Dame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg was an English actress of stage and screen. Her roles include Emma Peel in the TV series The Avengers (1965–1968); Countess Teresa di Vicenzo, wife of James Bond, in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969); Olenna Tyrell in Game of Thrones (2013–2017); and the title role in Medea in the West End in 1993 followed by Broadway a year later.
Helen Victoria Baxendale is an English actress of stage and television. She is known for her roles as Rachel Bradley in the British comedy drama Cold Feet (1997–2003) and Emily Waltham in the American sitcom Friends (1998–1999).
Lesley Ann Manville is an English actress. She is known for her frequent collaborations with Mike Leigh, appearing in the films Grown-Ups (1980), High Hopes (1988), Secrets & Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002), Vera Drake (2004), Another Year (2010), and Mr. Turner (2014). She has been nominated for two British Academy Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in Another Year (2010) and Phantom Thread (2017), with her performance in the latter earning her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Adjoa Aiboom Helen Andoh HonFRSL is a British actress. On stage, she has played lead roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre and the Almeida Theatre. On television, she appeared in two series of Doctor Who as Francine Jones, 90 episodes of the BBC's long-running medical drama Casualty, and BBC's EastEnders. Andoh made her Hollywood debut in autumn 2009, starring as Nelson Mandela's Chief of Staff Brenda Mazibuko alongside Morgan Freeman as Mandela in Clint Eastwood's drama film Invictus. Since 2020, she portrays Lady Danbury in the Netflix Regency romance series Bridgerton. In July 2022, Andoh became an honorary fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Sally Cecilia Hawkins is an English actress who began her career on stage and then moved into film. She has received several awards including a Golden Globe Award in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards and two British Academy Film Awards.
Oluwakemi Nina Sosanya is an English stage, television, film, and radio actress, and narrator. She is most notable for her roles in Teachers, W1A, and Last Tango in Halifax.
Ruth Wilson is an English actress. She has played the eponymous protagonist in Jane Eyre (2006), Alice Morgan in the BBC psychological crime drama Luther, Alison Lockhart in the Showtime drama The Affair (2014–2018), and the eponymous character in Mrs Wilson (2018). From 2019 to 2022, she portrayed Marisa Coulter in the BBC/HBO fantasy series His Dark Materials, and for this role she won the 2020 BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Actress. Her film credits include The Lone Ranger (2013), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016), and Dark River (2017).
Michelle Fairley is an actress from Northern Ireland. She is best known for playing Catelyn Stark in the HBO series Game of Thrones (2011–2013). She has since appeared in the USA Network series Suits (2013), the Fox series 24: Live Another Day (2014), the RTÉ miniseries Rebellion (2016), the science fiction series The Feed (2019), and the Sky Atlantic crime drama Gangs of London (2020–present).
Phoebe Harriet Dynevor is an English actress. On television, she is best known for her role as Daphne, the fourth Bridgerton child, in the Netflix period drama Bridgerton (2020–2022). Her films include The Colour Room (2021), Bank of Dave (2023), and Fair Play (2023). She earned a BAFTA Rising Star Award nomination in 2024.
Michaela Ewuraba Boakye-Collinson, known professionally as Michaela Coel, is a British actress, filmmaker and poet. She is best known for creating and starring in the E4 sitcom Chewing Gum (2015–2017), for which she won the BAFTA Award for Best Female Comedy Performance; and the BBC One/HBO comedy-drama series I May Destroy You (2020) for which she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress in 2021. For her work on I May Destroy You, Coel was the first black woman to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards.
Claudia Jessie Peyton, known professionally as Claudia Jessie, is an English actress. She is known for her roles in the third series of the BBC One police procedural WPC 56 (2015) and as Eloise, the fifth Bridgerton child, in the Netflix period drama Bridgerton (2020–present). She also appeared in series 4 of Line of Duty (2017), the Dave sitcom Porters (2017–2019) and the ITV miniseries Vanity Fair (2018).
Sabrina Lois Bartlett is an English actress. She is known for her roles in the BBC One miniseries The Passing Bells (2014), the third series of the ITV drama Victoria (2019), and the first series of Knightfall (2017) on History, Bridgerton (2020) on Netflix, and The Larkins (2021), also on ITV.
Nicola Mary Coughlan is an Irish actress. She is known for her roles as Clare Devlin in Channel 4's sitcom Derry Girls (2018–2022) and Penelope (Featherington) Bridgerton in Netflix's Bridgerton (2020–present).
Jack Rowan is an English actor. He was nominated for a British Academy Television Award for his performance in the Channel 4 drama Born to Kill (2017). He also starred in the BBC series Noughts + Crosses (2020–2022) and Wreck (2022), and the Sky Max series A Town Called Malice (2023). His films include Boys from County Hell (2020).
Noughts + Crosses is a British drama television series based on the Noughts & Crosses novel series by Malorie Blackman. The series is set in an alternative history where black "Cross" people rule over white "Noughts". The first episode aired on BBC One on 5 March 2020, and the remaining episodes premiered on BBC iPlayer on the same day. In May 2021, the BBC announced that a second series had been commissioned.
Bridgerton is an American historical romance television series created by Chris Van Dusen for Netflix. Based on the book series by Julia Quinn, it is Shondaland's first scripted show for Netflix. The series is set during the early 1800s in an alternative London Regency era, in which George III established racial equality and granted many people of African descent aristocratic titles due to the African heritage of his wife, Queen Charlotte. The viewer is taken to observe the highly competitive social season; where young marriageable nobility and gentry are introduced into society.
Small Axe is a British anthology film series, created and directed by Steve McQueen. The anthology consists of five films that tell distinct stories about the lives of West Indian immigrants in London from the 1960s to the 1980s. Two episodes of the series were selected into the 2020 Cannes Film Festival. The series premiered on 15 November 2020 on BBC One in the United Kingdom and on 20 November 2020 on Amazon Prime Video in the United States. The title references a proverb – "Small axe fall big tree" or "If you are the big tree, we are the small axe" – that was popularised by Bob Marley in his 1973 song "Small Axe".
I May Destroy You is a British black comedy-drama television limited series created, written, co-directed, and executive produced by Michaela Coel for BBC One and HBO. The series is set in London with a predominantly Black British cast. Coel stars as Arabella, a young writer in the public eye who seeks to rebuild her life after being raped. The series premiered on 7 June 2020 on HBO and on 8 June 2020 on BBC One.
Ruby Stokes is an English actress. On television, she is known for her roles in Netflix series Lockwood & Co., the Paramount+ series The Burning Girls, and the BBC One drama The Jetty (2024). She played Francesca Bridgerton in the first 2 seasons of the Netflix series Bridgerton (2020–2022). Her films include Una (2016), Rocks (2019), and A Banquet (2021).
India Amarteifio is a British actress. She began her career as a child actress on the West End. In 2023, she portrayed the title role of the Netflix period drama Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, winning the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series.
