | Narrator | Docudrama |
| 2019 | Riviera | Lady Cassandra Eltham | TV series |
| 2019 | Queens of Mystery | Narrator | TV series |
| 2021 | The Long Call | Dorothy Venn | Main role |
| 2021 | Death in Paradise | Natasha Carlton | Christmas Show |
| 2022 | The Man Who Fell to Earth | Sister Mary Lou | 1 episode |
| 2022 | Professor T. | Dr Helena Goldberg | Series 2; recurring role |
| 2023 | Secret Invasion | Elizabeth Hill | Episode: "Promises" |
| 2023 | Wolf | Matilda Anchor-Ferrers | 6 episodes |
| TBA | King and Conqueror | Lady Emma | In production |

## Theatre

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1978 | The Tempest | Spirit | Royal Shakespeare Company |
| 1978 | Antony and Cleopatra | Iras / Octavia | Royal Shakespeare Company |
| 1978 | Measure for Measure | Whore / Nun | Royal Shakespeare Company |
| 1978 | The Churchill Play | Caroline Thompson | |
| 1978 | Hippolytus | Aphrodite / Artemis | |
| 1978 | Lovers and Kings | | |
| 1978 | The Taming of the Shrew | Widow / Curtis | |
| 1978 | The White Guard | Yeliena | |
| 1978 | Once in a Lifetime | Miss Chasen | |
| 1980 | Henry IV | Lady Percy | Royal Shakespeare Company |
| 1981 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | Hippolyta / Titania | |
| 1981 | The Witch of Edmonton | Susan | Royal Shakespeare Company |
| 1981 | Money | Clara Douglas | |
| 1983 | Other Worlds | Emma / Betsy | Royal Court Theatre, London |
| 1984 | Measure for Measure | Isabella | Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford Theatre |
| 1984 | Breaking the Silence | Polya | Royal Shakespeare Company, The Pit Theatre, London |
| 1985 | Troilus and Cressida | Cressida | Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford Theatre |
| 1985 | As You Like It | Rosalind | Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford Theatre |
| 1986 | Les Liaisons dangereuses | Madame de Tourvel | Royal Shakespeare Company, The Pit Theatre |
| 1987 | Yerma | Yerma | National Theatre, London |
| 1988–90 | The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus | Kyllene | Theatre of Delphi/National Theatre, London |
| 1989 | Hedda Gabler | Hedda | National Theatre, London |
| 1989 | On the Verge | Fanny | Sadler's Wells Theatre, London |
| 1990 | Burn This | Anna | Hampstead Theatre, London |
| 1991–92 | Death and the Maiden | Paulina | Theatre Upstairs, Duke of York Theatre, London |
| 1993 | Scenes from an Execution | Galactia | Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles |
| 1995 | The Duchess of Malfi | | Greenwich Theatre/Wyndham's Theatre, London |
| 1997 | The Caucasian Chalk Circle | | Royal National Theatre, London |
| 1999 | Private Lives | Amanda | The National Theatre |
| 2000 | The Country | | Royal Court Theatre |
| 2003 | A Little Night Music | Desirée Armfeldt | New York City Opera |
| 2004 | We Happy Few | | Gielgud Theatre, London |
| 2005 | The Alice Trilogy | | Royal Court Theatre |
| 2006 | The Seagull | Irina Arkadina | The National Theatre |
| 2009 | Duet for One | | London |
| 2011 | The Heretic | | Royal Court Theatre |
| 2014–15 | Happy Days | Winnie | Young Vic |
| 2016–18 | Mary Stuart | Mary Stuart/Elizabeth I | Almeida Theatre & Duke of York's Theatre |
| 2017 | Hamlet | Gertrude | Almeida Theatre & Harold Pinter Theatre |
| 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023 | The Doctor | Professor Ruth Wolff | Almeida Theatre Adelaide Festival UK Tour & Duke of York's Theatre Park Avenue Armory, New York |

