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Felicity Rose Hadley Jones is an English actress and producer. Jones started her professional acting career as a child, appearing at age 12 in The Treasure Seekers (1996). She went on to play Ethel Hallow for one series in the television show The Worst Witch and its sequel Weirdsister College. After Kings Norton Girls School, Jones attended King Edward VI Handsworth School, to complete A Levels and went on to take a gap year (during which she appeared in the BBC series Servants (2003)). She took time off from acting to attend school during her formative years, and has worked steadily since she graduated with a 2:1 from Wadham College, Oxford in 2006, where she read English. While studying English, she appeared in student plays, including Attis in which she played the title role, and, in 2005, Shakespeare's "Comedy of Errors" for the OUDS summer tour to Japan, starring alongside Harry Lloyd.

On radio, she is known for playing the long-running role of Emma Grundy in The Archers. In 2008, she appeared in the Donmar Warehouse production of The Chalk Garden. Since 2006, Jones has appeared in numerous films, including Northanger Abbey (2007), Brideshead Revisited (2008), Chéri (2009), and The Tempest (2010). She stars in Star Wars spin-off Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) as Jyn Erso. Her performance in the 2011 film Like Crazy (2011) was met with critical acclaim garnering her numerous awards, including a special jury prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival. In 2014, her performance as Jane Hawking in The Theory of Everything (2014) was also met with critical acclaim, garnering her nominations for the Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA, and Academy Award for Best Actress.

In 2019, Jones founded her own production company, Piecrust Productions with her brother, Alex Jones.

For decades, British actress and comedienne Dame Julie Walters has served as a sturdy representation of the working class with her passionate, earthy portrayals on England's stage, screen and television. A bona fide talent, her infectious spirit and self-deprecating sense of humor eventually captured the hearts of international audiences. The small and slender actress with the prominent cheekbones has yet to give an uninteresting performance.

She was born Julia Mary Walters on February 22, 1950 in Edgbaston, England, the youngest of three children and only daughter of Mary Bridget (O'Brien), an Irish-born postal clerk from County Mayo, and Thomas Walters, an English-born builder, from Birmingham. Convent schooled in Birmingham, she expressed an early desire to act. However, her iron-willed mother had other ideas and geared her towards a nursing career. Dutifully applying at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, Julie eventually gave up nursing when the pull to be an actress proved too strong.

Studying English and Drama at Manchester Polytechnic, she subsequently joined a theatre company in Liverpool and apprenticed as a stand-up comic. A one-time company member of the Vanload improv troupe, she made her London stage debut in the aptly-titled comedy "Funny Peculiar" in 1975, and went on to develop a successfully bawdy act on the cabaret circuit. While at Manchester, Julie befriended aspiring writer/comedienne Victoria Wood and the twosome appeared together in sketch comedy. A couple of their works, "Talent" and "Nearly a Happy Ending", transferred to television and were accompanied by rave reviews. Eventually, they were handed their own television series, Wood and Walters (1981).

In 1980, Julie scored a huge solo success under the theatre lights when she made her London debut in Willy Russell's "Educating Rita". For her superlative performance, she won both the Variety Critic's and London Critic's Circle Awards as the young hairdresser who vows to up her station in life by enrolling in a university. She conquered film as well when Educating Rita (1983) transferred to the big screen opposite Michael Caine as her Henry Higgins-like college professor, collecting a Golden Globe Award and Oscar nomination. Reuniting with Victoria Wood in 1984, the pair continue to appear together frequently on television, most recently with the award-winning series dinnerladies (1998). On stage, Julie has impressed in a variety of roles ranging from the contemporary ("Fool for Love", "Frankie and Johnny at the Clair de Lune") to the classics ("Macbeth", "The Rose Tattoo" and "All My Sons"), winning the Laurence Olivier Award for the last-mentioned play.

Following her success as Rita, she immediately rolled out a sterling succession of film femmes including her seedy waitress-turned successful brothel-owner in Personal Services (1987); the unsophisticated, small-town wife of Phil Collins in Buster (1988); a boozy, man-chasing mum in Killing Dad or How to Love Your Mother (1989); and Liza Minnelli's abrasive tap student in Stepping Out (1991). Playing a wide variety of ages, she also mustered up a very convincing role as the mother of Joe Orton in the critically-acclaimed Prick Up Your Ears (1987).

