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Sophia Myles

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Sophia Myles
Myles at the 2007 Berlinale Film Festival
Born
Sophia Jane Myles

(1980-03-18) 18 March 1980 (age 44)
London, England
OccupationActress
Years active1996–present
Partner(s)Charles Dance (2004-2005)
David Tennant (2005–2007)
Paul Wilson (2007-2008)
James Bell (?-present)
Children1

Sophia Jane Myles (/səˈfaɪ.ə/;[1] born 18 March 1980) is an English actress. She is best known in film for portraying Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward in Thunderbirds (2004), Isolde in Tristan & Isolde (2006), Darcy in Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), Erika in Underworld (2003) and Underworld: Evolution (2006) and Freya in Outlander (2008). She has also starred in the films From Hell (2001), The Abduction Club (2002), Out of Bounds (2003), Art School Confidential (2006), Hallam Foe (2007), The Damned (2013) and Blackwood (2015).

Myles has also received critical acclaim for her television work, particularly as Madame de Pompadour in the Doctor Who episode "The Girl in the Fireplace" (2006), Beth Turner in Moonlight (2007–2008), Beth Bailey in Spooks (2010) and Rebecca Bishop in A Discovery of Witches (2018–2021).

Myles won a BAFTA for Best Actress for her role as Kate in Hallam Foe (2007) and was also nominated for a BIFA at the British Independent Film Awards for the same film. She has also won several other awards at various other film festivals across the world including Best Actress for Two Words (2018) and Best Supporting Actress for November 1st (2019).

Early life

Myles was born in London. Her mother, Jane (née Allan), works in educational publishing, and her father, Peter R. Myles, was a retired Church of England vicar in Isleworth, West London.[2] Her paternal grandmother was Russian,[3] and Myles refers to herself as "half-Welsh, half-Russian".[4] She grew up in Notting Hill and attended Fox Primary School. At the age of 11, she moved with her family to Isleworth and attended The Green School. Following success at her A Levels, she had been planning to study philosophy at Cambridge at which she got a place, but chose to pursue an acting career after being spotted by Julian Fellowes in a school play and shortly after had a small role in his television production of The Prince and the Pauper in 1996.[3]

Career

Myles at Berlinale, 2007

Since 1996, Myles has appeared in a number of films and television productions. After roles in the television series Heartbeat and Foyle's War, in 2001 Myles starred as Victoria Abberline in the thriller film From Hell alongside Johnny Depp with Myles playing his wife. Myles played a main role in the comedy-romance film The Abduction Club (2002) before then playing the role of Erika in the 2003 vampire film Underworld with Kate Beckinsale, and reprised the character in its sequel, Underworld: Evolution (2006). In 2003, she also starred in the thriller Out of Bounds and played Lady Penelope in Thunderbirds (2004), the film version of the classic television show of the same name. Myles initially had the choice to star in either Thunderbirds or Troy but she chose the former as she said "Lady Penelope is such an iconic character".[4] In 2005, Myles starred in the two-part war drama miniseries Colditz with Damian Lewis and Tom Hardy. In 2006, she co-starred as Isolde in the epic romantic drama Tristan & Isolde opposite James Franco.

Myles appeared as Madame de Pompadour in the 2006 Doctor Who episode "The Girl in the Fireplace", which is often referred to as one of the best episodes of the series. The episode was nominated for a Nebula Award and won the 2007 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.[5] Myles also had roles as Gwenda Halliday in the British detective drama Agatha Christie's Marple: Sleeping Murder and Sophie Amsden in American thriller Covert One: The Hades Factor on television before starring in the 2006 comedy film Art School Confidential. Also in 2006, she appeared as Lucy Westenra in a BBC adaptation of Dracula.

