Alexandra Boyd is a British actress, director, screenwriter and producer. Her acting credits include Clarissa Mason in Coronation Street and Sarah Olmsted in Mr Holland's Opus. In recent years she has turned to screenwriting and film directing. She wrote and directed her debut feature Widow's Walk which debuted on Amazon Prime in December 2019.
On British TV she has appeared in several episodes of Doctors and guest starred in New Tricks and "Holby City". She's been a guest on Loose Women and is the Head of the Delegation in the 2010 John Travolta/Luc Besson action film From Paris with Love . Other film credits include Mr. Holland's Opus and James Cameron's Titanic . She wrote and directed her second film Boxer on the Wilderness ~ a trailer for her feature screenplay (The Wilderness).
Alexandra Boyd was born to a Scottish father, David Boyd, [1] and an English mother, Barbara Boyd (née Godbold) in Bangor, Wales. She grew up in Norwich, Norfolk, and was educated at Norwich High School for Girls. She left school at 16 to study full-time at Laine Theatre Arts in Epsom, Surrey. In 1986, she enrolled in the post graduate acting course at Drama Studio, London. She co-founded a theatre company that performed Shakespeare and adapted classics for the London and Edinburgh Fringe. The company also produced English plays for Italy. In the 1993 Italian tour, she played Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion.
While living in Los Angeles, Boyd studied art history, architecture and design while training as an interior designer at UCLA. She studied with some of the foremost green architects in the United States and writes a blog about living a green and sustainable lifestyle called How Green Is Your Life.
Boyd moved back to the UK in 2006 after living in the US for seventeen years. While living and working in Los Angeles she appeared in Mr. Holland's Opus and James Cameron's Titanic .
On American TV, Boyd made appearances on Party of Five , Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and The Bernie Mac Show . She has performed voices for radio commercials & animated features such as The Wild Thornberries . She is the voice of Elaine Marley in The Curse of Monkey Island , Tales of Monkey Island , Return to Monkey Island and the special editions of The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge .
On British TV, she played Clarissa Mason on Coronation Street (Granada TV) and Dennis Waterman's love interest in an episode of New Tricks (BBC). She has guest starred in several episodes of BBC1's Doctors and Holby City .
Her theatre credits range from Shakespeare to panto; many Alan Ayckbourn plays; Rita in Educating Rita and Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion . In 2007 she produced and performed in a one-woman show at the Hackney Empire.
In November 2009 she co-starred with Danny Webb in Visiting Hours, a short film written for her and directed by Steve Hughes. The film played at the Milan International Film Festival 2010 and the Los Angeles Short Film Festival 2010 and ENCOUNTERS 2010 in Bristol.
Boyd plays the Chief of Delegation in the Luc Beeson (Europacorp) film From Paris with Love , with John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. The film was directed by Pierre Morel and written and produced by Luc Besson.
Boyd created her production company New Thirty Pictures in 2013. She wrote, directed and produced her debut feature film, a supernatural thriller called Widow's Walk. It is set and shot in her native Suffolk. The film stars Miranda Raison, David Caves, Anthony Howell and Virginia McKenna. The film launched on Amazon Prime Video (UK/EU) in December 2019.
Her second feature is a documentary. Ship of Dreams: Titanic Movie Diaries is an exploration of her time on James Cameron's Titanic alongside her fellow supporting actors through the diaries Alexandra asked them to write in 1998 during and after shooting the film. The film also features the superfans who keep the love of the ship and the film close to their hearts.
She has written, directed and crowdfunded a number of short films. Boxer on the Wilderness'' explores themes in her screenplay The Wilderness. It screened at 15 international film festivals.
In October 2019 Widow's Walk world premiered at the Chelsea Film Festival in New York where it won the award for Best Cinematography (DP Alex Veitch).
In May 2014, Boxer on the Wilderness screened in the British Independent Film Festival at the Empire Leicester Square and was nominated for Best Short Film and Best Cinematography. The film screened at the East End Film Festival at Stratford East Playhouse and nine additional international film festivals during 2014/15 including the Underwire Film Festival in London, Hollyshorts in Los Angeles, Bornshorts in Denmark, The Portland Film Festival in Portland, OR and The Chelsea Film Festival in New York. It won the Mention d'Honnuer at the "Sport Movies & TV - Milano International FICTS Fest" in December 2014.
