Anna Maxwell Martin

Anna Charlotte Martin was born in Beverley on 27 May 1977 to Rosalind (née Youngson) and Ivan Martin.[2][3] Her father was managing director of a pharmaceutical company and her mother was a research scientist. Her mother gave up her job to bring up Anna and her elder brother, Adam. She attended Beverley High School, where she appeared in school plays. After she left school, Martin studied history at Liverpool University.[2]

After completing her education at Liverpool, Martin enrolled to study acting at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).[4] She added the name Maxwell (her maternal grandfather's first name) to her name to distinguish her from another member with the same name when she joined Equity.[5][6] In 2022, Martin appeared on an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, and said that Maxwell is a middle name and not part of her surname.[6]

Martin made her professional stage debut in 2001, in The Little Foxes at the Donmar Theatre, London.[2] She first came to prominence on the London stage playing the leading role of Lyra in the National Theatre's production of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials.[7] She was then cast in the part of Bessie Higgins in the BBC television adaptation Elizabeth Gaskell's novel North and South in 2004, and made a guest appearance in the 2005 series of Doctor Who. She played Esther Summerson, the central character in the 2005 BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens's Bleak House, for which she won the Best Actress BAFTA Television Award in 2006.[8]

In January 2006, Martin took part in a reading of The Entertainer at the Royal Court Theatre,[7] and in February and March she appeared in Laura Wade's Other Hands, directed by Bijan Sheibani at the Soho Theatre. She is the narrator of the CD version of The Foreshadowing, a children's book about the First World War by Marcus Sedgwick, which was published in May 2006. In the same year she was one of the five leads in I Really Hate My Job, directed by Oliver Parker and, from October 2006 to April 2007, played Sally Bowles in Bill Kenwright and Rufus Norris's West End production of Cabaret at the Lyric Theatre.[9]

She played Cassandra Austen in Becoming Jane,[7] a 2007 film about the early life of the novelist Jane Austen, starring American actress Anne Hathaway in the title role. At the end of the year she played the gaoler's daughter in Lee Hall's adaptation of The Wind in the Willows,[7] a multimillion-pound production by Box TV for BBC One, and was the joint narrator (with Anton Lesser) of the CD version of Tamar, a children's book about the Second World War by Mal Peet, which was published in December 2007.[10]

In 2008, Martin starred in the BBC Two drama White Girl[7] and with Naomie Harris in Channel 4's adaptation of Poppy Shakespeare, for which she won her second Best Actress BAFTA Television Award in 2009.[11]

From July to October of that year, she appeared with Dame Eileen Atkins in The Female of the Species at the Vaudeville Theatre in London.[7] She also appeared in a BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel Crooked House. In July 2009 she appeared in the BBC Two drama Freefall,[7] and played Neil Armstrong's wife, Janet, in Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11,[7] an ITV1 drama documentary to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.[10]

In February 2010, she played freedom of information campaigner Heather Brooke in On Expenses,[7] a BBC Four satirical drama, and later played Isabella in Shakespeare's Measure For Measure alongside Rory Kinnear at the Almeida Theatre.[12]

In February 2011, she played Sarah Burton in a three-part BBC adaptation of Winifred Holtby's novel South Riding.[13] On 12 July 2011, she played Kay Langrish in a BBC Two dramatisation of The Night Watch.[14][15] Beginning in September 2012, she starred in the drama mini-series The Bletchley Circle (2012–2014).[7] On 4 September 2012, she appeared in Jimmy McGovern's Accused.[7]

In December 2013 she returned to the world of Jane Austen, starring as Elizabeth Darcy in the BBC Christmas season drama Death Comes to Pemberley,[7] a three-part television adaptation of the P. D. James novel of the same name which continues the events of Austen's Pride and Prejudice six years after Darcy and Elizabeth's marriage, with a murder mystery plot involving the same characters.[10]

In 2015, she played Mary Shelley in ITV drama series The Frankenstein Chronicles.[16] In December that year she appeared as Ethel Rogers in the BBC three-part serial And Then There Were None, an adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel of the same name.[17]

In 2017, she played Julia in The BBC comedy series Motherland.[7] The show returned for a second series in 2019 and another in May 2021. The second and latest Christmas special, titled "Last Christmas" aired on 23 December 2022, garnering wholly positive reviews from critics.[18][19]

In 2019, Martin played Beelzebub, leader of the denizens of Hell, in the Amazon Prime TV serial Good Omens,[7] based on the book by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. In the same year she joined the cast of Line of Duty[7]' during its fifth series playing DCS Patricia Carmichael, a role she reprised in series six.[20]

In 2021, Martin played the co-lead role in Hollington Drive an ITV television drama series that began broadcasting on 29 September 2021.[7] Created and written by Sophie Petzal, the series follows two sisters, Theresa (Anna Maxwell Martin) and Helen (Rachael Stirling), and their families as they grapple with the potential crime of their children.

In 2022, she hosted the seventh episode of the sixty-third series of Have I Got News for You alongside guest stars Chris McCausland and Steph McGovern and team captains Paul Merton and Ian Hislop.[21]

In February 2023, it was announced that Martin would portray Delia Balmer in the ITV-commissioned true crime drama series Delia Balmer.[22][23]

Martin married film director Roger Michell in 2010.[24] The couple had two daughters (b. 2008/09 and 2010/11).[25][26] In April 2020, Martin announced that the couple had separated.[27] Michell died in September 2021.[28]

• Anna Maxwell Martin at IMDb
• Anna in His Dark Materials
• Article on HisDarkMaterials.org
• Sophie Heawood (26 August 2018), "Interview—Anna Maxwell Martin", The Observer.