In 2007, Myles was cast as Beth Turner in the popular CBS supernatural television drama Moonlight, a role she would play until the show's end in 2008. Moonlight won Best New Drama in the 2007 People's Choice Awards. Myles was nominated for the Best Actress Award in 2007 for her role as Kate in Hallam Foe from the British Independent Film Award committee,[6] for which she also received a BAFTA Scotland Award. In 2008, she played Freya, the daughter of John Hurt's character, in the sci-fi action epic Outlander with Jim Caviezel and Ron Perlman.[7]

After having a cameo role in the American comedy film Etienne! in 2009, in 2010 Myles joined the cast of Spooks, a BBC television series about a counter-terrorism unit in MI5, for its ninth series, playing Beth Bailey.[8] Myles then had a starring role as Lauren in the 2013 American horror film The Damned with Peter Facinelli and Nathalia Ramos. In 2014, Myles starred as geologist Darcy Tirrel opposite Mark Wahlberg and Stanley Tucci in the Michael Bay-directed blockbuster Transformers: Age of Extinction.[9]

Later in 2014, Myles starred as Rachel in the psychological horror film Blackwood before going on to have roles as Dr. Anna Clarke in the international action-thriller Crossing Lines and the aristocratic Lady Katherine Longmore in the miniseries Our Zoo. In 2018, Myles provided her voice for an episode of the sci-fi series Firestorm.

Myles currently plays Rebecca Bishop in the fantasy-romance television series A Discovery of Witches; the first season was released in 2018 and the second in 2021 with a third series already filmed and awaiting release. After roles in the films Two Words (2018) and November 1st (2019), for which she won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively, Myles played Ann Payne, a secret agent, in the 2020 Portuguese film Listen which was selected as the Portuguese entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 93rd Academy Awards.[10] However, in December 2020 the film was disqualified, as more than half of its dialogue was in English.[11] Also in 2020, Myles reprised her role as Madame de Pompadour for a minisode sequel specially written for her by Steven Moffat that aired on YouTube on 6 May 2020.[12]

Myles is set to star as Beth Barnes in the comedy-heist film Decrypted about the kidnap the creator of Bitcoin, alongside Amanda Abbington and Kevin McNally. The film is due for release in the summer of 2021.

Personal life

From 2004 to 2005, Myles was in a relationship with actor Charles Dance[13] and has also dated Damian Lewis[14] and musician Paul Wilson from the band Snow Patrol.

Myles began dating David Tennant after filming an episode of Doctor Who.[15] In October 2007, it was reported they were no longer together.[16]

Myles is reportedly good friends with fellow celebrities Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Sienna Miller, Anna Friel, Rufus Sewell and Dawn French.[17]

In September 2010, it was announced that Myles had become engaged to Brent Thomas Funston, a Texan entrepreneur, although they have since split up.[4]

In September 2014, Myles gave birth to a son with her partner James Bell.[18][19]

Her father, Peter Myles, died on 21 March 2020 after contracting COVID-19.[20]

Filmography

Film

Year Title Role Notes
1999 Mansfield Park Susan Price
Guest House Paradiso Saucy Wood Nymph
2001 From Hell Victoria Abberline
2002 The Abduction Club Anne Kennedy
2003 Underworld Erika
Out of Bounds Louise Thompson
2004 Thunderbirds Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward
2006 Tristan & Isolde Isolde
Underworld: Evolution Erika
Art School Confidential Audrey
Dracula Lucy Westenra
2007 Hallam Foe Kate Breck
2008 Outlander Freya
2009 Etienne! Sophia Myles
2012 A Sunny Morning Grace
2013 The Damned Lauren
2014 Transformers: Age of Extinction Darcy Tirrel[21]
Blackwood Rachel Marshall
2018 Two Words Victoria
2019 November 1st Caroline
2020 Listen Ann Payne
2021 All That Glitters Margaret Post-production
Decrypted Beth Barnes
TBA Disarm Megan Granger

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1996 The Prince and the Pauper Lady Jane Grey 4 episodes
1998 Big Women Saffron Episode: "Saffron's Search"
1999 Oliver Twist Agnes Fleming Miniseries
2001 The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby Kate Nickleby Television film
2001 Heartbeat Heather Conway Episode: "No Hiding Place"
2002 Foyle's War Susan Gascoigne Episode: "A Lesson in Murder"
2003 Coming Up Nina 1 episode
2005 Colditz Lizzie Carter Television film
2006 Agatha Christie's Marple Gwenda Halliday Episode: "Sleeping Murder"
2006 Covert One: The Hades Factor Sophie Amsden Television film
2006;2020 Doctor Who Madame de Pompadour Episode: "The Girl in the Fireplace";

