Holliday Grainger

Holliday Grainger
Born	Holliday Clark Grainger (1988-03-27) 27 March 1988 Didsbury, Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Other names	Hollie Grainger
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1994–present

Holliday Clark Grainger (also credited as Hollie Grainger; born 27 March 1988) is an English screen and stage actress. Some of her prominent roles include Lucrezia Borgia in Showtime series The Borgias and Estella in Mike Newell's Great Expectations. In May 2010, Grainger was named one of the 55 faces of the future in Nylon magazine's Young Hollywood Issue.

Early life

Grainger was born in Didsbury. She is of partial Italian descent through a grandfather. Growing up in Manchester, Grainger's first taste of acting came aged 6 when she was scouted for a BBC TV series. From then on, she appeared in multiple TV shows and independent films as a child actor.

She attended Parrs Wood High School from 1999 to 2006, then she started in 2007 a degree in English Literature at the University of Leeds. However, with her passion for acting, she eventually opted for an Open University where she recently gained a First Class Honours Degree.

Career

Grainger's first acting role was at six years old in the BBC comedy drama series All Quiet on the Preston Front. A stream of roles followed in series such as Casualty, Doctors, Dalziel and Pascoe. Among her television roles at young age, Grainger is perhaps most recognisable for playing Megan Boothe in Where the Heart Is, Stacey Appleyard in Waterloo Road and Sophia in Merlin.

In 2011 Grainger became popular with the Showtime television series The Borgias, where she plays Lucrezia Borgia alongside Jeremy Irons in the role of Pope Alexander VI. The series, created by Oscar-winning Neil Jordan and shot in Hungary, has been renewed for a third season.

In addition to television she also performed on stage and on the big-screen. After her role as Emily in The Scouting Book for Boys she appears in a pair of 2011 feature productions – Jane Eyre, playing one of the Rivers sisters opposite Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender, and Bel Ami alongside Robert Pattinson and Uma Thurman. In 2012, she appeared in the film Anna Karenina, playing a minor role, Baroness Shilton.

In June 2011, Grainger landed a lead big screen role as Estella in Mike Newell's film adaptation of Great Expectations, opposite Jeremy Irvine and Helena Bonham Carter. The movie, screened at Toronto International Film Festival 2012, had its European premiere as the closing night film of the BFI London Film Festival. She recently finished filming the third series of The Borgias, starred in Disassociation, a play by Luke Bailey, at the Lowry, is due to start filming the British vampire film Hello Darkness this autumn, and has been cast as Bonnie Parker in a new mini-series about Bonnie & Clyde. She is currently in talks to play the female lead in the film version of the play Posh, alongside Max Irons.

Personal life

Grainger resides in Manchester with her mother Gian, a graphic designer. She went to piano, gymnastics lessons, Taekwondo and was a pupil at the Madeley School of Dancing in Manchester.

Filmography

Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes	Broadcaster
1994	All Quiet on the Preston Front	Kirsty		BBC1
1996	Roger and the Rottentrolls	Princess Kate		ITV
1997	The Missing Postman	Harriet		BBC1
2000	Casualty	Katie Stoppard	One episode: "Seize the Night" (No.14.26); 26 February 2000	BBC One
2001	Doctors	Nita Harmer	One episode: "Writing to Charlie" (No.3.55); 23 May 2001	BBC One
	Dalziel and Pascoe	Nichola Crowley	One episode: "Walls of Silence" (No.6.1); 29 October 2001	BBC One
2002	Sparkhouse	Older Lisa Bolton	September 2002	BBC One
2003	The Illustrated Mum	Star	5 December 2003 (adapted from the Jacqueline Wilson novel)	Channel 4
	The Royal	Carole Green	One episode: "Coffin Fit" (No.1.3); 2 February 2003	ITV
2005	No Angels	Simone	One episode (No.2.5); 12 April 2005	Channel 4
	New Street Law	Katie Lewis	One episode (No.1.1); 4 May 2006	ITV
	Where the Heart Is	Megan Boothe	18 episodes: 6 July 2003 – 28 August 2005	ITV
	Doctors	Holly Leavis	One episode: "Indestructible" (No.7.87); 9 November 2005	BBC One
2007	Johnny and the Bomb	Rose Bushell	15 January 2006 (adapted from the Terry Pratchett novel)	ITV1
	The Bad Mother's Handbook	Charlotte Cooper	19 February 2007 (adapted by Kate Long from her own novel)	ITV1
	Waterloo Road	Stacey Appleyard	Four episodes (No.2.5, 2.6, 2.8, 2.10); 11 February – 12 April 2007	BBC One
2008	Dis/Connected	Jenny	31 March 2008	BBC Three
	M.I. High	Leah Retsam	One episode: "It's a Kind of Magic" (No.2.1); 7 January 2008	BBC One
	The Royal Today	Abigail	One episode (No.1.3); 9 January 2008	ITV1
	Fairy Tales	Leeza Gruff	One episode: "Billy Goat"; 31 January 2008	BBC One
	Waking the Dead	Nicola	Two episodes: "Duty and Honour" (parts 1 & 2); 28–29 April 2008	BBC One
	Merlin	Sophia	One episode: "The Gates of Avalon" (No.1.7); 1 November 2008	BBC One
2009	Demons	Ruby	All six episodes: 3 January – 7 February 2009	ITV1
	Robin Hood	Meg	One episode: "A Dangerous Deal" (No.3.9); 30 May 2009	BBC One
	Blue Murder	Jess Burgess	One episode: "Having it All" (No.5.1); 7 September 2009	ITV1
	Above Suspicion	Sharon Bilkin	Three episodes: "The Red Dahlia" (No.2.1); 4 January 2010	ITV1
2010	Stanley Park	"Dirty" Debbie	Pilot	BBC Three
2010	Five Daughters	Alice	Two episodes: 26–27 April 2010	BBC One
2010	Any Human Heart	Tess	Two episodes: 21–28 April 2010	Channel 4
2011–present	The Borgias	Lucrezia Borgia		Showtime
Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Daddy Fox	Young Maggie Richardson	Director: John McCormack
2008	Awaydays	Molly	Director: Pat Holden
2010	The Scouting Book For Boys	Emily	Director: Tom Harper
2011	Jane Eyre	Diana	Director: Cary Fukunaga
2012	Great Expectations	Estella	Director: Mike Newell
2012	Bel Ami	Suzanne	Directors: Declan Donnellan, Nick Ormerod
2012	Anna Karenina	The Baroness	Director: Joe Wright
Theatre
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2009	Dimetos	Lydia	Donmar Warehouse, London; 19 March – 9 May 2009 (author: Athol Fugard; director: Douglas Hodge)

External links

• Holliday Grainger at the Internet Movie Database