## Audio recordings

A partial list of Stevenson's audio recordings:
* Man and Superman, BBC Audiobooks, 1998 (Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1996). Production featured Juliet Stevenson, Ralph Fiennes and Judi Dench. It also included an interview with the director, Peter Hall
* Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, Penguin Audiobooks, 1997
* The Plague Tales, BDD, c. 1997
* Hamlet by William Shakespeare, BBC Radio Collection, 1999 (with Michael Sheen)
* When Love Speaks (2002, EMI Classics) – "Sonnet 128" ("How oft, when thou, my music ...")
* Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (2004 BBC Radio 3)
* The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, Unabridged, Orion audiobook (2006)
* Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. Unabridged, Naxos audiobook, 7 CDs (2006)
* Persuasion by Jane Austen. Unabridged, Naxos audiobook, 7 CDs (2007)
* Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. Unabridged, Naxos audiobook, 14 CDs (2007)
* Emma by Jane Austen. Unabridged, Naxos audiobook, 13 CDs (2007)
* Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, Naxos audiobook, Unabridged (2007)
* Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Abridged, CSA Word Classic, 4 CDs (2007)
* The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
* I, Coriander by Sally Gardner,
* The King's General by Daphne du Maurier
* An Unequal Marriage by Emma Tennant
* From Shakespeare with Love by William Shakespeare. David Tennant (narrator), Juliet Stevenson (narrator), Anton Lesser (narrator), Alex Jennings (Narrator)
* Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek & My Cousin Rachel (Daphne du Maurier Collection) by Daphne du Maurier. Juliet Stevenson (narrator), Daniel Massey (narrator), Michael Maloney (narrator)
* A Room with a View by E.M. Forster
* The London Tapes by Juliet Stevenson
* Ancient and Modern by Sue Gee (2004)
* Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali, abridged (2006)
* North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell, unabridged. (2009)
* Middlemarch by George Eliot. Unabridged. Naxos Audiobooks (2011).
* Goldfish Girl by Peter Souter (2011)
* Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers (2012)
* The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (2013)
* The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing (2010)
* The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters. Unabridged (2014)
* Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty, unabridged (2014)
* Belgravia by Julian Fellowes, (2016)
* A Room of One's Own by Virginia Wolf (2011)
* Miss Marple’s Final Cases by Agatha Christie (2022)
* Stevenson's speaking voice is heard in the historical symposium which opens and closes the production of The Handmaid's Tale at English National Opera in 2024.

## Honours

In the 1999 Queens Birthday Honours, Stevenson was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
She is a patron of the London International Festival of Theatre.

## Awards and nominations
### Film

| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
| 1992 | British Academy Film Award | Best Actress in a Leading Role | Truly, Madly, Deeply | Nominated |

### Television

| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result |
| 1993 | British Academy Television Award | Actress | A Doll's House | Nominated |
| 1996 | British Academy Television Award | Actress | The Politician's Wife | Nominated |
| 2011 | British Academy Television Award | Leading Actress | Accused | Nominated |
| 2019 | Primetime Emmy Award | Outstanding Narrator | Queens of Mystery (Episode: "Murder in the Dark: First Chapter") | Nominated |

### Theatre

| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result |
| 1983 | Critics' Circle Theatre Award | Best Actress | Measure for Measure | Won |
| 1984 | Laurence Olivier Award | Actress of the Year in a Revival | Measure for Measure | Nominated |
| 1986 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best Actress | As You Like It, Les Liaisons Dangereuses and Troilus and Cressida | Nominated |
| 1987 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best Actress | Yerma | Nominated |
| 1992 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best Actress | Death and the Maiden | Won |
| 2009 | Evening Standard Theatre Award | Best Actress | Duet for One | Nominated |
| 2010 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best Actress | Duet for One | Nominated |
| 2019 | Evening Standard Theatre Award | Best Actress | The Doctor | Nominated |
| 2019 | Critics' Circle Theatre Award | Best Actress | The Doctor | Won |
| 2020 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best Actress | The Doctor | Nominated |