Webcast Episode: "Pompadour"[12]

2006 Extras Defence Lawyer Episode: "Orlando Bloom"
2007 Moonlight Beth Turner 16 episodes
2010 Spooks Beth Bailey 8 episodes
2014 Crossing Lines Dr. Anna Clarke 2 episodes
2014 Our Zoo Lady Katherine Longmore All 6 episodes
2014 Panorama Narrator Episode: "Last Chance Academy"
2018-2021 A Discovery of Witches Rebecca Bishop 6 episodes
2018 Firestorm Laura Hope/Operative 19 Voice

Music videos

Year Artist Song
2002 Bush "Inflatable"
2003 Ronan Keating "Love Won't Work (If We Don't Try)"
2006 Gavin DeGraw "We Belong Together"

References

  1. ^ Sophia says her own name at the start of the video commentary for "The Girl in the Fireplace" in the DVD collection Doctor Who: The Complete Second Series.
  2. ^ Sheffield, Emily (8 August 2003). "Myles ahead; Sophia Myles beat Sophie Dahl and Rosamund Pike to the coveted role of Lady Penelope in next year's 'Thunderbirds'. Now she's about to star in Hollywood's vampire tale 'Underworld'. Not bad for a vicar's daughter from Isleworth, says Emily Sheffield". Evening Standard. Retrieved 27 May 2012 – via Questia Online Library.
  3. ^ a b Husband, Stuart (5 August 2007). "Curtain call for Miss Myles". Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 5 August 2007.
  4. ^ a b c Hoggard, Liz (20 September 2010). "From wronged maiden to kickass spy: Spooks star Sophia Myles". Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 3 March 2011. Retrieved 5 February 2011.
  5. ^ "2006 Final Nebula Award Ballot". sfwa.org. Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. Archived from the original on 22 March 2007. Retrieved 12 April 2007.; "2007 Hugo Awards". thehugoawards.org. World Science Fiction Society. 1 September 2007. Retrieved 1 September 2007.
  6. ^ "Nominations 2007: BIFA". Bifa.org.uk. British Independent Film Awards. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  7. ^ "Moviefone | Movies | Movie Times | Movie Trailers | Movie News". Movies.aol.com. 13 November 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  8. ^ "Press Office – Network TV Programme Information BBC Week 38 Spooks Feature". BBC. 29 October 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  9. ^ Sneider, Jeff. "Sophia Myles to Join Mark Wahlberg in Michael Bay's 'Transformers 4' (Exclusive)". Thewrap.com. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  10. ^ "The film that will represent Portugal in the Oscar race is already chosen". re Jerusalem. 16 November 2020. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  11. ^ "North American Academy vetoes "Listen" as Portuguese candidate for Oscars – Observer". Time24. Retrieved 18 December 2020.
  12. ^ a b Moffatt, Steven (2020). Pompadour.
  13. ^ https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/from-wronged-maiden-to-kickass-spy-spooks-star-sophia-myles-6514934.html
  14. ^ "Red hot: The irresistible rise of Damian Lewis". The Independent. 9 September 2006.
  15. ^ "David Tennant & Sophia Myles". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  16. ^ "David Tennant splits from girlfriend Sophia Myles". Hello!. 8 October 2007. Retrieved 20 November 2016.
  17. ^ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/sophia-myles-london-s-prettiest-potty-mouth-426483.html
  18. ^ "Sophia gives birth to baby boy!". Simply Sophia Myles. 27 September 2014. Archived from the original on 8 June 2016. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  19. ^ "Sophia Myles on Twitter: "He melts my heart and lights up my life."". Twitter. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
  20. ^ https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-transformers-actress-sophia-myles-reveals-father-died-after-contracting-covid-19-11961780
  21. ^ "Transformers: Age of Extinction Interview with Stanley Tucci". Collider.com. 17 June 2014.
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