Lara Pulver

Lara Pulver (born 1 September 1980) is an English actress. She has played Erin Watts in the British BBC spy drama Spooks, and Irene Adler on BBC's TV adaptation Sherlock. She won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical in the West End's revival of the hit Broadway musical Gypsy.
==Early life==
Pulver was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Her father is from a Jewish family and her mother converted to Judaism. Her parents separated when she was eleven. Pulver attended the National Youth Music Theatre between 1994 and 1998, as well as The Liz Burville Dance Centre, Bexley. In 1997, she began studying at the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts, and graduated in 2000. She has since worked as an actress, singer and dancer in West End musicals.
==Career==
Pulver was nominated for the 2008 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the role of Lucille Frank in the first West End production of the musical Parade at the Donmar Warehouse. She reprised the role in the Los Angeles production at the Mark Taper Forum opposite T.R. Knight.
In 2008, Pulver recorded a song for the CD Act One – Songs from the Musicals of Alexander S. Bermange. Pulver joined the cast of the BBC's Robin Hood in 2009 as Isabella, the sister of Guy of Gisbourne.
In 2010, Pulver joined the cast of the third series of HBO's True Blood as Sookie Stackhouse's fairy godmother, Claudine Crane.
Pulver played Erin Watts, the new chief of Section D, in the tenth and final series of BBC spy drama Spooks, a role she reprised in the 2015 feature film Spooks: The Greater Good
Pulver played Irene Adler in "A Scandal in Belgravia", the first episode of the second series of Sherlock.
In 2012 she joined the cast of Da Vinci's Demons as the "seductive and minded" Clarice Orsini, a series regular and wife of Lorenzo Medici.
In 2014, she played Louise in a revival of Gypsy at the Chichester Festival Theatre. The production transferred to the West End in April 2015. Miss Pulver won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for the same role in the Savoy Theatre production of Gypsy. Louise is actually the title role, as "Louise" becomes the real-life early 20th century American strip-tease sensation Gypsy Rose Lee, on whose memoirs the musical is based. Pulver's co-star in the Savoy production, Imelda Staunton, won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as the larger-than-life Mama Rose.
==Personal life==
In 2003, Pulver met American actor Josh Dallas while he was in the UK studying at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. They married over Christmas 2007 in a 16th-century barn in Devon. The couple honeymooned in the Maldives. Dallas confirmed their divorce in an interview on Bob Rivers' radio show on 2 December 2011.
Pulver began dating actor Raza Jaffrey in 2012 and the two were married on 27 December 2014. The couple had a child in 2017.
==Filmography==
Year 	Film 	Role 	Notes
2009 	Robin Hood 	Isabella 	TV series (8 episodes in Series 3)
2010 	Legacy 	Diane Shaw 	
2010 	The Special Relationship 	Intern 	TV movie
2010 	True Blood 	Claudine Crane 	TV series (5 episodes)
2011 	Spooks 	Erin Watts 	TV series (main cast in Series 10)
2011 	Language of a Broken Heart 	Violet 	
2012, 2014	Sherlock 	Irene Adler 	"A Scandal in Belgravia" and "The Sign of Three"
2012 	Coming Up 	Annette 	"Camouflage"
2013–2015 	Da Vinci's Demons 	Clarice Orsini 	TV series; main character
2013 	Skins: Fire 	Victoria 	TV series; minor role
2014 	Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond	Ann O'Neill 	TV series (4 episodes); Main character
2014 	Edge of Tomorrow 	Karen Lord 	Non-speaking cameo
2014 	Game of Thrones 	Lady Elissa Forrester	Video game
2015 	Spooks: The Greater Good 	Erin Watts 	Reprising her role from the series
2015 	A Patch of Fog 	Lucy 	
2016 	Underworld: Blood Wars 	Semira 	
2016–2017 	Quantico 	Charlotte Bishop 	Episodes: "ODENVY" and "EPICSHELTER"
2017 	Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams 	Paula 	Episode: "Real Life"
2018 	The City and the City 	Katrynia 	TV series
==Stage credits==
*Parade (Lucille Frank), Donmar Warehouse, nominated for Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical and Whatsonstage.com Awards
*Into the Woods (Lucinda), Royal Opera House
*The Last Five Years (Cathy), Menier Chocolate Factory
*Honk! (Henrietta), Royal National Theatre (Best New Musical, Laurence Olivier Awards 2000) and national tour
*Miss Saigon (Ellen)
*High Society
*A Chorus Line
*The Darling Buds of May
*The Boy Friend
*Gypsy (Louise)
*Chicago
*Grease
*42nd Street
*The Wizard of Oz
*(Adverts) Smirnoff Vodka Range – Hatter's Summer Night Dream with Smirnoff
*Uncle Vanya
==Awards and nominations==
Year	Award 	Title 	Result
2008	Laurence Olivier Award – Best Actress in a Musical 	Parade 	
2012	Critics' Choice Television Award – Best Movie/Miniseries Actress 	Sherlock – "A Scandal in Belgravia"	
2016	Laurence Olivier Award – Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical	Gypsy 	
==References==
Category:1980 births
Category:Living people
Category:English Jews
Category:English people of Jewish descent
Category:English stage actresses
Category:English television actresses
Category:Jewish English actresses
Category:People from Southend-on-Sea
Category:Alumni of Bird College
Category:Actresses from Essex
Category:21st-century English actresses
Category:Disney people
Category:Don Bluth people
Category:Thames Television peopleCategory:Pages stolen off Wikipedia