Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson CBE (born 30 October 1956) is an English actress of stage and screen.

Background

Juliet Anne Virginia Stevens was born in Essex, England, the daughter of Virginia Ruth (née Marshall), a teacher, and Michael Guy Stevens, an army officer. Stevenson was educated at the independent St Catherine's School in Bramley, near Guildford in Surrey, and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Stevenson was part of 'new wave’ of actors to emerge from the Academy. Others included Jonathan Pryce, Bruce Payne, Alan Rickman, Anton Lesser, Kenneth Branagh and Fiona Shaw. This led to a stage career starting in the early 1980s with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Career

Although she has gained fame through her television and film work, and has often undertaken roles for BBC Radio, she is most notably known as a stage actress. Significant stage roles include her lead performance as Anna in the UK premiere of Burn This in 1990, and as Paulina in Death and the Maiden in 1991. For the latter, she was awarded the 1992 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress.

Stevenson is best known for her leading role in the film Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991), and her roles in The Secret Rapture (1993), Emma (1996), Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Mona Lisa Smile (2003). She has more recently starred in Pierrepoint (2006) (U.S. title Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman), Infamous (2006) as Diana Vreeland and Breaking and Entering (2006) as Rosemary, the therapist.

In 2009, she starred in ITV's A Place of Execution. The role won her the Best Actress Dagger at the 2009 Crime Thriller Awards.

Personal life

She has two children, both born in Camden, London: Rosalind Hannah Brody (born 1994) and Gabriel Jonathan Brody (born late 2000/early 2001).

She is an atheist, but considers herself a spiritual and superstitious person.

She has been a critic of the MMR vaccine, as well as a supporter of the controversial Dr Andrew Wakefield. In 1992, she appeared in a political broadcast for the Labour Party.

Filmography

• Cheri (2009)

• The Secret of Moonacre (2009)

• Dustbin Baby (2008)

• A Place of Execution (2008)

• Ordeal By Innocence (2008)(TV)

• And When Did You Last See Your Father? (2007)

• Streetlight (2006)

• Breaking and Entering (2006)

• Infamous (2006)

• The Snow Queen (2005)

• Pierrepoint (2005)

• Red Mercury (2005)

• A Previous Engagement (2005)

• Being Julia (2004)

• Mona Lisa Smile (2003)

• Hear the Silence (2003) (TV)

• Nicholas Nickleby (2002)

• The Pact (2002) (TV)

• The One and Only (2002)

• Bend It Like Beckham (2002)

• The Road from Coorain (2002) (TV)

• Food of Love (2002)

• The Search for John Gissing (2001)

• Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001) - Emily Cratchit (voice)

• Play (2000)

• Trial by Fire (1999) (TV)

• Cider with Rosie (1998) (TV)

• Stone, Scissors, Paper (1997) (TV)

• Emma (1996)

• The Politician's Wife (1995) (TV)

• Verdi (1994) (TV) (voice)

• Who Dealt? (1993) (TV)

• The Secret Rapture (1993)

• The Legends of Treasure Island (1993) TV Series (voice)

• The Trial (1993)

• The World of Eric Carle (1993) TV Series (voice)

• A Doll's House (1992) (TV)

• Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991)

• In the Border Country (1991)

• Aimée (1991) (TV)

• The March (1990)

• Ladder of Swords (1989)

• Living with Dinosaurs (1989) (TV)

• Drowning by Numbers (1988)

• Stanley Spencer (1988)

• Life Story (1987) (TV)

• Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1984) (TV)

• Antigone (1984) (TV)

• Oedipus at Colonus (1984) (TV)

• Maybury (1981) (mini) TV Series

• The Mallens (1979) TV Series

Other projects, contributions

• When Love Speaks (2002, EMI Classics) - "Sonnet 128" ("How oft, when thou, my music...")

• Duet for One'' (2009) London, stage revival, with Henry Goodman