Julie capped her career in films as the abrasively stern but encouraging dance teacher in Billy Elliot (2000) which earned her a second Oscar nomination and a healthy helping of quirky character roles, including her charming, charity-driven widow who poses à la natural in Calendar Girls (2003), and the maternal witch-wife Molly Weasley in the J.K. Rowling "Harry Potter" series beginning with Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and ending with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011). For her work on film and television, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts has honored Julie five times, including four awards in a row (2001-2004).

Married to Grant Roffey since 1997 after a 12-year relationship, the couple tend to a 70-acre organic farm they bought in Sussex. They have one daughter, Maisie Mae Roffey (born 1988). In 1999, Julie was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) at the Queen's Birthday Honours for her services to drama, and in 2008, was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). In 2017, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Other more recent millennium films for Dame Julie include Wah-Wah (2005), Becoming Jane (2007) (as Jane Austen's mother), Mamma Mia! (2008), Paddington (2014), Brooklyn (2015), Paddington 2 (2017), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), Mary Poppins Returns (2018) and The Secret Garden (2020) as Mrs. Medlock.

Born in England of Jamaican parents (her mother Vera an art historian and museologist and her father Charles Hyatt an actor/broadcaster/comedian), Michael received her earliest education and what she considers her most formative years abroad. At the age of ten she migrated to the United States with her mother and two siblings. Living in Maryland and later Washington, DC, Michael slowly adjusted to the American way of life. She went on to study acting at Howard University for her undergraduate degree and continued at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts for her Masters.

Before Michael's work in film and television she enjoyed memorable performances on stages throughout the country, most notably is her experience on Broadway in the critically acclaimed Ragtime.

Although Michael is automatically considered an African-American, because of her international background she eagerly acknowledges that she is more specifically an African/British/Jamaican/American and any attempt to exclude any part of that reality would be an incorrect representation of who she truly is.

Annette Badland is an English actress known for a wide range of roles on TV, radio and film. She has played Margaret Blaine in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who (2005), Doomsday Dora in The Sparticle Mystery (2011), Birdie Henshall in the drama series Cutting It (2002), Mavis in season 6 of Skins (2007), Ursula Crowe in children's science fiction/fantasy series Wizards vs. Aliens (2012), and Babe Smith in soap opera EastEnders (1985). Badland plays Hazel Woolley in BBC Radio The Archers.

Her training took place at East 15 Acting School, London. She has appeared in many television roles including Bergerac (1981) (1981-1984), two episodes of the sitcom series 2point4 Children (1991), Making Out (1989), Summerhill (2008), Lace (1984), Jackanory (1965), Archer's Goon (1992), The Demon Headmaster (1996), A Little Princess (1986), The Worst Witch (1998), The Queen's Nose (1995) and Coronation Street (1960), as well as an early appearance in series one of Hale and Pace (1986) in a number of sketches. In 1989, Badland also appeared in The Rough and the Smooth (1989). She played the recurring villain Blon Fel-Fotch Pasameer-Day Slitheen a.k.a. "Margaret Blaine" in the 2005 series of Doctor Who. She also provides commentary on the Doctor Who Complete Series One Box Set, on the episodes "World War Three" and "Boom Town" as a Slitheen.

In 2006 she put in an appearance at Larkhall Prison for the eighth series of ITV1 drama Bad Girls (1999). She played Angela Robbins, a disturbing inmate who was suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder.

She has also appeared in many films including Jabberwocky (1977), Out of Order (1987), Beyond Bedlam (1994), Captives (1994), Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets (1995), Little Voice (1998), Beautiful People (1999), Honest (2000), and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and appeared in the TV adaptations of Gulliver's Travels (1996) as the farmer's wife, and A Christmas Carol (1999) as Mrs Fezziwig. Badland has performed in several radio dramas including BBC Radio 4's Rolling Home (2001), Smelling of Roses (2003) and an adaptation of George MacDonald's novel At the Back of the North Wind; lead role as DC Gwen Danbury in An Odd Body on BBC Radio 4 Extra. In 2005 she took over the role of Hazel Woolley, the "bad seed" adopted daughter of Jack Woolley in the long-running radio soap opera The Archers, and in 2008 appeared in the radio serial The Way We Live Right Now as Tilly Carbury.

Badland was also the presenter of BBC's You and Me in the early 1990s and appeared in the British comedy Three and Out released on 25 April 2008. She also played the sharply conservative Ethel Tonks in the BBC's All the Small Things (2009) (April/May 2009) alongside Sarah Lancashire, Neil Pearson, Sarah Alexander and Bryan Dick. In 2009 she appeared in Casualty (1986) as a disturbed mother who was always worrying about her daughters.

