Hermione Norris
Hermione Norris | |
|---|---|
 Norris on the set of Kingdom | |
| Born | Hermione Jane Norris 12 February 1967 |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Spouse | Simon Wheeler (2002–present) |
Hermione Jane Norris (born 12 February 1967) is an English actress. She attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in the 1980s, before taking small roles in theatre and on television. In 1996, she was cast in her breakout role of Karen Marsden in the comedy drama television series Cold Feet. She appeared in every episode of the series from 1998 to 2003 and was nominated for a British Comedy Award.
From 2002 to 2005, Norris co-starred in the crime drama series Wire in the Blood as Carol Jordan, and from 2005 to 2009 co-starred in the BBC One spy drama Spooks as Ros Myers. Her role in Spooks won her the award for Best Actress at the 2008 ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards, and another nomination the next year. From 2007 to 2009, she co-starred in the ITV comedy drama Kingdom.
Early life
Norris was born in Paddington, London, the second of four children. She has two sisters and a brother.[1] Her parents, businessman Michael and health visitor Helen Norris (née Latham), divorced when she was four years old.[1] She moved with her mother and siblings to live with her grandmother in Derbyshire, but moved back to London a few years later. She failed her eleven plus exam but won a scholarship to the Elmhurst School for Dance. While there, she took up drama at an after-school club, performing alongside her dance studies until she left aged 17.
For the next two years, Norris held various office jobs.[2] At age 19, she enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).[2] On an exchange to the Moscow Art Theatre School, she played Nina in a production of The Seagull.[3] After leaving college at the age of 21, she lived in a house in Brixton with four other actors. At the same time, she had to deal with the sudden death of her father.[1]
Career
Norris made her professional stage debut in a 1989 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which earned her her Equity card. She made her television debut in the 1991 BBC serial The Men's Room, playing the daughter of Bill Nighy's character.[4] Other early television roles include appearances in Agatha Christie's Poirot, the television serial Clarissa, and a 1991 episode of Drop the Dead Donkey. She continued to make guest appearances in series such as Between the Lines and Casualty. When out of work, she supported herself by working on Sainsbury's supermarket checkouts, and selling double glazing in a shopping centre.[1]
After being out of work for four months in 1996, Norris considered quitting acting and reading for a degree in law, intending to become a solicitor.[2][5] However, she got a part in Cold Feet playing Karen Marsden, a middle-class woman who feels trapped by her middle-class lifestyle.[1][5] Norris appeared in every episode and was nominated for a British Comedy Award for Best Actress in 2001.[6]
During the six years Cold Feet ran, Norris appeared in a leading role in the BBC drama Berkeley Square, Killing Time: The Millennium Poem, starring opposite Christopher Eccleston, and the 2002 television film Falling Apart, playing a woman in a violent relationship. In 2002, she co-starred with Robson Green in Wire in the Blood, playing Detective Inspector Carol Jordan. She stayed with the series until 2005 when she was replaced by Simone Lahbib. Further film roles include an appearance in an adaptation of Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim, and in David Kane's Born Romantic.
At the end of 2005 she was cast in the BBC One spy drama Spooks, playing Ros Myers.[7] She appeared throughout the 2006 series, then in eight of the ten episodes in the 2007 series before taking time off filming for maternity leave. She returned to the show for the 2008 series.[1] For her part, she won the Best Actress award at the inaugural ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards.[8] She was nominated in the same category the next year.[9] She left the series in 2009 after four years.[10]
From 2007 to 2009, she appeared in three series of Kingdom playing Beatrice Kingdom, the half-sister of Stephen Fry's character. She took the role as a change of pace from the "ice maiden" characters she often portrays.[11] In 2010, she starred opposite Trevor Eve in the remake of Bouquet of Barbed Wire.[12] In 2010, she was cast in the television science fiction drama Outcasts as Stella Isen, the head of security on an extraterrestrial human colony.[13][14] Filming occurred on location in South Africa. From November 2010, Norris is due to play Ruth Condomine in a national tour of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit. She will star opposite her Cold Feet co-star Robert Bathurst, and Alison Steadman. Of the play, Norris said, "Coward's insights into the way the female mind works are excellent. Elvira's manipulations and Ruth with her control issues, they're both utterly believable".[15] She also starred in The Crimson Field a British Production about a field Hospital in France in WW1.
