Joanna Quesnel, known professionally as Pooky Quesnel, is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 actress, screenwriter

Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

 and singer.

Background

Quesnel was raised in Eccles

Eccles, Greater Manchester

Eccles is a town in the City of Salford, a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester in North West England, west of Salford and west of Manchester city centre...

, Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, along with her six siblings. She read English at Oxford University before spending a year at drama school. In the 1980s she performed in Humphrey Carpenter

Humphrey Carpenter

Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster.-Biography:...

's Vile Bodies band at the Ritz Hotel

Ritz Hotel

The Ritz London is a luxury 5-star hotel located in Piccadilly and overlooking Green Park in London.- History :Swiss hotelier César Ritz, former manager of the Savoy Hotel, opened the hotel on 24 May 1906...

, and performed in a tribute concert to him following his death in 2005.

In 2003 she began screenwriting, producing scripts for Doctors and Family Affairs

Family Affairs

Family Affairs was a British soap opera broadcast on Five, from 1997 to 2005. It was the second programme to be broadcast on the channel on 30 March 1997, the channel's launch night...

, appearing in the latter as Diane Short. She practices kick boxing and flamenco.

Career

She played Dr Monica Broome in the first series of Cardiac Arrest

Cardiac Arrest (TV series)

Cardiac Arrest is a British medical drama series made by World Productions for BBC One and first broadcast between 1994 and 1996. The series was controversial due to its depiction of doctors, nurses, and the National Health Service.-Creation:...

and DC Grace Harris in the first two series of Thief Takers

Thief Takers

Thief Takers was a police drama series made by Central Independent Television for the ITV network. The show depicted the work of a team in the Metropolitan Police Service's Flying Squad...

. She had a recurring role in the third series of Cold Feet

Cold Feet

Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...

as Emma Keaton and returned to medical dramas in 2006, playing Dr Christine Whelan in The Golden Hour

The Golden Hour (TV series)

The Golden Hour was an ITV drama series, first shown in 2005.The series centred on the activities of a specialist medical unit, HEMS which is based in London, operated by the London Ambulance Service, in dealing with emergency cases...

. In 2007 she starred as Nita in the BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 series True Dare Kiss

True Dare Kiss

True Dare Kiss is a British television drama produced for BBC One. It is written by Debbie Horsfield and produced by Marcus Wilson and features Dervla Kirwan, David Bradley and Lorraine Ashbourne...

, and later that year began a recurring role in EastEnders

EastEnders

EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

as Rachel Branning, taking over the character from Sukie Smith

Sukie Smith

Sukie Smith is a British actress and musician. Her credits include playing the role of Rachel Branning in EastEnders in 2006.Smith was born in Rochford, Essex, the daughter of bankers Paddy and David Smith...

. In February 2008 she played the spoken title role in a City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra production of Stravinsky's Perséphone

Perséphone (Stravinsky)

Perséphone is a musical work for speaker, solo singers, chorus, dancers and orchestra with music by Igor Stravinsky and a libretto by André Gide....

, broadcast on BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3

BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...

. In July 2008, she appeared in an episode of the ITV murder mystery series, Midsomer Murders

Midsomer Murders

Midsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was...

as journalist Julie Benson, and in an episode of George Gently entitled "The Burning Man", playing the character Wanda Lane. In March 2010 she appeared as Maureen in BBC One's second series of Five Days

Five Days

Five Days is a British dramatic television series produced by the BBC in association with Home Box Office . The first series was first broadcast on BBC One from 23 January to 1 February 2007, and repeated on BBC Four from 9 April to 13 April 2007....

. She also played the spaceship captain in the Doctor Who 2010 Christmas special, "A Christmas Carol". In November 2010 she appeared as Christopher Eccleston

Christopher Eccleston

Christopher Eccleston is an English stage, film and television actor. His films include Let Him Have It, Shallow Grave, Elizabeth, 28 Days Later, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Others, and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra...

's character's wife in Jimmy McGovern's Accused

Accused (TV series)

Accused is a British television anthology series. Written and created by Jimmy McGovern, it stars Christopher Eccleston, Benjamin Smith, Juliet Stevenson, Andy Serkis, Marc Warren and Naomie Harris as the accused in each episode. Filming for the series took place around Manchester between May and...