She has made her debut at the Royal Exchange Theatre, in Manchester, as Madame Arcarti in Blithe Spirit.

In 2010, Badland performed in Caryl Churchill's Far Away at the Bristol Old Vic.

On 5 July 2010 she appeared as a Verger in Doctors (2000). In 2012, Badland appeared as Ursula in the new CBBC science fiction series, Wizards vs Aliens. She was also in BBC's Cutting It, for 4 series.

In the CBBC hit show The Sparticle Mystery, Badland played DoomsDay Dora and HoloDora. She appeared in four episodes as DoomsDay Dora and eight episodes as HoloDora.

In August 2013 it was announced that Badland would play the role of Mrs FitzGibbons in the Starz television series Outlander (2014).

On 12 December 2013, it was announced that Badland would appear as a regular in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders, playing Babe Smith. She made her first on-screen appearance in the episode broadcast on 31 January 2014. On 18 September 2016, it was announced that Badland had been axed from the serial by new executive producer, Sean O'Connor, with the character making her final appearance on 9 February 2017.

Helen George was born on 19 June 1984 in Birmingham,West Midlands , England, UK. She is an actress, known for The Three Musketeers (2011), Call the Midwife (2012) and The Monster (2015). She was previously married to Oliver Boot.

Patrick Baladi was born to an English mother and a Syrian father, a doctor who was once the gynaecologist to the wife of Colonel Gadaffi. He was educated in Libya and at a Jesuit boarding school in Lancashire where his first taste of treading the boards was when he played Nancy in a (boys only) version of 'Oliver!' After drama school he joined the National Theatre where he acted alongside Martin Freeman, who would later be a co-star in the television comedy series 'The Office'. Following his success in 'The Office' he joined the usual suspects in cop dramas like 'A Touch of Frost' and the inevitable 'Midsomer Murders', where he got electrocuted in his car. More romantic roles came in 'Mistresses' and 'Consuming Passions', appearing nude in the latter as Olivia Colman seduced him in the shower. He is also a member of a rock band called Grow Up with actor Keith Allen. Married to actress/dancer Gemma Walker (b. 1982) he has a daughter Ava, born in March 2007. When Ava was born he impressed the midwife by assisting at the birth, thanks to his recollection of delivering a dummy baby in the drama series 'Bodies'.

Thomas Arthur Darvill, known professionally as Arthur Darvill, is an English actor and musician. He is perhaps most recognized as Rory Williams, one of the Eleventh Doctor's companions in Doctor Who (2005), and as Rev. Paul Coates in Broadchurch (2013). In 2013-2014 he appeared in the lead role in the theatre musical Once in the West End and on Broadway. Darvill's mother Ellie Darvill is an actress and during Arthur's early childhood she worked with masks, puppets and live acting as a member of Cannon Hill Theatre, which was based at Midlands Arts Centre, and toured Britain and the world. She is also known as the puppeteer and voice behind Why Bird from Playdays. Prior to the birth of his sister, Darvill went on some of the tours, helping with the setting up of the shows. His father Nigel played the Hammond organ for artists including Edwin Starr, Ruby Turner, Fine Young Cannibals and UB40. Darvill attended Bromsgrove School in Worcestershire from 1993 to 2000.

Martha Howe-Douglas was born on 19 September 1980 in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for Doctors (2000), Bill (2015) and Ghosts (2019).

James Phelps was born on 25 February 1986 in Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. He is an actor and producer, known for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001). He has been married to Annika Ostle since 2016.

Duane Henry was born in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. Duane is an actor, known for The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Captain Marvel (2019) and The Oxford Murders (2008).

Lorraine Burroughs was born on 22 January 1981 in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Doctor Who (2005), DCI Banks (2010) and Fast Girls (2012).

Oliver Phelps was born about 13 minutes before his twin brother, James Phelps. He has always loved acting and appeared in many high school drama productions. In 2000 he and his brother were picked to play Fred (James) and George (Oliver) Weasley in the film adaptations of the Harry Potter book series by J.K. Rowling.

Mark Frost was born in 1968 in Longbridge, Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Mayhem (2017), Faust (2000) and Poldark (2015).

Zita Sattar was born in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. Zita is an actor, known for Casualty (1986), Holby City (1999) and The Worst Witch (2017).

