# Janet McTeer

Janet McTeer OBE (born 5 August 1961) is an English actress. She began her career training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before earning acclaim for playing diverse roles on stage and screen in both period pieces and modern dramas. She has received numerous accolades including a Tony Award, a Olivier Award, a Golden Globe Award and nominations for two Academy Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award. In 2008 she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to drama.
McTeer made her professional stage debut in 1984, and was nominated for the 1986 Olivier Award for Best Newcomer for The Grace of Mary Traverse. She received the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress, and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in A Doll's House in 1997. For her roles on Broadway, she received two other nominations for Mary Stuart in 2009 and Bernhardt/Hamlet in 2019.
McTeer has also gained acclaim for her film roles, having received two Academy Award nominations, one for Best Actress for Tumbleweeds in 1999, and the other for Best Supporting Actress for Albert Nobbs in 2011. Other roles include Wuthering Heights (1992), Carrington (1995), Velvet Goldmine (1998), Songcatcher (2000), As You Like It (2006), The Divergent Series (2015–2016), and The Menu (2022).
On television, she starred in the title role of Lynda La Plante's The Governor (1995–1996), and received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for her portrayal of Clementine Churchill in the HBO film Into the Storm (2009). She is also known for her roles in Damages (2012), The White Queen (2013), The Honourable Woman (2014), Jessica Jones (2018), Sorry for Your Loss (2018–2019), and Ozark (2018–2020).

## Early life and education

Janet McTeer was born on 5 August 1961 in Wallsend, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and spent her childhood in York.
She attended the now defunct Queen Anne Grammar School for Girls, and worked at the Old Starre Inn, at York Minster and at the city's Theatre Royal. She performed locally with the Rowntree Players at Joseph Rowntree Theatre, then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

## Career

McTeer began a successful theatrical career with the Royal Exchange Theatre after graduating from RADA.

### Early roles

McTeer's television work includes the BBC production Portrait of a Marriage, an adaptation of Nigel Nicolson's biography of the same name in which she played Vita Sackville-West, and the popular ITV series The Governor written by Lynda La Plante. She made her screen debut in Half Moon Street, a 1986 film based on a novel by Paul Theroux. In 1991, she appeared in Catherine Cookson's The Black Velvet Gown, with Bob Peck and Geraldine Somerville; this won the International Emmy award for best drama. She appeared in the 1992 film version of Wuthering Heights (co-starring Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes) and the 1995 film Carrington (which starred Emma Thompson and Jonathan Pryce) as Vanessa Bell.
In 1996, McTeer garnered critical acclaim – and both the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award – for her performance as Nora Helmer in a West End production of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House. The following year, the production transferred to Broadway, and McTeer received a Tony Award, a Theatre World Award, and the Drama Desk Award for Best Actress in a Play.
During the show's run, McTeer was interviewed by Charlie Rose on his PBS talk show, where she was seen by American filmmaker Gavin O'Connor, who, at the time, was working on a screenplay about a single mother's cross-country wanderings with her pre-teenage daughter. He was determined that she star in the film. When prospective backers balked at her relative anonymity in the US, he produced the film himself. Tumbleweeds proved to be a 1999 Sundance Film Festival favourite, and McTeer's performance won her a Golden Globe as Best Actress and Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild nominations in the same category.

### 2000s

McTeer's screen credits include Songcatcher (with Aidan Quinn), Waking the Dead (with Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly), the dogme film The King Is Alive (with Jennifer Jason Leigh), The Intended (with Brenda Fricker and Olympia Dukakis), and Tideland, written and directed by Terry Gilliam. She also starred in the BBC dramatisation of Mary Webb's Precious Bane in 1989. She has appeared in such British television serials as The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, Hunter, and Agatha Christie's Marple (episode: "The Murder at the Vicarage").
McTeer played Mary, Queen of Scots in Mary Stuart, a play by Friedrich Schiller in a new version by Peter Oswald, directed by Phyllida Lloyd. She acted opposite Harriet Walter as Queen Elizabeth I in London's West End in 2005, a role she reprised in the 2009 Broadway transfer. McTeer received a Tony Award nomination for her role in Mary Stuart, and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play.
In 2008, she starred in God of Carnage in the West End alongside Tamsin Greig, Ken Stott and Ralph Fiennes, at the Gielgud Theatre. She reprised her role on Broadway opposite Jeff Daniels from March to June 2010.
In 2009, she portrayed Clementine Churchill in the HBO feature Into the Storm about Sir Winston Churchill's years as Britain's leader during World War II.