.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1993	The Hawk	WPC Clarke	Film debut
	A Woman's Guide to Adultery	Francie
1994	Cardiac Arrest Cardiac Arrest (TV series) Cardiac Arrest is a British medical drama series made by World Productions for BBC One and first broadcast between 1994 and 1996. The series was controversial due to its depiction of doctors, nurses, and the National Health Service.-Creation:...	Dr Monica Broome	1 series, 1994
	Finney	Carol
1996	Thief Takers Thief Takers Thief Takers was a police drama series made by Central Independent Television for the ITV network. The show depicted the work of a team in the Metropolitan Police Service's Flying Squad...	DC Grace Harris	2 series, 1996–1997
1998	The Ambassador	Liz	1 episode ("Nine Tenths of the Law")
1999	A Christmas Carol A Christmas Carol (1999 film) A Christmas Carol is a 1999 television film adaptation of Charles Dickens's famous novel A Christmas Carol. It was directed by David Hugh Jones and stars Patrick Stewart as Ebenezer Scrooge and Richard E. Grant as Bob Cratchit...	Maude
2000	Innocents	Michaela Willis
	The Mrs Bradley Mysteries The Mrs Bradley Mysteries The Mrs Bradley Mysteries is a British television drama series, produced in-house by the BBC for broadcast on the BBC One channel, based on the character created by detective writer Gladys Mitchell...	Delilah Hicks	1 episode ("The Worsted Viper")
	Sunburn Sunburn (TV series) Sunburn is a British television series that followed the lives of a group of British holiday reps. It was broadcast on BBC One between 16 January 1999 and 1 May 2000, running for two series of six and eight episodes respectively. The first was set and filmed in Cyprus and the second in Algarve...	Josie Daley	1 episode (Series 2, Episode 7)
	City Central	Zora	1 episode ("Respect")
	Cold Feet Cold Feet Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...	Emma Keaton	4 episodes (Series 3, Episodes 4, 6, 7, 8 Cold Feet (series 3) The third series of the British comedy drama television series Cold Feet was first broadcast on the ITV network from 12 November to 26 December 2000. The eight episodes were written by Mike Bullen and David Nicholls, produced by Christine Langan and Spencer Campbell, and directed by Simon Delaney,... )
2001	Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years (TV series) Adrian Mole: the Cappiccino Years is a television series aired by the BBC in 2001. The series was based on the book from the Adrian Mole series, The Cappuccino Years.-Premise:...	Eleanor Flood	2 episodes (Episodes 5 and 6)
	The Inspector Lynley Mysteries The Inspector Lynley Mysteries The Inspector Lynley Mysteries is a series of BBC television programmes about Detective Inspector Thomas "Tommy" Lynley, 8th Earl of Asherton of Scotland Yard and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers...	Stepha Odell	1 episode ("A Great Deliverance")
	The Armando Iannucci Shows The Armando Iannucci Shows The Armando Iannucci Shows is a series of eight programmes directed by Armando Iannucci and written by Iannucci with Andy Riley and Kevin Cecil. It was shown on UK's Channel 4 from September to October 2001...		1 episode ("Imagination")
	Family Affairs Family Affairs Family Affairs was a British soap opera broadcast on Five, from 1997 to 2005. It was the second programme to be broadcast on the channel on 30 March 1997, the channel's launch night...	Diane Short	2001–2002 Nominated, British Soap Award for Best Actress, 2002
	Doctors	Angela Crowther	1 episode ("Bring Me Sunshine")
2003	Holby City Holby City Holby City, stylised as Holby Ci+y, is a British medical drama television series that airs weekly on BBC One.The series was created by Tony McHale and Mal Young as a spin-off from the established BBC medical drama Casualty, and premiered on 12 January 1999...	Melanie Knox	1 episode ("House of Cards")
	The Bill The Bill The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...	Jo Fox	1 episode (Series 19, Episode 99)
2004	Monarch of the Glen	Kelly McGee	1 episode (Series 6, Episode 6)
2005	Doctors	Rebecca Dobson	1 episode ("When Two Become One")
	Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee is a 1999 novel by Meera Syal that was later adapted into a three-part BBC television miniseries in 2005. Childhood friends Tania , Sunita and Chila are now in their 30s and at a crossroads in life...	Bea
	The Golden Hour The Golden Hour (TV series) The Golden Hour was an ITV drama series, first shown in 2005.The series centred on the activities of a specialist medical unit, HEMS which is based in London, operated by the London Ambulance Service, in dealing with emergency cases...	Dr Christine Whelan