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1995 | Mr. Holland's Opus | Sarah Olmstead | |
1997 | Titanic | 1st Class Woman | Uncredited |
2002 | The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina [2] | Bertha Beetle (voice) | Direct-to-video |
The Wild Thornberrys Movie [2] | Victoria (voice) | ||
100 Mile Rule | English Escort | ||
2010 | From Paris with Love | Head of the Delegation | |
2013 | Elysium | Sonra / Narrator | |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1985 | Screen Two | Marjory Ling | Episode: "The Burston Rebellion" |
1988 | Boon | First Pupil | Episode: "Honourable Service" |
1996 | Party of Five | Ms. Esser | Episode: "Unfair Advantage" |
Nowhere Man | Wallace's Aide | Episode: "Gemini" | |
2002 | Sabrina the Teenage Witch | The Rose Lady | Episode: "I Think I Love You" |
2003 | The Wild Thornberrys [2] | Stella / Maid (voice) | 2 Episodes |
The Bernie Mac Show | Episode: "Nut Job" | ||
2008-2012 | Doctors | Jane Finch / Yvonne Leyton / Nora Clarke | 3 Episodes |
2008 | Coronation Street | Clarissa Mason | 24 Episodes |
2009 | New Tricks | Melissa | Episode: "The Truth is Out There" |
2010 | Holby City | Stella Bryant | Episode: "The Last Day of Summer" |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1997 | The Curse of Monkey Island | Elaine Marley / Son Pirate (voice) [2] | |
2000 | Shadow Watch | Lily (voice) | |
Star Wars: Force Commander | Ferry Shuttle Pilot / Ruulian Citizen (voice) | ||
2009 | Tales of Monkey Island | Elaine Marley (voice) | |
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition | Elaine Marley (voice) | Remake of 1990 game | |
2010 | Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge: Special Edition | Elaine Marley (voice) [2] | Remake of 1991 game |
2014 | Sacred 3 | Vampire (voice) | |
2022 | Return to Monkey Island [3] | Elaine Marley (voice) | |
2023 | Sea of Thieves | Elaine Marley (voice) | The Legend of Monkey Island expansion |
My Fair Lady is a musical with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story, based on the 1938 film adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play Pygmalion, concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins, a phonetician, so that she may pass as a lady. Despite his cynical nature and difficulty understanding women, Higgins grows attached to her.
Léon: The Professional is a 1994 English-language French action-thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson. It stars Jean Reno and Gary Oldman, and features the film debut of Natalie Portman. The plot centers on Léon (Reno), a professional hitman who reluctantly takes in twelve-year-old Mathilda Lando (Portman) after her family is murdered by corrupt Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Norman Stansfield (Oldman). Léon and Mathilda form an unusual relationship as she becomes his protégée and learns the hitman's trade. The film was released in France by Gaumont through Gaumont Buena Vista International on 14 September 1994 and received mostly positive reviews from critics.
Luc Paul Maurice Besson is a French filmmaker. He directed or produced the films Subway (1985), The Big Blue (1988), and La Femme Nikita (1990). Associated with the Cinéma du look film movement, he has been nominated for a César Award for Best Director and Best Picture for his films Léon: The Professional (1994) and The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). He won Best Director and Best French Director for his sci-fi action film The Fifth Element (1997). He wrote and directed the sci-fi action film Lucy (2014) and the space opera film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017).
The Big Blue is a 1988 drama film in the French Cinéma du look visual style, made by French director Luc Besson. It is a heavily fictionalized and dramatized story of the friendship and sporting rivalry between two leading contemporary champion free divers in the 20th century: Jacques Mayol and Enzo Maiorca, and Mayol's fictionalized relationship with his girlfriend Johana Baker.
The Fifth Element is a 1997 English-language French science fiction action film conceived and directed by Luc Besson, as well as co-written by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. It stars Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, Milla Jovovich, and Chris Tucker. Primarily set in the 23rd century, the film's central plot involves the survival of planet Earth, which becomes the responsibility of Korben Dallas (Willis), a taxicab driver and former special forces major, after a young woman (Jovovich) falls into his cab. To accomplish this, Dallas joins forces with her to recover four mystical stones essential for the defence of Earth against the impending attack of a malevolent cosmic entity.
Anne Parillaud is a French actress who has been active since 1977. She is best known internationally for playing the title character in Luc Besson's film La Femme Nikita.