On 4th October 2014, Norris guest starred in Episode 7 of the 8th series of the BBC series Doctor Who, 'Kill The Moon'. She played Lundvik, an astronaut.
Norris also starred as Jo in the Sky1 television film television film adaptation of the M. C. Beaton novel Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death.
Personal life
In 2002, Norris began a relationship with Simon Wheeler, a writer on Wire in the Blood. The couple married in December 2002 in a ceremony at the Tower of London.[5] Their son, Wilf, was born in June 2004, and their daughter, Hero, was born in August 2007.[16] Norris' father-in-law is General Sir Roger Wheeler, the Chief of the General Staff from 1997 to 2000.
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Born Romantic | Carolanne | |
| 2003 | Quicksand | Sarah | Direct-to-video |
| 2005 | Separate Lies | Priscilla |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Blood Rights | Virginia | Television serial |
| 1991 | The Men's Room | Joanna Carleton | Television serial |
| Drop the Dead Donkey | Octavia | Episode: "The Gulf Report" | |
| Casualty | Abby Larwood | Episode: "The Last Word" | |
| Clarissa | Anna Howe | Television serial | |
| 1991–1992 | Spatz | Wendy | 2 episodes |
| 1992 | Screen Two: The Count of Solar | Caroline | Television film |
| 1993 | Agatha Christie's Poirot | Celestine | Episode: "Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan" |
| Between the Lines | Gail Myles | Episode: "Manslaughter" | |
| 1994 | Under the Hammer | Anthea Bovington | Episode: "The Spectre at the Feast" |
| Casualty | Bobbie Croft | Episode: "The Facts of Life" | |
| 1997 | Comedy Premieres: Cold Feet | Karen Marsden | Pilot |
| See You Friday | Sophie | 1 series | |
| Get Well Soon | Vanessa Del Ray | Episode: "The Whist Drive" | |
| Cadfael | Mary | Episode: "The Raven in the Foregate" | |
| Hospital! | Television film | ||
| Agatha Christie's The Pale Horse | Hermia Redcliffe | Television film | |
| 1998 | The Bill | Louise Golding | Episode: "Friends in High Places" |
| Berkeley Square | Victoria St. John | 1 series | |
| 1998–2003 | Cold Feet | Karen Marsden | 5 series |
| 1999 | Peak Practice | Penny | Episode: "New Beginnings" |
| Heartbeat | Diane Palmer | Episode: "David Stockwell's Ghost" | |
| 2000 | Killing Time: The Millennium Poem | Millennium Woman | Television film |
| 2002 | Falling Apart | Clare | Television film |
| 2002–2005 | Wire in the Blood | DCI Carol Jordan | 3 series |
| 2003 | Lucky Jim | Carol Goldsmith | Television film |
| 2006 | The Kindness of Strangers | Fiona Charters | Television film |
| 2006–2009 | Spooks | Ros Myers | 4 series |
| 2007–2009 | Kingdom | Beatrice Kingdom | 3 series |
| 2010 | Bouquet of Barbed Wire | Cassie Manson | Television serial |
| 2011 | Outcasts | Stella Isen | 1 series |
| 2012 | A Mother’s Son | Rosie | Television serial |
| A Year in the Wild | Narrator | Documentary | |
| 2013 | Agatha Christie's Marple | Evelyn Hillingdon | Episode: "A Caribbean Mystery" |
| Utopia | Stella | ||
| 2014 | The Crimson Field | Grace Carter | 1 series |
| In the Club | Roanna | 2 series | |
| Doctor Who | Lundvik | Episode: "Kill the Moon" | |