	Walk Away and I Stumble	Suzi
2006	Holby City	Jill Pearce	1 episode ("Invasion")
2007	Skins Skins (TV series) Skins is a BAFTA award-winning British teen drama that follows a group of teenagers in Bristol, South West England, through the two years of college. The controversial plot line explores issues such as dysfunctional families, mental illness , adolescent sexuality, substance abuse and death...	Claire	1 episode ("Jal")
	Recovery	Homeowner
	Oh Happy Day	Fern	Feature film
	True Dare Kiss True Dare Kiss True Dare Kiss is a British television drama produced for BBC One. It is written by Debbie Horsfield and produced by Marcus Wilson and features Dervla Kirwan, David Bradley and Lorraine Ashbourne...	Nita McKinnon
	Suburban Shootout Suburban Shootout Suburban Shootout is a British satirical black comedy television series produced for Five and Paramount Comedy by Feelgood Fiction in association with Oxygen. The first series aired in the UK on Five from 27 April 2006. It began airing in the United States on 22 March 2006 on Oxygen and in Germany...	Penny Hawthorne	2 episodes ("Fight Club" and "In it For the Wild Life")
	EastEnders EastEnders EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...	Rachel Branning	Recurring role, 2007—2010
2008	Midsomer Murders Midsomer Murders Midsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was...	Julia Benson	1 episode ("Midsomer Life")
	George Gently	Wanda Lane	1 episode (The Burning Man)
	Casualty Casualty (TV series) Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...	Pennie Ashton	1 episode ("Guilt Complex")
2009	Ashes to Ashes Ashes to Ashes (TV series) Ashes to Ashes is a British science fiction and police procedural drama television series, serving as the sequel to Life on Mars.The series began airing on BBC One in February 2008. A second series began broadcasting in April 2009...	Ruth Irvine	1 episode (Series 2, Episode 1)
	The Bill	Maria Walmsley	1 episode ("Down South")
	Criminal Justice Criminal Justice (TV series) Criminal Justice is a British television drama series produced by the BBC and first shown in 2008. Written by Peter Moffat, each five-episode series follows the journey of an individual through the justice system and was first broadcast over five successive nights on BBC One.The first series, first...	Amelia Rose	4 episodes (Series 2, Episodes 2, 3, 4, 5)
	Enid	Theresa Blyton
2010	Five Days Five Days Five Days is a British dramatic television series produced by the BBC in association with Home Box Office . The first series was first broadcast on BBC One from 23 January to 1 February 2007, and repeated on BBC Four from 9 April to 13 April 2007....	Maureen Hardy
	Accused Accused (TV series) Accused is a British television anthology series. Written and created by Jimmy McGovern, it stars Christopher Eccleston, Benjamin Smith, Juliet Stevenson, Andy Serkis, Marc Warren and Naomie Harris as the accused in each episode. Filming for the series took place around Manchester between May and...	Carmel Houlihan	1 episode ("Willy's Story")
	Moving On Moving On (TV series) Moving On is a British television series consisting of standalone contemporary dramas first shown on daytime BBC One. Although originally broadcast in an early-afternoon slot, less than a month after the initial airing the first series was repeated to an evening audience...	Lynne	1 episode ("Sauce for the Goose")
	Doctor Who Doctor Who Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...	The Captain	1 episode ("A Christmas Carol")
2011	Shameless Shameless Shameless is a British television drama series set in Manchester on the fictional Chatsworth council estate. Produced by Company Pictures for Channel 4, the first seven-episode series aired weekly on Tuesday nights at 10pm from 13 January 2004...	Sandra Brown	1 episode (Series 8, Episode 7)
	Ideal Ideal (TV series) Ideal is a British comedy-drama, or dark comedy originally broadcast on digital channel BBC Three, created by Graham Duff and produced by BBC Comedy North and Baby Cow Productions. It stars Johnny Vegas as small-time cannabis dealer Moz....	Donna	1 episode Series 7 episode 5
	Casualty Casualty (TV series) Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...	Emma Davies	1 episode ("Starting Out")
	Top Boy Top Boy Top Boy is a British television drama series, which was first broadcast on Channel 4. The four episodes were broadcast over consecutive nights, from 31 October to 3 November 2011. Set on the fictional Summerhouse housing estate in Hackney, North London, the series follows the lives of a group of...	Dr. Jenny Northam

