Dame Helen Mirren is an English actor known for her prolific career in film, television, and on stage taking roles both dramatic and comedic. SHe has received several honors including an Academy Award, four BAFTA Awards, five Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award.
Mirren started her career on stage playing Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra in a 1965 production with the National Youth Theatre at The Old Vic. She acted with both the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theater acting in numerous productions of William Shakespeare's work including The Merchant of Venice (1967), Much Ado About Nothing (1968), Richard III (1970), Hamlet (1970), and Macbeth (1974). She made her Broadway debut acting in the revival of the Ivan Turgenev play A Month in the Country (1995). She portrayed Queen Elizabeth II in the Peter Morgan play The Audience both on Broadway and on the West End which earned her the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress.
She made her film debut in the British experimental film Herostratus (1967). She took early roles in Caligula (1979), Excalibur (1983) and The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989). She received the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the drama The Queen (2006). She was Oscar-nominated playing Queen Charlotte in The Madness of King George (1994), a maid in Gosford Park (2001), and Sofya Tolstoy in The Last Station (2009). During this time she acted in numerous films across genres in films such as Calendar Girls (2003), State of Play (2009), The Tempest (2010), The Debt (2010), Woman in Gold (2015), Eye in the Sky (2015), Trumbo (2015), The Leisure Seeker (2017), and Golda (2023).
On television, she earned acclaim and notoriety for her role as DCI Jane Tennion in the police procedural Prime Suspect (1991–2006), where she earned three BAFTA Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards. She also earned Emmy Awards for her roles as Ayn Rand in the Showtime television film The Passion of Ayn Rand (1999) and Queen Elizabeth I in the HBO miniseries Elizabeth I (2005) She also acted in the TNT film Door to Door (2002), the HBO movie Phil Spector (2013), the HBO miniseries Catherine the Great (2019), and the Paramount+ Western series 1923 (2022).
† | Denotes works that have not yet been released |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1974 | Thriller | Stella McKenzie/Angela Ludlow | Episode: "A Coffin for the Bride" |
1975 | Caesar and Claretta | Claretta Petacci | TV film |
1977 | The Country Wife | Margery Pinchwife | BBC Play of the Month |
1978 | As You Like It | Rosalind | BBC Television Shakespeare |
1979 | ITV Playhouse | Joanne | Episode: "The Quiz Kid" |
S.O.S. Titanic | Mary Sloan | TV film | |
1982 | Cymbeline | Imogen | BBC Television Shakespeare |
1985 | The Twilight Zone | Maddie Duncan | Episode: "Dead Woman's Shoes" |
1987 | Faerie Tale Theatre | Princess Amelia | Episode: "The Little Mermaid" |
Cause Célèbre | Alma Rattenbury | TV film | |
1988 | Coming Through | Frieda von Richtofen Weekley | TV film |
1989 | Red King, White Knight | Anna | TV film |
1991–2006 | Prime Suspect | Jane Tennison | 15 episodes |
1993 | The Hidden Room | Episode: "Love Crimes" | |
1996 | Losing Chase | Chase Phillips | TV film |
1997 | Painted Lady | Maggie Sheridan | Miniseries |
1998 | Tracey Takes On... | Professor Horen | Episode: "Culture" |
1999 | The Passion of Ayn Rand | Ayn Rand | TV film |
2002 | Door to Door | Mrs. Porter | TV film |
Georgetown | Annabelle Garrison | TV film | |
2003 | The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone | Karen Stone | TV film |
2004 | Frasier | Babette (voice) | Episode: "Coots and Ladders" [1] |
Pride | Macheeba | Voice TV film | |
2005 | Third Watch | Annie Foster | Episode: "Revelations" |
Elizabeth I | Queen Elizabeth I | Miniseries, 2 episodes | |
2010 | Saturday Night Live | Herself | Episode: "Bryan Cranston/Kanye West" |
2011 | Saturday Night Live | Herself (host) | Episode: "Helen Mirren/Foo Fighters" |
2012 | Glee | Becky's Inner Voice | Uncredited voice role; 2 episodes |
2013 | Phil Spector | Linda Kenney Baden | TV film |
2015–present | Documentary Now! | Herself (host) | 26 episodes |
2017 | World War One Remembered: Passchendaele | Herself (host) | Miniseries |
2019 | Catherine the Great | Catherine the Great | Miniseries, 4 episodes and also executive producer |
2020 | Sarah Cooper: Everything's Fine | Billy Bush | Television special |
2021 | Solos | Peg | Episode: "Peg" [26] |
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Tournament of Houses | Herself (host) | Television special | |
When Nature Calls with Helen Mirren | Narrator (voice) | 7 episodes [27] | |
2022 | Human Resources | Shame Wizard Rita St. Swithens (voice) | Episode: "Bad Mummies" |
2022–2025 | 1923 | Cara Dutton | Main cast [28] |
2025 | The Associate | Maeve Harrigan | Main cast [29] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | "Count Me Out" | (Kendrick's Therapist) |
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