Saffron Burrows | |
---|---|
Born | Saffron Domini Burrows 22 October 1972 St Pancras, London, England |
Citizenship |
|
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1991–present |
Spouse | Alison Balian (m. 2013;div. 2020) |
Children | 2 |
Saffron Domini Burrows (born 22 October 1972) [1] is a British actress who has appeared in films such as Circle of Friends, Wing Commander, Deep Blue Sea, Gangster No. 1, Enigma, Troy, Reign Over Me , and The Bank Job . On the small screen, she has starred as Lorraine Weller on Boston Legal, Dr. Norah Skinner on My Own Worst Enemy, Detective Serena Stevens on Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Victoria Hand on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. . She appeared as Cynthia Taylor on the Amazon Video series Mozart in the Jungle and as Dottie Quinn in the Netflix series You .
A Londoner, Burrows was born in St Pancras and grew up in Stoke Newington, her mother a trade unionist and primary school teacher in Hackney and her father an architect and teacher. Her parents and stepfather were Socialist Workers Party members, and Burrows was politically active from a young age. [2] [3]
Burrows attended William Tyndale Primary School in Islington and then Stoke Newington School. When asked for her preference of a school in Hackney or Hampstead, she said she wanted to be in a multicultural, inclusive environment. She enrolled in acting classes at the Anna Scher Theatre when she was 11. [4] [5]
Burrows had a successful modelling career after she was discovered at age 15 in Covent Garden by fashion photographer Beth Boldt. [6] [7] For five years she divided her time between London and Paris, where she learned French. [8] She found the modelling world's "obsession with the ideal of the body" troubling. [6] [3]
Burrows made her film debut in 1993 with a small role in Jim Sheridan's In the Name of the Father . Her first significant acting roles came in 1995, as an ambitious young Irishwoman in Circle of Friends, and in Ngozi Onwurah's Welcome II The Terrordome. [9] She starred in the BBC production of Dennis Potter's Karaoke (1996), [10] and in Hotel de Love , Lovelife , Nevada , One Night Stand and The Matchmaker . [11] In 1999 she appeared in Mike Figgis' experimental film The Loss of Sexual Innocence , where she played twins: one raised in England, the other in Italy. [12] She appeared in the thriller film Deep Blue Sea, and had the title role in a film of Miss Julie , which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. [13]
In 1999 she appeared with Stellan Skarsgård in Timecode (2000), a split-screen digital experimental film shot in a single take with no edits. She followed it with Gangster No. 1 with Malcolm McDowell, Paul Bettany and David Thewlis. [11] She co-starred with Kate Winslet and Dougray Scott in Michael Apted's 1940s drama Enigma . [14] [15] She starred in Tempted , an improvised thriller set in New Orleans, with Burt Reynolds and Peter Facinelli. [16]
Mike Figgis' ensemble feature Hotel followed, re-uniting Burrows with some colleagues from Timecode , including Salma Hayek and Danny Huston in Venice, where she played the Duchess of Malfi. In 2002, she had a cameo role in Hayek's produced biopic Frida .
She then dedicated herself to stage work. She was directed by Deborah Warner at the Royal National Theatre in Jeanette Winterson's The Powerbook. The play toured, visiting the Theatre National Du Chaillot, Paris, and the Teatro Argentina, Rome. Burrows performed in Spanish in The Galindez File, a film written by Spanish novelist Vazquez Montalban about a woman seeking the truth about the disappearance of a critic of the Dominican dictator Trujillo. [17]
In 2004, she played the part of Andromache in Troy . In January 2005, she created the role of Janey in the world premiere of Earthly Paradise at the Almeida Theatre. [18] The play of a love triangle between Janey Morris; her husband William Morris, the writer and proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement; and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the Pre-Raphaelite painter. [19] Theatre critic Nicholas De Jongh said of her performance in The Earthly Paradise that "Burrows takes to the stage like a swan to water ... She deserves no end of watching." [20]
On 30 October 2005, she appeared on stage at the Old Vic theatre in London in a rehearsed reading of the 24-hour play Night Sky, alongside Christopher Eccleston. [21] [22] In 2006, Burrows was the female lead in the New Zealand thriller Perfect Creature . That same year, she worked with Chilean director Raoul Ruiz on Klimt , his cinematic version of the life of Gustav Klimt. In this film, she played opposite John Malkovich as the artist's lover, a woman of many personalities and nationalities. [11]
She performed in Hal Hartley's Fay Grim . Onstage in 2006, Burrows starred opposite David Schwimmer in Neil Labute's world premiere of Some Girl(s) at the Gielgud theatre, London. [23] She then starred opposite Don Cheadle and Adam Sandler in Mike Binder's Reign Over Me . Burrows played the female lead roles in the Indian film thriller Broken Thread, and in Dangerous Parking, a drama directed by Peter Howitt. [11] On television, Burrows played attorney Lorraine Weller on ABC's Boston Legal (Season 4) from 2007 to 2008. She starred on NBC's 2008 series, My Own Worst Enemy .