Stage work

Year	Production	Role	Theatre
1991	Sweet Sessions	The Dark Lady	Old Fire Station, Oxford Oxford The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
1993	Don't Fool with Love	Peasant Girl	National tour
	A Month in the Country A Month in the Country (play) A Month in the Country is a comedy in five acts by Ivan Turgenev. It was written in France between 1848 and 1850 and was first published in 1855...	Verochka	Salisbury Playhouse Salisbury Playhouse Salisbury Playhouse is a theatre in the county of Wiltshire, it was built in 1976 and has two theatre spaces – the Main House and Salberg Studio ....
	Billy Liar Billy Liar Billy Liar is a 1959 novel by Keith Waterhouse, which was later adapted into a play, a film, a musical and a TV series. The work has inspired and featured in a number of popular songs....	Rita	Salisbury Playhouse Salisbury Playhouse Salisbury Playhouse is a theatre in the county of Wiltshire, it was built in 1976 and has two theatre spaces – the Main House and Salberg Studio ....
1995	Racine's Andromache Andromaque Andromaque is a tragedy in five acts by the French playwright Jean Racine written in alexandrine verse. It was first performed on 17 November 1667 before the court of Louis XIV in the Louvre in the private chambers of the Queen, Marie Thérèse, by the royal company of actors, called "les Grands... , adapted by Craig Raine Craig Raine Craig Raine is an English poet and critic born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, England. Along with Christopher Reid, he is the best-known exponent of Martian poetry.-Life:...	Annette LeSkye	Almeida Theatre Almeida Theatre The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325 seat studio theatre with an international reputation which takes its name from the street in which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diverse range of drama and holds an annual summer festival of...
1997	Jane Eyre Jane Eyre Jane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York...	Bertha	Shared Experience Shared Experience Shared Experience is a British theatre company. Its current joint artistic directors are Nancy Meckler and Polly Teale. Kate Saxon is an Associate Director.-Productions:*A Passage to India *Madame Bovary...  theatre company at the Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, Young Vic Theatre, London, and touring
1998	Anna Karenina Anna Karenina Anna Karenina is a novel by the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, published in serial installments from 1873 to 1877 in the periodical The Russian Messenger...	Kitty and Seriozha	Brooklyn Academy of Music Brooklyn Academy of Music Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance.... 's Majestic Theater, Lyric Hammersmith Lyric Hammersmith The Lyric Theatre, also known as the Lyric Hammersmith, is a theatre on King Street, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, which takes pride in its original, "groundbreaking" productions....
2003	Present Laughter Present Laughter Present Laughter is a comic play written by Noël Coward in 1939 and first staged in 1942 on tour, alternating with his lower middle-class domestic drama This Happy Breed...	Monica	Yvonne Arnaud Theatre Yvonne Arnaud Theatre The Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, Surrey presents in-house productions which often tour and transfer to London's West End. Other performances include opera, ballet and pantomime. Named after the actress Yvonne Arnaud, the company has two performance venues, a main theatre and the smaller Mill... , Guildford, King's Theatre, Glasgow King's Theatre, Glasgow The King's Theatre is located in Glasgow, Scotland. It was built for Howard & Wyndham Ltd under its chairman Baillie Michael Simons as a sister theatre of their Theatre Royal in the city and was designed by Frank Matcham, opening in 1904. The theatre is primarily a receiving house for touring...
2004	Loot Loot (play) Loot is a two-act play by the English playwright Joe Orton. The play is a dark farce that satirises the Roman Catholic Church, social attitudes to death, and the integrity of the police force....	Fay	Bristol Old Vic Bristol Old Vic The Bristol Old Vic is a theatre company based at the Theatre Royal, King Street, in Bristol, England. The theatre complex includes the 1766 Theatre Royal, which claims to be the oldest continually-operating theatre in England, along with a 1970s studio theatre , offices and backstage facilities...
2005	Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...	Lady Capulet	Royal Exchange Theatre
2005	Sitting Pretty		New Wolsey Theatre New Wolsey Theatre A 400-seat theatre in the heart of Ipswich, Suffolk's county town, The was established in 2000, building on the foundations of the regional repertory company that had opened the theatre in the late 1970s.... , Ipswich
2008	Perséphone Perséphone (Stravinsky) Perséphone is a musical work for speaker, solo singers, chorus, dancers and orchestra with music by Igor Stravinsky and a libretto by André Gide....	Persephone Persephone In Greek mythology, Persephone , also called Kore , is the daughter of Zeus and the harvest-goddess Demeter, and queen of the underworld; she was abducted by Hades, the god-king of the underworld....	City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. The Orchestra's current chief executive, appointed in 1999, is Stephen Maddock...

External links

• Pooky Quesnel at the British Film Institute
  British Film Institute
  The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
  
  

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