La Femme Nikita, also called Nikita in France, is a 1990 French-language action thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson. The film stars Anne Parillaud as the title character, a criminal who is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering policemen during an armed pharmacy robbery. Her government handlers fake her death and recruit her as a professional assassin. After intense training, she starts a career as a killer, where she struggles to balance her work with her personal life. She shows talent at this and her career progresses until a mission in an embassy goes awry.
William Paxton was an American actor and filmmaker. He starred in films such as Aliens (1986), Near Dark (1987), Tombstone (1993), True Lies (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Twister (1996), Titanic (1997), Mighty Joe Young (1998), and A Simple Plan (1998). He had supporting roles in Weird Science (1985), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), and Nightcrawler (2014).
Elaine Marley is a character in the Monkey Island series of graphic adventure video games. Created by Ron Gilbert for LucasArts, the character first appears in The Secret of Monkey Island and is one of the core characters in the franchise. Originally conceived as a ruthless island governor, the character evolved during development into the protagonist's love interest. While the first two games in the series did not feature voice acting, Elaine was voiced by Alexandra Boyd in The Curse of Monkey Island and by Charity James in Escape from Monkey Island; Boyd would reprise the role for later entries in the franchise.
Kyra Minturn Sedgwick is an American film and television actress. She is best known for her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the crime drama The Closer (2005–2012), for which she won a Golden Globe in 2007 and an Emmy Award in 2010. She also starred in the 1992 TV film Miss Rose White, which won an Emmy Award. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for her performance in the 1995 film Something to Talk About. Sedgwick's other film credits include Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Cameron Crowe's Singles (1992). She also had a recurring role as Madeline Wuntch on the sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Sedgwick is married to fellow actor Kevin Bacon.
Pygmalion is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, named after the Greek mythological figure. It premiered at the Hofburg Theatre in Vienna on 16 October 1913 and was first presented on stage in German. Its English-language premiere took place at His Majesty's Theatre in London's West End in April 1914 and starred Herbert Beerbohm Tree as phonetics professor Henry Higgins and Mrs Patrick Campbell as Cockney flower-girl Eliza Doolittle.
Arthur and the Minimoys is a 2006 English-language French live-action/animated fantasy film directed and co-written by French filmmaker Luc Besson. It is based on the first two books of the Arthur children's books series, Arthur and the Minimoys and Arthur and the Forbidden City, by Besson.
Rie Rasmussen is a Danish actress, director, writer, photographer and former model. She is best known for her acting roles in the films Femme Fatale (2002) and Angel-A (2005).
Pygmalion is a 1938 British film based on the 1913 George Bernard Shaw play of the same name, and adapted by him for the screen. It stars Leslie Howard as Professor Henry Higgins and Wendy Hiller as Eliza Doolittle.
From Paris with Love is a 2010 English-language French action thriller film directed by Pierre Morel and starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. The screenplay was co-written by Luc Besson. The film was released in the United States on February 5, 2010, by Lionsgate Films and both in United Kingdom and Japan by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Carli Jo Norris is an English actress, known for her roles as Anoushka Flynn in Doctors, Martha Kane in Hollyoaks and taking over the role of Belinda Peacock in EastEnders.
The Lady is a 2011 British biographical film directed by Luc Besson, starring Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi and David Thewlis as her late husband Michael Aris. Yeoh called the film "a labour of love" but also confessed it had felt intimidating for her to play the Nobel laureate.
No Limit is a 2012 French television action-adventure series created by filmmaker Luc Besson with Franck Philippon through Besson's EuropaCorp company. Along with Transporter: The Series, it represents one of Besson's first forays into television, although this time as a writer as well as a producer.
Lucy is a 2014 English-language French science fiction action film written and directed by Luc Besson for his company EuropaCorp, and produced by his wife, Virginie Besson-Silla. It was shot in Taipei, Paris, and New York City. It stars Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Choi Min-sik, and Amr Waked. Johansson portrays Lucy, a woman who gains psychokinetic abilities when a nootropic, psychedelic drug is absorbed into her bloodstream.
Anna is a 2019 action thriller film written, produced and directed by Luc Besson. The film stars Sasha Luss as the eponymous assassin, alongside Luke Evans, Cillian Murphy, Helen Mirren, and Alexander Petrov.