### 2010s

In 2011, McTeer starred alongside Glenn Close in Albert Nobbs and with Daniel Radcliffe and Ciarán Hinds in The Woman in Black (based on the 1983 novel of the same name). Her role as Hubert Page in Albert Nobbs won McTeer critical acclaim and numerous award nominations, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. It was announced in November 2011 that McTeer had joined the cast of Damages (in the character of Kate Franklin) for its fifth and final season, reuniting her with her Albert Nobbs co-star Glenn Close. This was her first American television series. She played American novelist Mary McCarthy in Margarethe von Trotta's film Hannah Arendt.
In 2013 McTeer was cast as Jacquetta of Luxembourg, the mother of the title character in The White Queen, a British television drama series based on Philippa Gregory's best-selling historical novel series The Cousins' War. Her performance was applauded, with Sam Wollaston of The Guardian suggesting she stole the show. In December 2013, McTeer was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Jacquetta.
On 29 July 2013, it was announced that McTeer had joined the cast of The Honourable Woman, a BBC spy-thriller miniseries starring Maggie Gyllenhaal. In 2015, McTeer starred as Commander Kim Guziewicz in CBS comedy-drama Battle Creek, and filmed Exception based on The Kaiser's Last Kiss (in which she was due to portray Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz), set for a 2016 release.
In 2016, McTeer played Petruchio in the New York Public Theater Shakespeare in the Park all-female production of The Taming of the Shrew, directed again by Phyllida Lloyd. She co-starred alongside Liev Schreiber in Les Liaisons Dangereuses on Broadway, with McTeer cast as Marquise de Merteuil. The play ran from October 2016 to January 2017.
In 2018, she played Alisa Jones in the Marvel Television and Netflix production Jessica Jones. In September 2018, she took on the role of Sarah Bernhardt in Theresa Rebeck's Broadway play Bernhardt/Hamlet. She was nominated for the 2019 Tony Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play.
In 2018-2020 McTeer portrayed cartel attorney Helen Pierce on the Netflix crime drama Ozark.

### 2020s

In early 2023, McTeer appeared at London's National Theatre in a new play Phaedra. Director playwright Simon Stone turned the Greek myth of the woman falling in love with her stepson into a satire about London elitism and post-Brexit Britain. Despite a strong cast that included French actor Assaad Bouab, Canadian screen star Mackenzie Davis, and a superb lead performance from McTeer, the play received mixed reviews. The Evening Standard called it "A must-see show. A high-spec, richly-textured chamber extravaganza", while The Guardian wrote "Even McTeer's strong performance cannot save a tonally unsure play". McTeer garnered a Best Actress nomination at the 2023 Olivier Awards, losing to Jodie Comer for Prima Facie. She will also be starring in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, due for debut in 2025.

## Honours

McTeer was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours.

