Samantha Spiro
Encyclopedia
Samantha Spiro is an Olivier Award
Laurence Olivier Awards
The Laurence Olivier Award is presented annually by the Society of London Theatre to recognise excellence in professional theatre. Named after the renowned British actor Laurence Olivier, they are given for West End shows and other productions staged in London...

-winning English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 actress. She is known for portraying Barbara Windsor
Barbara Windsor
Barbara Ann Windsor, MBE , better known by her stage name Barbara Windsor, is an English actress. Her best known roles are in the Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders....

 in the stage play Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick
Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick
Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick is a 1998 play written by the English dramatist Terry Johnson, who also directed the original production at the National Theatre....

 and the television film
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...

 Cor, Blimey!, and DI Vivien Friend in M.I.T.: Murder Investigation Team
M.I.T.: Murder Investigation Team (TV series)
MIT: Murder Investigation Team was a British police procedural drama series produced by the ITV network as a spin-off from the long running series, The Bill. The series is based around the investigations of a London Murder Investigation Team, and is closely styled after the American series CSI:...

.

Background

Born in Mill Hill, Spiro grew up in Radlett
Radlett
Radlett is a small town in the county of Hertfordshire between St Albans and Borehamwood on Watling Street with a population of approximately 8,000. It is located in the council district of Hertsmere and is covered by two wards, Aldenham East and Aldenham West...

. She is Jewish. Spiro decided to be an actress at the age of ten, after seeing a production of Androcles and the Lion
Androcles and the Lion (play)
Androcles and the Lion is a 1912 play written by George Bernard Shaw.Androcles and the Lion is Shaw's retelling of the tale of Androcles, a slave who is saved by the requited mercy of a lion. In the play, Shaw portrays Androcles to be one of the many Christians being led to the Colosseum for torture...

 at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, in the City of Westminster, London, is a permanent venue with an annual sixteen-week summer season. It was founded in 1932 by Sydney Carroll and Robert Atkins.-The theatre:...

. She joined the National Youth Theatre
National Youth Theatre
The National Youth Theatre is a registered charity in London, Great Britain, committed to creative, personal and social development of young people through the medium of creative arts....

, and later trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, formerly the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, was a drama school, and originally a singing school, in London. It was one of the leading drama schools in Britain, and offered comprehensive training for those intending to pursue a...

.

Spiro married the actor Mark Leadbetter, who she met at drama school, in February 2002. They have two daughters and currently live in Queen's Park, London.

Theatre

Spiro's first acting job after graduating from drama school was with the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, in the City of Westminster, London, is a permanent venue with an annual sixteen-week summer season. It was founded in 1932 by Sydney Carroll and Robert Atkins.-The theatre:...

, in productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream
A Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...

, The Boys From Syracuse and Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

. Her many theatre credits include As You Like It
As You Like It
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 or early 1600 and first published in the folio of 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility...

, Teechers, The Tragic Roundabout, Jumpers, On the Piste, Roots, How the Other Half Loves and Glyn and It, opposite Penelope Keith
Penelope Keith
Penelope Anne Constance Keith, CBE, DL is an English actress.Having started her television career in the 1950s, Penelope Keith became a household name in the United Kingdom in the 1970s when she played Margo Leadbetter in the sitcom The Good Life...

.

Spiro played Barbara Windsor
Barbara Windsor
Barbara Ann Windsor, MBE , better known by her stage name Barbara Windsor, is an English actress. Her best known roles are in the Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders....

 in Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick
Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick
Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick is a 1998 play written by the English dramatist Terry Johnson, who also directed the original production at the National Theatre....

 at the National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...

, a production she credits as her first big break, which "open[ed] a lot of doors". She has also appeared in the Minerva Theatre
Minerva Theatre, Chichester
The Minerva Theatre is a studio theatre seating at full capacity 283. It is run as part of the adjacent Chichester Festival Theatre, located in Chichester, England, and was opened in 1989...

 production of Funny Girl and the first West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...

 revival of Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...

's Bedroom Farce
Bedroom Farce (play)
Bedroom Farce is a 1975 comedic play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It had a London production at the Prince of Wales Theatre in 1978.-Overview:...

.

Spiro played Rachel in Mike Leigh
Mike Leigh
Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...

's production of Two Thousand Years at the National Theatre. This was the first Jewish role of her career. She said:

"For English/Jewish artists in this business, we’re English first and the Jewish thing comes down the line. Whereas in the United States, Jewishness is a much celebrated thing. Jewishness is a part of their very being.


"Here, I think, we repress it and, far from celebrating it, almost shy away from it. After Two Thousand Years, I suddenly felt that there is a place for people like me. Until that point I hadn’t had a career playing Jewish people. I had got that stuff out of the way by the time I came to play Fanny Brice [in Funny Girl] who is very much a Jewish character."


