Kathryn Hunter

For other people of the same name, see Katherine Hunter.

Kathryn Hunter
Born	9 April 1957[citation needed] New York, USA

Kathryn Hunter (born Aikaterini Hadjipateras, 9 April 1957^{[citation needed]}) is an award-winning English actress and theatre director.

Hunter was born in New York to Greek parents but brought up in the UK. She trained at RADA where she is now an associate, and regularly directs student productions.

Career

Stage work

In her stage work, Hunter is particularly associated with physical theatre and has worked with renowned companies in that field including Shared Experience and Complicite. She won an Olivier Award in 1990 for playing the millionairess in Friedrich Durrenmatt's The Visit.^{[citation needed]} Hunter was the first British actress to play King Lear professionally and has played a number of other male characters including in The Bee, directed by Hideki Noda, which played at the Soho Theatre in June 2006.^{[citation needed]} She has toured internationally in the first English-language production of Fragments a collection of short plays by Samuel Beckett, directed by Peter Brook.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, she was made an Artistic Associate at the Royal Shakespeare Company.^{[citation needed]} In January to March 2009, she directed a touring RSC production of Othello at the Warwick Arts Centre, Hackney Empire, Northern Stage, Oxford Playhouse and Liverpool Playhouse.^{[citation needed]} Her husband is movement director on the production and appeared in it as Roderigo - other cast included Michael Gould, Patrice Naiambana and Natalia Tena as Iago, Othello and Desdemona respectively. She also appeared at the Young Vic from March 2009 in the lead in Kafka's Monkey.

In 2010, she appeared as Cleopatra, in a production of Antony and Cleopatra, and as the Fool, in a production of King Lear at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Courtyard Theatre in Stratford on Avon. In January, 2011, she withdrew from these roles shortly before the plays were due to be revived.^{[citation needed]}

In May 2011, she will be reprising her highly acclaimed performance as the ape in the 2009 sell-out success Kafka's Monkey at the Young Vic in London.^{[citation needed]}

TV and film

Her screen work includes a supporting role in the TV series Rome as Cleopatra's companion, Charmian. Notable film work includes Mike Leigh's All or Nothing (2002) and Harry Potter's neighbour, Arabella Figg, in the fifth movie of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007).

External links

• Kathryn Hunter at the Internet Movie Database