Hannah Arterton

Arterton was born on 26 January 1989 in Gravesend, Kent, England.[2][3] Her mother Sally-Anne (née Heap) is a cleaner and runs a cleaning business and her father Barry J. Arterton is a metal worker / welder.[4][5][6] Her parents divorced during her early childhood with Arterton growing up with her older sister Gemma Arterton and mother in a council estate.[4][7][8] She reports being initially drawn to acting at the age of seven after watching a rehearsal of the musical The Wizard of Oz performed by The Miskin Theatre in Dartford. Arterton recalled: "I'd never seen anything like that. I was absolutely blown away... A whole different world just opened up."[5] Her matrilineal great-grandmother was a German-Jewish concert violinist.[9]

Her early education was at the Gravesend Grammar School for Girls.[10] She subsequently studied Performance and Music Technology at North Kent College's Miskin Theatre.[11] While studying there, she provided backing vocals for a skiffle band which resulted in a record deal offer which later collapsed. She commented on the experience: "'Argh, I can't do this. It's too hard to trust people in the music industry. It's full of sharks and guys latching on to a young artist and wanting to make money. I found it all quite scary." A lecturer at The Miskin Theatre subsequently convinced her to apply for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), from which she later graduated in 2011.[5][12] During her final year at RADA, she was cast by Stephen Poliakoff in his play My City.[5] Also while at RADA, Arterton formed a seven-piece covers band, The Hitmen and Her, for which she is lead singer.[5]

After performing in the play My City (2011) with Tracey Ullman and Tom Riley at the Almeida Theatre, Arterton was cast as Korinna in the BBC television series Atlantis (2013).[5][13]

Her feature film debut was as a woman caught in a love triangle in the romantic musical Walking on Sunshine (2014).[5][14] Her performance received generally positive reviews from critics.[2][15][16] In the same year, she starred in Hide and Seek (2014), a romantic drama about a polyamorous commune which received the Edinburgh International Film Festival's award for Best British Feature Film.[17][18]

In 2016, she played a detective in American crime novelist Harlan Coben's television series The Five.[19] Two years later, Arterton reunited with Coben to play detective Emma Castle in Netflix original series Safe.[20] In the same year she appeared in two horror films directed by Paul Hyett, The Convent and Peripheral.

Arterton is married to Chris Hyson, a musician and composer. They live together in South Norwood, London.[21]

• Hannah Arterton at IMDb