## Personal life

McTeer has been married to poet and fashion consultant Joseph Coleman since 2010. They reside in Maine.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1986 | Half Moon Street | Van Arkady's Secretary | |
| 1988 | Hawks | Hazel | |
| 1992 | Wuthering Heights | Ellen "Nelly" Dean | |
| 1995 | Carrington | Vanessa Bell | |
| 1996 | Saint-Ex | Genevieve de Ville-Franche | |
| 1998 | Velvet Goldmine | Narrator | Voice |
| 1999 | Tumbleweeds | Mary Jo Walker | |
| 2000 | Waking the Dead | Caroline Pierce | |
| 2000 | Songcatcher | Professor Lily Penleric, PhD | |
| 2000 | The King Is Alive | Liz | |
| 2002 | The Intended | Sarah Morris | |
| 2005 | Tideland | Dell | |
| 2006 | As You Like It | Audrey | |
| 2011 | Cat Run | Helen Bingham | |
| 2011 | Island | Phyllis Lovage | |
| 2011 | Albert Nobbs | Hubert Page | |
| 2012 | The Woman in Black | Mrs Daily | |
| 2012 | Hannah Arendt | Mary McCarthy | |
| 2014 | Maleficent | Elderly Princess Aurora | Voice; Narrator |
| 2015 | Angelica | Anne Montague | |
| 2015 | Insurgent | Edith Prior | |
| 2015 | Fathers and Daughters | Carolyn | |
| 2016 | Allegiant | Edith Prior | |
| 2016 | Me Before You | Camilla Traynor | |
| 2016 | National Theatre Live: Les Liaisons Dangereuses | Marquise de Merteuil | |
| 2016 | Paint It Black | Meredith | |
| 2016 | The Exception | Princess Hermine 'Hermo' Reuss of Greiz | |
| 2022 | The Menu | Lillian Bloom | |
| 2022 | Glimpse | Lucienne | |
| 2025 | Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning | TBA | Post-production |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1985 | Juliet Bravo | Esther Pearson | Episode: "Flesh and Blood" |
| 1986 | Gems | Stephanie Wilde | 2 episodes |
| 1987 | Theatre Night | Miss Julie | Episode: "Miss Julie" |
| 1988 | Les Girls | Susan | 7 episodes |
| 1989 | Precious Bane | Prue Sarn | Television film |
| 1990 | The Play on One | Dr. Juliet Horowitz | Episode: "Yellowbacks" |
| 1990 | Portrait of a Marriage | Vita Sackville-West | 4 episodes |
| 1990 | Screen Two | Celeste | Episode: "102 Boulevard Haussmann" |
| 1990–1991 | Screen One | Adult Claudie/Caroline | 2 episodes |
| 1991 | The Black Velvet Gown | Riah Millican | Television film |
| 1992 | Dead Romantic | Madeleine Severn | Television film |
| 1992 | A Masculine Ending | Loretta Lawson | Television film |
| 1993 | Don't Leave Me This Way | Loretta Lawson | Television film |
| 1994 | Jackanory | Reader | Episode: "The Iron Woman" |
| 1995–1996 | The Governor | Helen Hewitt | 12 episodes |
| 2004 | Agatha Christie's Marple | Anne Protheroe | Episode: "Agatha Christie's Marple: The Murder at the Vicarage" |
| 2006 | The Amazing Mrs Pritchard | Catherine Walker | 6 episodes |
| 2007 | Five Days | DS Amy Foster | 4 episodes |
| 2007 | Daphne | Gertrude Lawrence | Television film |
| 2008 | Sense and Sensibility | Mrs. Dashwood | 3 episodes |
| 2008 | Masterpiece Theatre | Mrs. Dashwood | Episode: "Sense and Sensibility" |
| 2009 | Hunter | DS Amy Foster | 2 episodes |
| 2009 | Into the Storm | Clementine Churchill | Television film |
| 2009 | Psychoville | Cheryl | 2 episodes |
| 2011 | Weekends at Bellevue | Diana Wallace | Television film |
| 2012 | Parade's End | Mrs. Satterthwaite | 4 episodes |
| 2012 | Damages | Kate Franklin | 9 episodes |
| 2013 | The White Queen | Jacquetta of Luxembourg | 6 episodes |
| 2014 | The Honourable Woman | Dame Julia Walsh | 8 episodes |
| 2015 | Battle Creek | Commander Kim Guziewicz | Main cast, 13 episodes |
| 2016 | Marks and Spencer | Mrs. Claus | Advert |
| 2018 | Jessica Jones | Alisa Jones | 11 episodes |
| 2018–2019 | Sorry for Your Loss | Amy Shaw | Main role; 11 episodes |
| 2018–2020 | Ozark | Helen Pierce | Recurring role (seasons 2 & 3) |
| 2020 | The President Is Missing | Carolyn Brock | Television film |
| 2023 | Julius Caesar: The Making of a Dictator | Narrator | Miniseries |
| 2024 | Kaos | Hera | Main Cast; 8 episodes |
| 2024 | The Old Man | Marion | Recurring role (season 2) |

