Lesley Manville
Lesley A. Manville (born 12 March 1956) is an English actress of film, theatre and television. She is an Olivier Award winner. Manville began her career on stage in the 1972 West End musical I and Albert. In the 1980s, she appeared in the films Dance with a Stranger (1985), directed by Mike Newell and Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987), directed by Stephen Frears. She frequently collaborates with director Mike Leigh, twice being named British Actress of the Year at the London Film Critics Circle Awards for her performances in his 2002 film All or Nothing and his 2010 film Another Year. For the latter, she also received a BAFTA Award nomination. Other Mike Leigh films she has appeared in include High Hopes (1988), Secrets & Lies (1996), Topsy Turvy (1999), Vera Drake (2004) and Mr. Turner (2014). Her extensive career on stage includes appearing in the early 1980s Royal Court productions of Andrea Dunbar's Rita, Sue and Bob Too (1981) and Carol Churchill's Top Girls (1982). She also appeared in Top Girls in New York, in the 1983 Off-Broadway production. Other roles include As You Like It (1985) and Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1985-1986), at the RSC and All About My Mother (2007) and Six Degrees of Separation (2010), at the Old Vic. At the National Theatre, her work includes His Dark Materials (2005), The Alchemist (2006) and her Olivier nominated role in Mike Leigh's Grief (2011). For her role as Helena in the National's revival of the Ibsen play Ghosts (2013), she won the 2014 Olivier Award for Best Actress.