Amanda Root (born 1963) is an English stage and screen actress and a former voice actress for children's programmes.
Amanda Root | |
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Born | 1963 (age 58–59) Chelmsford, Essex, England |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1983 – present |
Root is known for her starring role in the 1995 BBC film adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion, her role in the British TV comedy All About Me, as Miranda, alongside Richard Lumsden in 2004, and for voicing Sophie in The BFG.
She trained for the stage at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.
Root was born in Chelmsford, Essex. She began her career at the Leeds Playhouse in 1983 when she played Essie in Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple.
She was a remarkably complete actress even in her early twenties, when physically she looked little more than a child. With her dark soulful eyes she could command a stage, and the Royal Shakespeare Company saw her talent very early on.[1]
She worked regularly with the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon and London from 1983 to 1991, including playing the role of Juliet to Daniel Day-Lewis's Romeo; a very young Lady Macbeth; Cressida to Ralph Fiennes's Troilus, and Rosaline to his Berowne.[1]
In 1995, she starred as Anne Elliot in Persuasion, co-starring Ciarán Hinds and John Woodvine. The film (made for TV, then released in cinemas) was based on the novel by Jane Austen and was her first leading role in a film.[2]
She won rave reviews (and was nominated for a Tony Award) in October 2008 for her portrayal of the control freak Sarah in The Old Vic's revival of Alan Ayckbourn's interlinked trilogy The Norman Conquests, directed in the round by Matthew Warchus.[3]
She was the voice of Sophie in the animated film of Roald Dahl's The BFG (1989).
She portrayed Joan la Pucelle in the Arkangel Shakespeare's 2000 production of Henry VI, Part 1.
In 2006, Root undertook the task of recording an unabridged audiobook of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Published by Naxos it has a running time of 20 hours 30 minutes, spread across 17 audio CDs: ISBN 978-962-634-357-9. She had previously recorded an abridged 3-hour reading of Jane Austen's Persuasion, published by Hodder & Stoughton Audiobooks in July 2004: ISBN 1-84456-035-X.
In November 2007 for BBC Radio 4 she played in the Woman's Hour Drama serial adaptation of F. Tennyson Jesse's novel A Pin to See the Peep Show,[4] and on 2 December 2007 was heard in Arnold Wesker's 75-minute radio play The Rocking Horse, commissioned by the BBC World Service to celebrate its 75th anniversary.[5][6] As part of the BBC Radio 4 Hopes and Desires season, she played Lindsey, an incurable romantic who yearns to meet a modern-day Heathcliff, in Nick Warburton's 30-minute comedy Catching Heathcliff, broadcast at 11 pm on 15 January 2008.[7] She was the voice of Fanny in the 2-cassette 1997 BBC radio dramatisation of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park.
Her stage credits include:
Year | Film | Role | Notes |
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1989 | The BFG | Sophie | voice |
1991 | The House of Bernarda Alba | Adela | |
1995 | Persuasion | Anne Elliot | |
1996 | Jane Eyre | Miss Temple | |
Deep in the Heart | Kate Markham | ||
1999 | Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? | Margaret Robinson | |
2004 | Girl Afraid | short | |
Bloom | Helen Chapman | short | |
2011 | The Iron Lady | Amanda | |
2016 | Their Finest | Cecy/Mrs Brown | |
2017 | The Black Prince | Queen Victoria | |
2020 | Summerland | Mrs Lawrence | |
Year | Film | Role | Notes |