In 2008, Burrows starred in the independent film The Guitar , Amy Redford's directorial debut, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. [24] In 2008, she had a starring role as Martine Love in Roger Donaldson's heist film The Bank Job . [25] She played opposite Kevin Spacey in Jonas Pate's Shrink . She has contributed to the Actors Come Clean for Congo video for the Raise Hope for Congo campaign, a campaign of the Enough Project, in support of the conflict mineral issue. [26]
In 2010, she starred as Detective Serena Stevens on Law & Order: Criminal Intent , [27] departing at the end of the ninth season. In September 2010, she took part in the documentary feature film The People Speak, directed and produced by Colin Firth and Anthony Arnove, televised on the History Channel, linked with The People Speak (Film) – International. Burrows modeled for Marks & Spencer's autumn 2010 campaign for their Portfolio range. [28] In 2012, Burrows performed opposite Rob Lowe in the political comedy Knife Fight. [11] She has participated in the "24 Hour Plays" in London, New York, and Los Angeles. [29]
In 2013 and 2014, Burrows joined the ranks of the Marvel Cinematic Universe on the ABC television show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. where she played the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Victoria Hand in a recurring role. [30]
In 2019, Burrows starred in the recurring role of Dottie Quinn on the second season of the Netflix thriller You . [31] She reprised her role in the third season, which released in October 2021. [32]
She starred in the Amazon Video show Mozart in the Jungle as Cynthia Taylor, a cellist with the New York Symphony. The series ran for four seasons from 2014 to 2018. [33]
Burrows has written diaries, book reviews and newspaper and magazine articles for The Guardian , The Independent , and The Times and the New Statesman . [34] [35]
Burrows is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. [11] Burrows is bisexual, and has said that she "prefers the company of women". She was engaged to actor Alan Cumming in the 1990s, and dated director Mike Figgis for five years until 2002. [36] She was also previously in a relationship with actress Fiona Shaw.
Burrows married writer Alison Balian, her girlfriend of six years, in August 2013. Burrows gave birth to their son in 2012 and their daughter in 2017. [37] [38] They separated in 2020. [39]
Burrows has expressed sympathy for European style social democracies and for French Socialist politician Ségolène Royal. [40] She joined an anti-racism group when she was 11 years old and she went on to become the Vice President of the National Civil Rights Movement. [41] Burrows is a campaigner for disabled rights and equality. [42] In 2009, Burrows became an American citizen. [43]
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1991 | The Body Beautiful | Model | Short film |
1993 | In the Name of the Father | Girl in Commune | |
1995 | Circle of Friends | Nan Mahon | |
1995 | The Big One | Jules | |
1995 | Welcome II the Terrordome | Jodie | |
1996 | Hotel de Love | Melissa Morrison | |
1997 | Lovelife | Zoey | |
1997 | Nevada | Quinn | |
1997 | One Night Stand | Supermodel | |
1997 | The MatchMaker | Moira Kennedy Kelly | |
1999 | Wing Commander | Lieutenant Commander "Angel" Deveraux | |
1999 | The Loss of Sexual Innocence | English/Italian twin | |
1999 | Deep Blue Sea | Dr. Susan McCallister | |
1999 | Miss Julie | Miss Julie | |
2000 | Assumptions | Ruby | Short film |
2000 | Timecode | Emma Green | |
2000 | Gangster No. 1 | Karen | |
2001 | Enigma | Claire Romilly | |
2001 | Tempted | Lilly LeBlanc | |
2001 | The Seventh Stream | Mairead | |
2001 | Hotel | Duchess of Malfi | |
2002 | Frida | Grace | |
2002 | Flashpoint | Dara | |
2002 | Hideous Man | Short film | |
2003 | The Galíndez File | Muriel Colber | |
2003 | Peter Pan | Narrator/Adult Wendy Darling | Voice |
2004 | Krug | Grace Krug | Short film |
2004 | Troy | Andromache | |
2004 | Terrible Kisses | Woman | Short film |
2006 | Perfect Creature | Captain Lilly Squires | |
2006 | Klimt | Lea de Castro | |
2006 | Fay Grim | Juliet | |
2007 | Broken Thread | Jenny | |
2007 | Reign Over Me | Donna Remar | |
2007 | Dangerous Parking | Claire Matteson | |