In 2009, Spiro played Maria in the Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...

 production of Twelfth Night at the Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre
Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by the actor/manager Charles Wyndham . Located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster, it was designed by W.G.R. Sprague about 1898, the architect of six other London theatres between then and 1916...

, alongside Derek Jacobi
Derek Jacobi
Sir Derek George Jacobi, CBE is an English actor and film director.A "forceful, commanding stage presence", Jacobi has enjoyed a highly successful stage career, appearing in such stage productions as Hamlet, Uncle Vanya, and Oedipus the King. He received a Tony Award for his performance in...

, and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing
Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy written by William Shakespeare about two pairs of lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, and Claudio and Hero....

 at the Open Air Theatre
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, in the City of Westminster, London, is a permanent venue with an annual sixteen-week summer season. It was founded in 1932 by Sydney Carroll and Robert Atkins.-The theatre:...

. Most recently, she appeared in the acclaimed Open Air Theatre production of Hello, Dolly!
Hello, Dolly! (musical)
Hello, Dolly! is a musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder's 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955....

, playing Dolly Levi.

Discussing whether she prefers acting in the theatre to television or film, Spiro said: "I think theatre prefers me. These days you have to do both, but it never feels as if the TV casting people are beating down my door to offer me work. I just feel that in this business you are lucky if you’re doing something you enjoy."

Television, film and radio

Spiro reprised the role of Barbara Windsor in the television adaptation of Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick, Cor, Blimey!, starring opposite Geoffrey Hutchings
Geoffrey Hutchings
Geoffrey Hutchings was a British stage, film and television actor.-Early life and career:Hutchings was born in Dorchester, Dorset, England. After attending Hardye's School, he studied French and Physical Education at Birmingham University before he became a member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic...

.

Her other television credits include 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...

, 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...

, Coupling
Coupling (UK TV series)
Coupling is a British television sitcom written by Steven Moffat that aired on BBC2 from May 2000 to June 2004. Produced by Hartswood Films for the BBC, the show centres on the dating and sexual adventures and mishaps of six friends in their thirties, often depicting the three women and the three...

, After You've Gone and M.I.T.: Murder Investigation Team
M.I.T.: Murder Investigation Team (TV series)
MIT: Murder Investigation Team was a British police procedural drama series produced by the ITV network as a spin-off from the long running series, The Bill. The series is based around the investigations of a London Murder Investigation Team, and is closely styled after the American series CSI:...

, in which she played the lead role of DI Vivien Friend. She described the role of Friend as "quite an unusual departure for me...I've done quite a bit of comedy and I've played characters who are light-hearted and characters who are tarts with hearts. In M.I.T. there is no tart or heart!" In order to research the part, Spiro spent time with a female Detective Inspector with the real-life Murder Investigation Team
Murder Investigation Team
Murder/Major Investigation Teams are the specialised homicide squads of the Metropolitan Police in London, England. Forming part of the Homicide and Serious Crime Command, itself part of the Specialist Crime Directorate, there is one MIT for each Borough Operational Command Unit...

. From 9 August 2010, Spiro starred in the BBC comedy Grandma's House
Grandma's House
Grandma's House is a sitcom television series for BBC Two. Written by Simon Amstell and long term collaborator Dan Swimer, the series stars Simon Amstell playing a version of himself: a television presenter searching for meaning in his life...

. She plays the part of Simon Amstell
Simon Amstell
Simon Marc Amstell is a BAFTA nominated, award-winning English comedian, television presenter, screenwriter and actor, best known for his roles as former co-host of Popworld, former host of Never Mind the Buzzcocks and co-writer and star of the sitcom Grandma's House.-Early life:Amstell was born...

s aunt.

Spiro has appeared in the films Beyond Bedlam (1994), as WPC Foster, and Tomorrow La Scala! (2002), as Janey. She also played Martha Tabram
Martha Tabram
Martha Tabram was an English prostitute whose killing was the second of the Whitechapel murders in late 19th century London...

 in From Hell
From Hell (film)
From Hell is a 2001 American crime drama horror mystery film directed by the Hughes brothers. It is an adaptation of the comic book series of the same name by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell about the Jack the Ripper murders.-Plot:...

 (2001), opposite Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp
John Christopher "Johnny" Depp II is an American actor, producer and musician. He has won the Golden Globe Award and Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor. Depp rose to prominence on the 1980s television series 21 Jump Street, becoming a teen idol...

.

Her radio drama
Radio drama
Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...

 credits include The Casebook of Inspector Steine
Inspector Steine
Inspector Steine is a radio comedy drama series written by Lynne Truss and produced by Sweet Talk for BBC Radio 4. The producer is Karen Rose and music is by Anthony May....