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1985 | Storyboard | Polly Swift | 1 episode: "Ladies in Charge" |
This Lightning Always Strikes Twice | Sarah Penwarden | TV movie | |
1993 | The Man Who Cried | Hilda Maxwell | TV movie |
The Buddha of Suburbia | First TV Producer | Miniseries | |
1993–2022 | Casualty | Heather Croft / Barb Edmonds / Evelyn Winnell / Joyce Paice | 4 episodes |
1994 | Hildegard of Bingen | Ricardis | TV documentary |
Love on a Branch Line | Miss Mounsey | 4 episodes | |
Shakespeare: The Animated Tales | Kate | 1 episode: "The Taming of the Shrew" | |
1996 | Breaking the Code | Patricia "Pat" Green | TV movie |
1997 | Harry Enfield and Chums | Miss Hetherington | 1 episode: "Episode #2.6" |
Turning World | Evelyn Sharples | 3 episodes | |
Original Sin | Frances Peverell | 3 episodes | |
Sunnyside Farm | Dawn | 1 episode: "A Rare Visitor" | |
Dangerfield | Alice Stratton | 1 episode: "Guilt" | |
1998 | Mortimer's Law | Rachel Mortimer | 6 episodes |
Big Cat | Alice | TV movie | |
2000 | Anna Karenina | Dolly | Miniseries |
2001 | Holby City | Abbie Sawyer | 1 episode: "Snakes and Ladders" |
A Small Summer Party | Karen | TV movie | |
2002 | Waking the Dead | Lorna Gyles | 2 episodes |
Daniel Deronda | Mrs. Davilow | Miniseries; 4 episodes | |
The Forsyte Saga: To Let | Winifred Dartie née Forsyte | Miniseries (4 episodes) | |
2002–2003 | The Forsyte Saga | Winifred Dartie née Forsyte | 10 episodes |
2003 | Midsomer Murders | Ruth Scholey | 1 episode: "A Talent for Life" |
Love Again | Maeve Brennan | TV movie | |
A Touch of Frost | Dolores Delmonte | 1 episode: "Another Life" | |
Little Britain | Baby's Mother | 1 episode: "Most People in a Mini" | |
Foyle's War | Elizabeth Lewes | 1 episode: "Fifty Ships" | |
2004 | London | Charlotte Brontë | TV movie |
Rose and Maloney | Marsha Campese | 1 episode: "Episode #1.2" | |
2005 | The Robinsons | Maggie Robinson | 6 episodes |
Empire | Noella | Miniseries | |
Julian Fellowes Investigates: A Most Mysterious Murder | Vera Sidney | 1 episode: "The Case of the Croydon Poisonings" | |
2006 | The Afternoon Play | Andrea | TV series (1 episode: "The Last Will and Testament of Billy Two-Sheds") |
The Impressionists | Alice Hoschedé | Miniseries; 2 episodes | |
Brief Encounters | June Makenzie | 1 episode: "Lost and Found" | |
2006–2009 | Star Trek: New Voyages | Federation Ambassador | 3 episodes |
2007 | The Robber Bride | Tony Fremont | TV movie |
Miss Marie Lloyd – Queen of The Music Hall | Mrs. Chant | TV movie | |
2008 | Fiona's Story | Julie | TV movie |
Agatha Christie's Poirot | Mrs. Rendell | Mrs McGinty's Dead | |
2010 | Law & Order: UK | Patricia Smith | 1 episode: "Defence" |
Thorne: Sleepyhead | Teresa Maxwell | TV movie | |
2012 | DCI Banks | Mary Rothwell | 2 episodes |
2013 | Zou | Voice | 1 episode: "Zou the Chef" |
The Tunnel | Doctor Cross | 1 episode: "Episode #1.8" | |
2015 | Count Arthur Strong | Karen | 1 episode: "The Heist" |
Death in Paradise | Teresa Gower | 1 episode: "Episode #4.3" | |
New Tricks | Eleanor | 1 episode: "Lottery Curse" | |
2017 | Sherlock | Emma Welsborough | 1 episode: "The Six Thatchers" |
2018 | The Other Side of the Coin | Wife | TV movie |
Unforgotten | Carol Finch | 6 episodes | |
Patrick Melrose | Virginia Watson-Scott | Miniseries; 1 episode: "Some Hope" | |
2019 | Silent Witness | Olivia Walsh | 1 episode: "Deathmaker: Part 1" |
MotherFatherSon | Interviewer | 1 episode: "Episode #1.6" | |
2020 | Call the Midwife | Florrie Watkins | 1 episode: "Episode #9.2" |
The Sister | June Fox | 4 episodes | |
2021 | Dalgliesh | Sister Brumfett | 2 episodes: "Shroud for a Nightingale" |
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National libraries | |
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