2008 | The Guitar | Melody Wilder | |
2008 | The Bank Job | Martine Love | |
2009 | Shrink | Kate Amberson | |
2009 | The Eastmans | Dr. Anna Eastman | |
2010 | Lawyers | Anne | Short film |
2012 | Small Apartments | Francine | |
2012 | Knife Fight | Sophia Becker | |
2015 | Quitters | Veronica | |
2023 | Dangerous Waters | Alma | [44] |
2023 | Baghead | Catherine | [45] |
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1992 | Les cinq dernières minutes | Daisy Smith | Episode: "Meurtre en Ardèche" |
1993 | Full Stretch | Episode: "Family Affairs" | |
1996 | Karaoke | Sandra Sollars | |
1996 | Cold Lazarus | Sandra Sollars | |
1996 | Crucial Tales | Sarah Brown | Episode: "I Bring You Frankincense" |
2007–2008 | Boston Legal | Lorraine Weller | 20 episodes |
2008 | Wainy Days | Lucy | Episode: "Nan and Lucy" |
2008 | Agatha Christie's Marple | Audrey Strange | Episode: "Towards Zero" |
2008 | My Own Worst Enemy | Dr. Norah Skinner | 9 episodes |
2009 | Kings | Death | Episode: "The Sabbath Queen" (episode 8) |
2009 | The Eastmans | Dr. Anna Eastman | Unsold pilot |
2010 | Law & Order: Criminal Intent | Det. Serena Stevens | 15 episodes (Season 9) |
2011 | Bones | Ike Latulippe | Episode: "The Finder" (season 6 episode 19) |
2013 | The Crazy Ones | Helena | Season 1 Episode 5: "She's So European" |
2013–2014 | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | Victoria Hand | 4 episodes |
2014–2018 | Mozart in the Jungle | Cynthia Taylor | Series regular |
2019 | Elementary | Ruby Carville | Season 7 Episode 1: "The Further Adventures" |
2019–2021 | You | Dottie Quinn | Recurring role (Season 2); Main cast (Season 3) (11 episodes) |
2022 | Westworld | Anastasia Whitney | Season 4 Episode 2: "Well Enough Alone" |
Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert is a French actress. Known for her portrayals of cold, austere women devoid of morality, she is considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation. With 16 nominations and two wins, Huppert is the most nominated actress at the César Awards. She is also the recipient of several accolades, including five Lumières Awards, a BAFTA Award, three European Film Awards, two Berlin International Film Festival, three Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival honors, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award nomination. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her first on its list of the greatest actresses of the 21st century.
Julia Sawalha is an English actress. She is best known for playing Saffron "Saffy" Monsoon in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012). Her other television roles include as Lynda Day in Press Gang (1989–1993), as Hannah Greyshott in Second Thoughts (1991–1994), and its sequel series, Faith in the Future (1995–1998), Lydia Bennet in the television miniseries of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1995), Georgina and Kid's vocal effects in Sheeep (2000–2001), Carla Borrego in Jonathan Creek (2001–2004), and Dorcas Lane in the BBC's costume drama Lark Rise to Candleford (2008–2011). Her film credits include Buddy's Song (1991), The Wind in the Willows (1996), Chicken Run (2000) and Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016).
Rachel Hannah Weisz is a British actress. Known for her roles in independent films and blockbusters, she has received several awards, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Laurence Olivier Award.
Rosamund Mary Ellen Pike is a British actress. Pike studied at Wadham College, Oxford and began her acting career by appearing in stage productions including Romeo and Juliet at the National Youth Theatre. She had her breakthrough for her film debut as Bond girl Miranda Frost in Die Another Day (2002), and had supporting roles in the period dramas The Libertine (2004), Pride & Prejudice (2005), An Education (2009) and Made in Dagenham (2010).
Fiona Shaw is an Irish film and theatre actress. Known for extensive work with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, as well as in film and television, in 2020, she was listed at No. 29 on The Irish Times list of Ireland's greatest film actors. She was made an Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2001.