| Agatha Raisin and the Quiche of Death | Jo Cummings Brown | Television film |
Stage
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | Helena | Mercury Theatre, Colchester |
| Habeas Corpus | Felicity Rumpers | Mercury Theatre, Colchester | |
| Daisy Pulls it Off | Thorndike, Leatherhead | ||
| 1991 | Man and Superman | Ann Whitfield | Citizens Theatre |
| Three Judgements in One | Dona Violante | Gate, Notting Hill | |
| 1992–1993 | Pygmalion | Clara Eynsford-Hill | Olivier (National) |
| 1992 | Square Rounds | Various | Olivier (National) |
| 1994 | September Tide | Cherry | Tour (Islington, Leatherhead, Liverpool) |
| 1994–1995 | Charley's Aunt | Amy Spettigue | Royal Exchange, Manchester |
| 1995 | Look Back in Anger | Helena Charles | Royal Exchange, Manchester |
| Reader | Irene / Jacqueline | Traverse Theatre | |
| 1996 | Blinded by the Sun | Barbara | Cottesloe (National) |
| 2005 | Petronella | Petronella | Old Vic |
| 2010–2011 | Blithe Spirit | Ruth[17] | Theatre Royal, Brighton Cambridge Arts Theatre Milton Keynes Theatre Richmond Theatre West End transfer Apollo Theatre |
References
- ^ a b c d e f Cable, Amanda (11 October 2008). "A tortured spook". Daily Mail (Associated Newspapers): pp. 10–14 (Weekend supplement).
- ^ a b c Kerr, Paula (6 May 2006). "My teenage years". Daily Mail (Associated Newspapers).
- ^ McLeod, Pauline (9 November 2002). "My cultural life: Hermione Norris". The Times (Times Newspapers).
- ^ Swann, Yvonne (17 February 2005). "Acting's in my blood". Daily Mirror (MGN): p. 57.
- ^ a b c Tweedie, Neil (28 February 2008). "Hermione Norris: 'I nearly gave up acting to be a lawyer...'". The Daily Telegraph (Telegraph Media Group).
- ^ Staff (16 December 2001). "Skinner crowned TV comedy king". BBC News Online. Retrieved on 22 November 2007.
- ^ Kilkelly, Daniel (31 December 2005). "'Cold Feet' star joins 'Spooks'". Digital Spy. Retrieved on 22 November 2007.
- ^ Rosser, Michael, (6 October 2008), "Morse author honoured at Crime Thriller Awards". Broadcastnow (Emap Media). Retrieved on 7 October 2008.
- ^ Allen, Kate (7 September 2009). "Coben, Cole, Atkinson vie for crime awards". The Bookseller. Retrieved 7 September 2009.
- ^ Power, Vicki (30 May 2010). "Richard Armitage: ‘I was a beanpole with a nose I hadn’t grown into’". Sunday Mirror (MGN).
- ^ Wylie, Ian (2 May 2007). "Why star still gets Cold Feet over bedroom scenes". Manchester Evening News (M.E.N. Media).
- ^ Hemley, Matthew (15 October 2009). "Hermione Norris joins cast of ITV’s A Bouquet of Barbed Wire". The Stage.
- ^ Bamigboye, Baz (19 February 2010). "Watch out for..." Daily Mail (Associated Newspapers): p. 46.
- ^ "Outcasts". BBC Online. Retrieved on 2 June 2010.
- ^ Bamigboye, Baz (16 July 2010). "From Spooks to a seance". Daily Mail (Associated Newspapers).
- ^ Staff (31 August 2007). "Cold Feet actress has baby girl". BBC News Online. Retrieved on 1 September 2007.
- ^ BWW News Desk (16 July 2010). "Hermione Norris and Robert Bathurst Join Cast of BLITHE SPIRIT, Opens 3/2". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved on 16 July 2010.
External links
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