Actors - Anna Maxwell Martin

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	Actors - Anna Maxwell Martin

Anna Maxwell Martin (sometimes credited as Anna Maxwell-Martin) is an English actress who has won acclaim for her performances as Lyra in His Dark Materials at the Royal National Theatre and as Esther Summerson in the BBC adaptation of Bleak House (2005).

Biography

She was born in Beverley, East Yorkshire, England in 1978. Her father was the managing director of a pharmaceutical company and her mother was a research scientist. Her mother gave up her job to bring up Anna and her brother Adam. After she left school Martin studied history at Liverpool University, specialising in the First World War. She joined the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) after completing her studies at Liverpool. In her final year at LAMDA her father was diagnosed with cancer, although he lived long enough to see her stage performance as Alexandra in The Little Foxes at the Donmar Warehouse.

Martin first came to prominence on the London West End stage playing the leading role of Lyra in the National Theatre's production of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. Her subsequent roles have included the part of Bessie Higgins in the BBC television adaptation of the Elizabeth Gaskell novel, North and South, in 2004; a guest appearance in the 2005 series of Doctor Who; and the central role of Esther Summerson in the 2005 BBC TV adaptation of Charles Dickens' Bleak House, for which she was nominated for the 2006 Best Actress BAFTA Television Award.

In January 2006, she took part in a reading of The Entertainer at the Royal Court Theatre, and in February and March she appeared in Other Hands at the Soho Theatre. She is also the narrator of the CD version of The Foreshadowing, a children's book about the First World War by Marcus Sedgwick, which is due to be published in May 2006. She is shortly due to start filming her role in Becoming Jane, a film about the early life of the novelist Jane Austen starring American actress Anne Hathaway in the title role.

List of credits

Television

Midsomer Murders as Arabella Heywood in "Murder on St Malley's Day" (ITV1, 22 September 2002)
North and South as Bessie Higgins (BBC One, 2004)
Doctor Who as Suki Macrae Cantrell in "The Long Game" (BBC One, 7 May 2005)
Bleak House as Esther Summerson (BBC One, 27 October to 16 December 2005)

Film

The Hours (2002)
Enduring Love
(2004)

Radio

The Raj Quartet as Daphne (BBC Radio 4)
The Ante Natal Clinic as Ros (BBC Radio 4) 19 January 2006

Theatre

The Little Foxes as Alexandra at the Donmar (2001)
The Coast of Utopia as Alexandra, Maria and Tata at the Royal National Theatre (2002)
Honour as Sophie at the Royal National Theatre (2003)
The Three Sisters as Irina at the Royal National Theatre (2003)
His Dark Materials as Lyra at the Royal National Theatre (January to 27 March 2004)
Dumb Show as Liz at the Royal Court Theatre (2 September to 9 October 2004)
The Entertainer (rehearsed reading) as Jean at the Royal Court Theatre (16 January 2006)
Other Hands as Hayley at the Soho Theatre (15 February - 11 March 2006)

Awards

Martin was nominated for an Olivier Award for her performance as Lyra in His Dark Materials. She came third in the best actress category of the 2005 BBC Drama Poll for her performance as Esther in Bleak House. (Gillian Anderson came second, and Billie Piper won.)

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