Imelda Staunton is a highly accomplished, award-winning actress in film, television, theatre and radio. Her performance in the title role for Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake in 2004 drew critical acclaim, securing Best Actress accolades across the Film Festival circuit as well as a BAFTA for Best Actress in a Leading Role. On stage, Imelda has been honoured with four Laurence Olivier Awards; three for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for her roles in Into the Woods, Sweeney Todd, and Gypsy, and one for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Play for her work in both A Chorus of Disapproval and The Corn is Green.

Imelda trained at RADA and spent 6 years working in repertory theatre; she has continued to delight audiences in the West End, National Theatre, RSC in many productions including Follies, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Gypsy, Good People, Circle Mirror Transformation, Sweeney Todd, A Delicate Balance, Entertaining Mr Sloane, There Came a Gypsy Riding, Calico, Life x3, The Beggar’s Opera, Guys and Dolls, A Chorus of Disapproval, Fair Maid of the West, They Shoot Horses Don’t They?, It’s a Mad World my Masters, Good People, The Corn is Green, The Wizard of Oz, Uncle Vanya, The Lady and the Clarinet, and Into the Woods.

Imelda’s film credits include her internationally recognised role as Dolores Umbridge in the Harry Potter films, Chicken Run, Downton Abbey, Amulet, Finding your Feet, Paddington, Pride, Arthur Christmas, Maleficent, Sense and Sensibility, Shakespeare in Love, Nanny McPhee, Much Ado About Nothing, The Awakening, Another Year and Twelfth Night.

On television, Imelda most recently played Queen Elizabeth in the multi-award-winning Netflix series The Crown. Her other television credits include Brassic, Talking Heads, Trying, Flesh & Blood, A Confession, That Day We Sang, The Girl, Psychoville, Cranford Chronicles, The Wind in the Willows, My Family and other Animals, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Little Britain, Fingersmith, Strange, Family Business, Cambridge Spies, David Copperfield, Is it Legal, Up The Garden Path, The Singing Detective and The Heat of the Day.