Ian Hallard was born on 9 November 1974 in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. He is an actor and writer, known for Mary Queen of Scots (2018), Doctor Who (2005) and Marple (2004). He has been married to Mark Gatiss since 2008.

Pal Aron was born in 1971 in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. He is an actor, known for About Time (2013), Stella (2012) and Dog Eat Dog (2001).

Roland Lee Gift was born in Birmingham, England. He and his two sisters, Helga and Ragna, grew up in Hull where his mother, Pauline, ran several second-hand clothes shops.

He received his education at Kelvin Hall School (Bricknell Avenue), but did not receive favorable yearly reports.

Andy Cox and David Steele chose Gift as the lead singer of their new band in 1985 after their former band, The Beat, broke up.

He worked in various theater, television, and movie roles beginning early in his career after joining Fine Young Cannibals. His first role was in the 1987 film Sammy and Rosie Get Laid. He didn't appear on stage until 1990 when he landed a part as Romeo in 1990 for a production of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in Hull Truck Theatre, which had a brief run in the USA at the Staller Center for the Arts. Later, in 1993, he had a reoccurring role in the popular series Highlander: The Series as the Immortal Xavier St. Cloud.

Gift released his first solo album since the official breakup of the band Fine Young Cannibals in 1992, self-titled, in 2002. It featured the single "It's Only Money". He waited until 2007 to go back to the recording studio for a follow-up album.

He is reported to have several children, but has made his preference to keep certain aspects of his personal life out of the public eye.

Jo Enright was born in 1968 in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. She is an actress, known for Ideal (2005), Trollied (2011) and The Job Lot (2013).

Barry Aird Birmingham born and RADA alumni who worked on stages around the world being fortunate to have worked with some of the most prolific Shakespearean performers and directors alike.

He is perhaps best know for his movies such as BAFTA award winning Beast (2017), Avengers Age of Ultron, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, and Morbius as well as British films City Of Tiny Lights and TV dramas such as Line Aof Duty, Brassic, Dalgliesh, Angela Black and Berlin

He is also productive in voicing both adverts and video games such as Total War: Warhammer 3, Battlefield 2042, Age of Empires & Assassins Creed.

Barry has a wealth of new dramatic roles due for release in 2023

A tall, imposing character actor with a voice to match, John Phillips brought an authoritative manner and dignified military bearing to his many roles on stage and screen. A decorated veteran of the 1944 Normandy Campaign, Phillips frequently appeared on television as uniformed senior officers and police chief constables, from Frontier (1968) to Z Cars (1962). His piercing eyes and forthright manner made him equally suited to portraying magistrates, academics and clergymen.

After a long innings with the Birmingham Repertory prior to 1945, he appeared post-war in Bristol and at the Old Vic in London, playing anything from Henrik Ibsen to Shakespeare. He was critically acclaimed for his roles as Henry VIII and Timon of Athens, Prospero and Tamburlaine the Great (in Christopher Marlowe's play)). Acting on screen from the early 1950's, he was insidious as lawyer Tulkinghorn in Bleak House (1959), and lent gravitas to his Norfolk in Richard III (1955) and Grand Duke Nicholas in Fall of Eagles (1974). He was not beyond parodying his screen personae, being droll and stereotypically stiff-upper-lip, as Colonel Harcourt Badger Owen in the uproarious Ripping Yarns (1976) episode 'Escape from Stalag Luft 112 B'. Phillips retired from the stage in the 1980's and made his celluloid curtain call in the eccentric, off-beat comedy Leon the Pig Farmer (1992).

Nick Owenford was born on 13 December 1968 in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. He is an actor, known for Wonka (2023), The Game (2014) and Firrkie (2025). He has been married to Kate Owen since 22 October 2000. They have three children.

Emma Willis was born on 20 March 1976 in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. She is an actress, known for EastEnders (1985), The Keith and Paddy Picture Show (2017) and Popatron (2010). She has been married to Matt Willis since 5 July 2008. They have three children.

Tony Armatrading was born on 30 November 1961 in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Saint (1997), Now You See Me 2 (2016) and Notting Hill (1999). He was married to Suzan Crowley. He died on 10 May 2021 in the UK.

Cherrelle Skeete was born on 25 July 1988 in Birmingham, West Midlands, England, UK. She is an actress and director, known for Hanna (2019), The Midwich Cuckoos (2022) and Black Cake (2023).

Angus Newton Mackay (15 July 1926 - 8 June 2013) was an actor.

