Jessica Rose Brown Findlay (born 14 September 1987) is an English actress. She played Lady Sybil Crawley in the ITV television period drama series Downton Abbey and Emelia Conan Doyle in the 2011 British comedy-drama feature film Albatross.[2]
Brown Findlay portrayed Charlotte Wells, a madam's daughter and sex worker, in the three series run of Harlots (2017–2019), a period drama television series initially screening on ITV Encore in the UK and on Hulu Plus in the US. In 2020, she was in the main cast of the series Brave New World.
Early life
Brown Findlay grew up in Cookham, Berkshire. Her father is a financial adviser and her mother is a teaching assistant.[6] She told Vanity Fair in 2012, "I grew up there, as did my Mum. My Nan and Granddad are around the corner. It is a very familiar place and incredibly dear to my heart. It's sort of quiet, but wonderfully so."[7]
She trained with the National Youth Ballet and the Associates of the Royal Ballet, and at age 15 was invited to dance with the Kirov at the Royal Opera House for a summer season.[8] She attended Furze Platt Senior School in Maidenhead. At the end of her GCSEs, she was accepted to a number of ballet schools, but chose to attend the Arts Educational School for the A-level courses it provided and its pastoral care. She was there for two years. In the second, she had three operations on her ankles, the last of which went wrong, preventing her from continuing as a dancer.
After encouragement from an art teacher, she finished her education at Arts Educational School, Tring Park, then moved on to a fine art course at Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design.[6][8][9] In a 2012 interview with Vanity Fair, she said, "Growing up, I was completely in love and infatuated with ballet. Ballet was my life completely." She subsequently attended university in London, where she discovered the stage. She said, "Acting was the element from ballet that I actually loved and missed the most."[7]
Career
Brown Findlay was cast in the lead role of 17-year-old Emilia Conan Doyle for Albatross, a 2011 British coming-of-agecomedydrama film directed by Niall MacCormick, co-starring Julia Ormond, Felicity Jones and Sebastian Koch. Its premise is a teenage aspiring writer entering the lives of a dysfunctional family on the south coast of England, with bookish young women meeting up with a peer who lacks any boundaries or inhibitions.[2] She was next cast in two episodes of the British science fictioncomedy-drama television show Misfits,[7] where she appeared in the first-season finale as a wholesome religious girl whose superpower is convincing everyone to abandon their delinquent behaviour in favour of celibacy.[10]
Almost immediately after her work in Albatross, Brown Findlay was cast in the ITV period drama television series Downton Abbey as Lady Sybil Crawley, the youngest and most forward-thinking of the Grantham daughters. In a 2012 interview with Vanity Fair, she said, "I thought this character of Sybil was fascinating, and I liked her modern attitude to life."[7] She was the second major cast member to leave the series when her character died from eclampsia after giving birth in the third series.[11] During a 2015 interview, Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes discussed the plot twist: "Jessica Brown Findlay, who played Sybil, had said she was going to leave right from the beginning. She said, 'I'm doing three years, then I'm leaving.' So that was all worked out."[12]
She next appeared as Abi in the Black Mirror episode "Fifteen Million Merits" with English actor Daniel Kaluuya.[13] The episode imagined a dystopian future where people earn merits on exercise bikes and the only way to escape their slave-like existence is to audition for reality TV judges.[14]
In July 2015, she played emotionally conflicted stepmother Alice Aldridge in The Outcast, the BBC's two-part television adaptation of Sadie Jones’ novel.[18]
In May 2015, Brown Findlay made her professional theatre debut at the Almeida Theatre, London, as Electra in a new adaptation of The Oresteia, to positive reviews.[19] The production subsequently moved to the Trafalgar Theatre in London's West End. Writer/director Robert Icke cast Brown Findlay in his production of Uncle Vanya at the same venue in February the following year.[20]
In September 2016, it was announced that Brown Findlay would play Ophelia in a new production of Hamlet at the Almeida Theatre in London.[21] The production was critically acclaimed and also later moved to the West End, where it ran until September 2017 with award-winning Sherlock and Fleabag actor Andrew Scott as Hamlet.
In 2016, Brown Findlay joined the cast of a biopic feature film initially entitled Steven, about the early life and career of English singer Morrissey, who co-founded the indie rock band The Smiths.[5] The film, renamed England is Mine, premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2017, with Dunkirk actor Jack Lowden in the lead role.
In 2017, Brown Findlay portrayed Charlotte Wells, a brothel owner's daughter and famed courtesan, in Harlots, a period drama television series created by Alison Newman and Moira Buffini, and inspired by The Covent Garden Ladies by Hallie Rubenhold.[23][24] It premiered on 27 March 2017 on ITV Encore in the UK and on 29 March 2017 on Hulu Plus in the US. It focuses on Margaret Wells, who runs a brothel in 18th century England and struggles to raise her daughters in a chaotic household. Also in 2017, Brown Findlay voiced the character of Fay in the animated film Monster Family.
In 2021, she starred as Pamela Legat in the Netflix film Munich: The Edge of War, describing events in Britain and Germany prior to the start of World War II.
Personal life
Brown Findlay was reportedly attacked by a hacker in 2014 who stole intimate pictures and videos.[25]
Brown Findlay began dating actor Ziggy Heath in late 2016. They married on 12 September 2020.[26][27][28] On 5 November 2022, their twin sons were born.[29]
Elizabeth Lee McGovern is an American-British actress. She has received many awards, including a Screen Actors Guild Award, three Golden Globe Award nominations, and one Academy Award nomination.