### Theatre

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1996 | A Doll's House | Nora Helmer | Playhouse Theatre, London |
| 1997 | A Doll's House | Nora Helmer | Belasco Theatre, Broadway |
| 2009 | God of Carnage | Veronica (replacement) | Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, Broadway |
| 2009 | Mary Stuart | Mary Stuart | Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway |
| 2016 | Les Liaisons Dangereuses | La Marquise de Merteuil | Booth Theatre, Broadway |
| 2018 | Bernhardt / Hamlet | Sarah Bernhardt | American Airlines Theatre, Broadway |
| 2023 | Phaedra | Helen | National Theatre, London |

### Video games

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1998 | Populous: The Beginning | Additional voices (voice) | |

## Accolades
### Film

| Year | Award | Work | Result |
| 1999 | Academy Award for Best Actress | Tumbleweeds | Nominated |
| 1999 | Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy | Tumbleweeds | Won |
| 1999 | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role | Tumbleweeds | Nominated |
| 1999 | Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead | Tumbleweeds | Nominated |
| 1999 | National Board of Review Award for Best Actress | Tumbleweeds | Won |
| 1999 | Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy | Tumbleweeds | Won |
| 1999 | Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress | Tumbleweeds | Nominated |
| 1999 | Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actress | Tumbleweeds | Nominated |
| 1999 | London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year | Tumbleweeds | Nominated |
| 1999 | New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress | Tumbleweeds | Nominated |
| 1999 | Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress | Tumbleweeds | Nominated |
| 2000 | Sundance Film Festival – Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Ensemble Performance | Songcatcher | Won |
| 2009 | Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie | Into the Storm | Nominated |
| 2009 | Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film | Into the Storm | Nominated |
| 2009 | Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film | Into the Storm | Nominated |
| 2011 | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress | Albert Nobbs | Nominated |
| 2011 | Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture | Albert Nobbs | Nominated |
| 2011 | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Actress in a Supporting Role | Albert Nobbs | Nominated |
| 2011 | Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female | Albert Nobbs | Nominated |
| 2011 | Denver Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress | Albert Nobbs | Nominated |
| 2011 | Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress | Albert Nobbs | Nominated |
| 2011 | Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress | Albert Nobbs | Nominated |
| 2011 | Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress | Albert Nobbs | Nominated |
| 2011 | Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture | Albert Nobbs | Nominated |
| 2013 | Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Series, Miniseries or Television Film | The White Queen | Nominated |

### Theatre

| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result |
| 1986 | Olivier Award | Most Promising Newcomer of the Year in Theatre | The Grace of Mary Traverse | Nominated |
| 1992 | Olivier Award | Actress of the Year | Uncle Vanya | Nominated |
| 1997 | Critics Circle Award | Best Actress | A Doll's House | Won |
| 1997 | Drama Desk Award | Outstanding Actress in a Play | A Doll's House | Won |
| 1997 | Olivier Award | Best Actress | A Doll's House | Won |
| 1997 | Tony Award | Best Actress in a Play | A Doll's House | Won |
| 2006 | Olivier Award | Best Actress | Mary Stuart | Nominated |
| 2009 | Tony Award | Best Actress in a Play | Mary Stuart | Nominated |
| 2016 | Olivier Award | Best Actress | Les Liaisons Dangereuses | Nominated |
| 2019 | Tony Award | Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play | Bernhardt/Hamlet | Nominated |
| 2023 | Olivier Award | Best Actress | Phaedra | Nominated |