Despite his Scottish name Angus Mackay was a most English performer. Usually bespectacled and always fastidious, he was forever popping up on television playing repressed and officious factotums, effete Etonians or kindly clergymen. Some of those little roles linger long in the memory, such as the amorous waterbed salesman in Steptoe and Son (1974). But Mackay's passion was the stage, where, in a 50-year career, he brought a piquant precision to everything from Stoppard to Shaw.

Born in 1926, the son of a Methodist minister, Mackay was raised in Bournemouth, and after National Service in Belfast read English at Cambridge. He was an indefatigable student actor: an adroit Heartfree in Vanburgh's The Provok'd Wife in 1949, and a "neat and polished" Antipholous in a Comedy of Errors staged as Victorian farce. It transferred to the Watergate Theatre in London in 1950, by which time he had been Warwick to Julian Slade's Dauphin in St Joan, a meeting that was to change his life.

Slade wrote an undergraduate musical for May Week, Lady May. Mackay proved both funny and melodious in the cast, and when Slade went on to study at Bristol Old Vic, he formed a writing partnership with actress Dorothy Reynolds as librettist. Mackay would go on to act in many of the pair's hits, (most notably as a comedy curate in the record-breaking Salad Days), and marry Dorothy.

Encouraged by a notice from Kenneth Tynan urging him to turn professional, Mackay left Cambridge with a parting shot of Jack in The Importance of Being Earnest. His career kicked off at the Bristol Hippodrome in JB Priestley's Treasure on Pelican (1951). Mackay was in good company from the off; Olivier cast him as a footman in The Sleeping Prince at the Phoenix in 1953 alongside Vivien Leigh. At Birmingham Rep he appeared in Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra with Albert Finney, and in 1958 he joined the Sheffield Playhouse for a season which began with Peter Ustinov's The Banbury Nose.

He and Dorothy had long associations with three theatres: the Bristol Old Vic, the Salisbury Arts and the Everyman Cheltenham. All three were under threat at various points and saved by campaigns the couple were active in. He played in Meet Me by Moonlight opposite his wife in Salisbury and at Cheltenham, where he was also a diffident Stephen Bent in Slade and Reynolds' Wildest Dreams (1960), and a dashing Mr Knightley to Helen Dorward's Emma in 1962. He and his wife loved Austen, and at the Salon in Ranger's House, Blackheath in summer 1967 the pair performed readings to mark the 150th anniversary of her death. England's Jane was then performed by them at the Purcell Rooms and around the country, beginning at Cheltenham and Salisbury, where they were always welcome.

It was hardly surprising that he would be kept busy for over 30 years with small roles for television: he was acute and meticulous, an actor of quietness and slightness. His most celebrated television performance was in Julian Bond's play Breakdown (1976), as the psychiatrist administering to a crumbling Jack Hedley.

Appearing in Wings of Song by CP Taylor for Granada three years later Mackay met the young actor Simon Callow. The two became great friends, and Mackay later scripted and performed in Nicolson Fights Croydon at the Offstage Downstairs at Chalk Farm in 1986, which Callow devised and directed, an intimate study of the patrician politician Harold Nicolson marooned in a drab hotel room during an election campaign as the England of 1949 is vividly evoked. Mackay adored the piece and won superb reviews. In James Mundy's Sinners and Saints at the Croydon Warehouse in 1986, by turns a grim and uplifting story of angels in dirty places, Mackay was described as "astonishing, Noel Coward crossed with Jean Genet".

In 1977 Dorothy died from motor neurone disease. The house at Manchuria Road in Clapham felt very empty, and so Mackay pinned up a notice at Rada offering lodgings to impoverished drama students. A young Kenneth Branagh saw the notice, and in his book Beginnings fondly remembers first entering the house which seemed to contain every edition of Plays and Players ever printed. Mackay was deeply versed in theatrical history, wrote copious diaries and kept thousands of press clippings. His archive was a paradise for a rising actor like Branagh and his devotion to theatre was an inspiration to all who came into contact with him. Simon Callow says in tribute to his friend: "I was enchanted to meet someone with such knowledge, and with such high standards which you wanted to live up to."

He left the business in 1993, regretfully feeling that what he had to offer was no longer required. He was quite wrong. The need for performers with immaculate manners, mellifluous voices, and, to use that very apt word again, "polish", lives on. And thanks to his archive, which there are plans to make accessible, and the wonders of videotape, so too does he.

He died in 2013 aged 86.