Tring Park School or Tring Park School for the Performing Arts is an independent co-educational day and boarding school in Tring, Hertfordshire, England, offering academic and vocational courses in the Performing Arts for pupils aged 8–19. All prospective pupils are required to attend an audition to determine admission, with the exception of those in the Prep School. The school comprises a Prep School, a Lower School, a Middle School and a Sixth Form. Originally known as the Arts Educational School, Tring Park, it was founded as the sister school of the Arts Educational School, London. In 2009 it became independent of the London school and was renamed Tring Park School for the Performing Arts.
Daniel Jonathan Stevens is an English actor. He first drew international attention for his role as Matthew Crawley in the ITV acclaimed period drama series Downton Abbey (2010–2012). He also starred as David in the thriller film The Guest (2014), Sir Lancelot in the adventure film Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014), The Beast/Prince in Disney's live action adaptation of Beauty and the Beast (2017), Lorin Willis in the biographical legal drama Marshall (2017), Charles Dickens in the biographical drama The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017) and Russian Eurovision singer Alexander Lemtov in Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020). From 2017 to 2019, he starred as David Haller in the FX series Legion. In 2018, he starred in the Netflix horror-thriller Apostle, and since 2023, he has starred as Korvo Opposites in the animated series Solar Opposites.
Phyllis Logan is a Scottish actress, widely known for her roles as Lady Jane Felsham in Lovejoy (1986–1993) and Mrs Hughes in Downton Abbey (2010–2015). She won the BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for the 1983 film Another Time, Another Place. Her other film appearances include Secrets & Lies (1996), Shooting Fish (1997), Downton Abbey (2019) and Misbehaviour (2020).
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).
Allen Leech is an Irish actor. He is widely known for his roles as Tom Branson in the ITV period drama Downton Abbey (2010–2015) and Paul Prenter in the biopic Bohemian Rhapsody (2018).
Lesley Nicol is an English actress, a three-time SAG Award winner in the Best Cast in a Drama Series category for her role as Beryl Patmore in the ITV and PBS drama TV series Downton Abbey. She also starred in the 2019 feature film adaptation of the series and its 2022 sequel.
Joanne Froggatt is a British actress. From 2010 to 2015, she portrayed Anna Bates in the ITV period drama series Downton Abbey, for which she received three Emmy nominations and won the 2014 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. From 2017 to 2020, she starred as Laura Nielson in the ITV/Sundance drama series Liar.
Siobhan Margaret Finneran is an English actress. She made her screen debut in the 1987 independent film Rita, Sue and Bob Too, and subsequently worked consistently in television drama including roles in Coronation Street (1989–1990), Clocking Off (2000–2002) and The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006). In 2005, Finneran originated the lead female role in the stage play On the Shore of the Wide World and was awarded the Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Also a comedy performer, Finneran appeared as Janice Garvey, a leading character in the first seven series of ITV sitcom Benidorm (2007–2015).
Tuppence Amelia Middleton is a British actress known for her performances in film, television and theatre. In 2010, she was nominated for the London Evening Standard Film Awards for Most Promising Newcomer.
Downton Abbey is a British historical drama television series set in the early 20th century, created and co-written by Julian Fellowes. It first aired in the United Kingdom on ITV on 26 September 2010 and in the United States on PBS, which supported its production as part of its Masterpiece Classic anthology, on 9 January 2011. The show ran for six series and fifty-two episodes, including five Christmas specials.
Sophie McShera is an English actress known for her roles as Ros McCain in the fifth series of the BBC television series Waterloo Road, as Daisy Mason in the ITV television series Downton Abbey, and as Drizella Tremaine in the 2015 Disney film Cinderella.
Laura Carmichael is an English actress, most widely known for her performance as Lady Edith Crawley in the ITV (UK) and PBS (US) television period drama series Downton Abbey. Her other work includes television series Marcella (2016), and the feature film A United Kingdom (2016).
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Lily Chloe Ninette Thomson, better known by her stage name Lily James, is an English actress. She studied acting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and began her career in the British television series Just William (2010). Following a supporting role in the period drama series Downton Abbey (2012–2015), her breakthrough was the title role in the fantasy film Cinderella (2015).
Albatross is a 2011 British coming-of-age drama film directed by Niall MacCormick, written by Tamzin Rafn and starring Sebastian Koch, Julia Ormond, Felicity Jones and Jessica Brown Findlay. The film revolves around the premise of an aspiring teenage writer entering the lives of a dysfunctional family living on the south coast of England. "Albatross" is a metaphor used to describe a constant and inescapable burden.
The second series of the British historical drama television series Downton Abbey broadcast from 18 September 2011 to 6 November 2011, comprising a total of eight episodes and one Christmas Special episode broadcast on 25 December 2011. The series was broadcast on ITV in the United Kingdom and on PBS in the United States, which supported the production as part of its Masterpiece Classic anthology. Series two explores the lives of the Crawley family and servants during and after the First World War.
Cara Louise Theobold is an English actress. She made her debut as Ivy Stuart in the ITV period drama Downton Abbey (2012–2013). She has since starred in the BBC series The Syndicate and Together, the E4 comedy Crazyhead (2016), and the Amazon Prime thriller Absentia (2017–2020).
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Harlots is a British period drama television series created by Alison Newman and Moira Buffini and inspired by The Covent Garden Ladies by British historian Hallie Rubenhold. The series focuses on Margaret Wells, who runs a brothel in 18th-century London and struggles to secure a better future for her daughters in an unpredictable environment.
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