Biography
Helen McCrory was born on August 17, 1968, in London to Ian and Anne McCrory. Her father a Scottish diplomat and her mother a Welsh physiotherapist, Helen and her family -- also including a younger brother John and sister Catherine -- lived in numerous places during her childhood including Paris, Norway, Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania, Zanzibar and Madagascar. She attended Queenswood, an English boarding school for girls which is in Hertfordshire.<
At age 17 (about 1985), she applied to the prestigious Drama Centre in London. They told her to "go and live a bit." (What were they thinking?! Clearly they didn't realize what an exceptionally talented young woman they were turning away!) She took their advice, spending time in Paris, Thailand and Italy. She later returned, reapplied and was accepted at Drama Centre, where she pursued her acting studies.
Upon graduation from Drama Centre in 1990, Helen began building up an impressively solid, rich and varied career of stage, cinematic, television and radio performances too numerous to list in their entirety in this brief biographical profile. (Please see the table of performance listings below for details). She also has received numerous prestigious awards and nominations, from the Manchester Evening News Best Actress Award win for her performance as the Bride in 1991's Blood Wedding to her most recent Laurence Olivier Best Actress Award nomination for her 2005 performance as Rosalind in As You Like It.
In 1997, she teamed with Michael Sheen and Robert Delamere to establish Foundry, a writing production company. She and Michael Sheen also founded the theatre production company, The Public.
Though only in her 30s, Helen has already acquired quite a reputation as a performer, often being compared to icons such as Dame Judi Dench. In December 2005, she was invited to give a one-session masterclass on acting technique at the Royal Theatre Haymarket, to help instruct and share insights with the next generation of acting talent. And on March 10, 2006, she was honoured at Queenswood, her childhood school, with the dedication of The McCrory Studio -- a new studio performance room that is part of the school's all new Clarissa Farr Theatre. The dedication took place during the Theatre's gala opening, where Helen, who is a Patron of the Theatre, performed the Theatre's opening honours.
Her 2006 film The Queen, a satire in which she portrays Cherie Blair, wife to the UK Prime Minister, garnered numerous awards. In 2007, Helen portrayed Dr. Victoria Frankenstein in a modern retelling of the classic tale.
On the personal side, Helen also enjoyed some very special personal events around this time. She and Damian Lewis became engaged in February 2006 and were married on July 4, 2007. Helen and Damian celebrated the arrival of their first child, daughter Manon, in September 2006. Their second child, son Gulliver, was born in November 2007.
Projects for 2008 included the cinematic film Flashbacks Of A Fool, a London stage production of Ibsen's play Rosmersholm, the role of Narcissa Malfoy in Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince (presently anticipating cinematic release in July 2009), and narrating the BBC television documentary Horizon: The President's Guide To Science which was televised in September 2008. In early 2009, Helen shared the screen with Damian on his television series Life when she appeared in a guest role in several episodes of the series. In 2009, her radio projects included a feature role in Something Fresh on BBC Radio 4 and poetry readings in Words And Music: Feasting With Panthers on BBC Radio 3. Her performance in the animated feature film Fantastic Mr. Fox reached cinemas in autumn 2009. Film projects worked on during 2009 include Muse Of Fire: A Documentary (filmed in spring 2009 and presently expected to be released in 2010), The Special Relationship (filmed in summer/autumn 2009 and presently expected to be broadcast in spring 2010), 4.3.2.1 (filmed in autumn 2009 and due in cinemas in 2010), an episode of Dr. Who entitled "Vampires In Venice" (filmed in December 2009 and expected to be broadcast in spring 2010), and the two-part Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part I and Part II (presently expected to reach cinemas in November 2010 and July 2011, respectively). Helen narrated two more Horizon documentaries in 2009 entitled Horizon: Fix Me (presented on BBC television in October 2009) and Horizon: Pill Poppers (presented on BBC television in January 2010). In November 2009, Helen took part in the Old Vic's 24 Hour Plays, appearing in Stop Blaming, Start Loving.
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"I think Helen is the best actress of her generation, but I'm biased. She's got a very rare ability to play leading women as total character parts." -- Damian Lewis (as quoted in The Independent, September 9, 2006) |
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