Anna Louise Friel is an English actress. She first achieved fame with her portrayal of Beth Jordache in the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside (1993–1995), and came to international prominence when she played Charlotte "Chuck" Charles on ABC's Pushing Daisies (2007–2009), for which she received a nomination for the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. She won an International Emmy Award for her portrayal of the title character in the ITV/Netflix series Marcella (2016–2021). Her other accolades include a Drama Desk Award, an honorary degree, and a BAFTA nomination.
Laura Elizabeth Metcalf is an American actress. Metcalf is known for her complex and versatile roles across the stage and screen. She has received various accolades throughout her career spanning more than four decades, including an Obie Award, two Tony Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, and three Golden Globe Awards.
Diane Lane is an American actress. The film that could have catapulted her to star status, Streets of Fire (1984), was both a commercial and critical failure, and her career languished as a result. After taking a break, Lane returned to acting to appear in The Big Town and Lady Beware, but did not make another big impression on a sizable audience until the western miniseries Lonesome Dove (1989), for which she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Lane earned further recognition for her role in A Walk on the Moon (1999), for which she was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. This was followed by several film roles of varying degrees of success such as My Dog Skip, The Perfect Storm, The Glass House, and Hardball.
Samantha Jane Morton is an English actress and director. She is known for her work in independent film with dark and tragic themes, in particular period dramas and is the recipient of numerous accolades, including the BAFTA Fellowship, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Dame Kristin Ann Scott Thomas is a British actress. Five-time BAFTA Award and Olivier Award nominee, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and the Olivier Award for Best Actress in 2008 for the Royal Court revival of The Seagull. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress in The English Patient (1996).
Helen Victoria Baxendale is an English actress of stage and television, 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).
Shirley Henderson is a Scottish actress. Her accolades include two Scottish BAFTAs, a VFCC Award and an Olivier Award, as well as BAFTA, BIFA, London Critics' Circle, Chlotrudis, Gotham, and Canadian Screen Award nominations.
Romola Sadie Garai is a British actress and film director. Known for her extensive work on stage and screen, she often acts in period films. Her early film roles include Nicholas Nickleby (2002), I Capture the Castle (2003), Inside I'm Dancing (2004), and Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004). She has gained prominence for her performances in the critically acclaimed costume dramas such as Vanity Fair (2004), As You Like It (2006), Amazing Grace (2007), Atonement (2007), Glorious 39 (2009), and Suffragette (2015).
Sarah-Jane Abigail Lancashire is an English actress. Known for her work in television and theatre, she has received numerous accolades over a career spanning four decades, including two British Academy Television Awards and a nomination for an Olivier Award. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2017 for services to drama.
Ayelet Zurer is an Israeli actress. She was nominated for awards at the Jerusalem Film Festival, the Israeli Academy Awards and the Israeli Television Academy Awards. She won Best Actress awards for her roles in the Israeli film Nina's Tragedies and Betipul. She also portrays Vanessa Marianna-Fisk in Marvel Television's Netflix series Daredevil (2015–2018).
Carey Hannah Mulligan is an English actress. She has received various accolades, including a British Academy Film Award, in addition to nominations for three Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, and a Tony Award.
Rebecca Maria Hall Spector is an English actress and filmmaker. She made her first onscreen appearance at age 10 in the 1992 television adaptation of The Camomile Lawn, directed by her father, Sir Peter Hall. Her professional stage debut came in her father's 2002 production of Mrs. Warren's Profession, which earned her the Ian Charleson Award.
Michelle Suzanne Dockery is an English actress. She is best known for starring as Lady Mary Crawley in the ITV television period drama series Downton Abbey (2010–2015), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and three consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She reprised her role in the films Downton Abbey (2019) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022).
Claire Elizabeth Foy is a British actress. She is best known for her portrayal of the young Queen Elizabeth II in the Netflix drama series The Crown (2016–2023), for which she won a Golden Globe and two Primetime Emmy Awards.
Gemma Christina Arterton is an English actress and producer. After her stage debut in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost at the Globe Theatre (2007), Arterton made her feature film debut in the comedy St Trinian's (2007). She portrayed Bond Girl Strawberry Fields in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008), a performance which won her an Empire Award for Best Newcomer, and spy Pollyana "Polly" Wilkins / Agent Galahad in the action war film The King's Man (2021).