, Gospel According to Mary, Little Cinderellas, Beside the Seaside and the Guy Meredith play Spring Forward, Fall Back for BBC Radio 7.

Awards

In 2001, Spiro was awarded the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical
Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical
The Laurence Olivier Awards are a series of awards presented annually by The Society of London Theatre. They are presented in recognition of achievements in commercial British theatre, most notably plays and musicals in the West End of London, an area commonly referred to as "Theatreland"...

 for her performance in the 2000 season Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...

 production of Merrily We Roll Along
Merrily We Roll Along (musical)
Merrily We Roll Along is a musical with a book by George Furth and lyrics and music by Stephen Sondheim. It is based on the 1934 play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart....

. She won a Whatsonstage.com award for Best Actress in a Musical for the same production. In 2010, Spiro was once again awarded the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical
Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical
The Laurence Olivier Awards are a series of awards presented annually by The Society of London Theatre. They are presented in recognition of achievements in commercial British theatre, most notably plays and musicals in the West End of London, an area commonly referred to as "Theatreland"...

 for her performance in Hello, Dolly!
Hello, Dolly! (musical)
Hello, Dolly! is a musical with lyrics and music by Jerry Herman and a book by Michael Stewart, based on Thornton Wilder's 1938 farce The Merchant of Yonkers, which Wilder revised and retitled The Matchmaker in 1955....

 at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, in the City of Westminster, London, is a permanent venue with an annual sixteen-week summer season. It was founded in 1932 by Sydney Carroll and Robert Atkins.-The theatre:...

.

Spiro won a 2004 Joseph Jefferson Award
Joseph Jefferson Awards
The Joseph Jefferson Awards are given annually by a volunteer non-profit committee to acknowledge excellence in theatre in the Chicago area. Founded in 1968, the awards are given in tribute to actor Joseph Jefferson...

 for Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical, for the production of A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music
A Little Night Music is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. Inspired by the Ingmar Bergman film Smiles of a Summer Night, it involves the romantic lives of several couples. Its title is a literal English translation of the German name for Mozart's Serenade...

 at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Chicago Shakespeare Theater
Chicago Shakespeare Theater is a non-profit, professional theater company located at Navy Pier in Chicago, Illinois. Its more than six hundred annual performances performed 48 weeks of the year include its critically acclaimed Shakespeare series, its World's Stage touring productions, and youth...

 in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

.

In the 2011 British Comedy Awards she won the Best Female Comedy Breakthrough Artist award for her performance in Grandma's House
Grandma's House
Grandma's House is a sitcom television series for BBC Two. Written by Simon Amstell and long term collaborator Dan Swimer, the series stars Simon Amstell playing a version of himself: a television presenter searching for meaning in his life...

.

Television

Year Show Role Notes
1994 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...

Cherie
- Dealer Wins (1994)
Police drama
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...

2000 Cor, Blimey! Barbara Windsor
Barbara Windsor
Barbara Ann Windsor, MBE , better known by her stage name Barbara Windsor, is an English actress. Her best known roles are in the Carry On films and as Peggy Mitchell in the BBC soap opera EastEnders....

Television film
Television movie
A television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...

2001 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...

Ruth
- Episode 4.2 (2001)
- Episode 4.4 (2001)
- Episode 4.5 (2001)
Comedy drama
Comedy-drama
Comedy-drama is a genre of theatre, film and television programs which combines humorous and serious content.-Theatre:Traditional western theatre, beginning with the ancient Greeks, was divided into comedy and tragedy...

TV Go Home
TVGoHome
TVGoHome was a website which parodied the television listings style of the British magazine Radio Times. It was produced fortnightly from 1999 to 2001, and sporadically until 2003, by Charlie Brooker. The site now exists only in archive form...

Sketch show
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...

2003 M.I.T.: Murder Investigation Team
M.I.T.: Murder Investigation Team (TV series)
MIT: Murder Investigation Team was a British police procedural drama series produced by the ITV network as a spin-off from the long running series, The Bill. The series is based around the investigations of a London Murder Investigation Team, and is closely styled after the American series CSI:...

DI Vivien Friend Police drama
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...

2004 Coupling
Coupling (UK TV series)
Coupling is a British television sitcom written by Steven Moffat that aired on BBC2 from May 2000 to June 2004. Produced by Hartswood Films for the BBC, the show centres on the dating and sexual adventures and mishaps of six friends in their thirties, often depicting the three women and the three...

Jeffina
- Nine and a Half Months (2004)
Sitcom
2007 After You've Gone Ann Venables
- Stuck in the Middle with You (2007)
- When She Came Back (2007)
Sitcom
2010 Grandma's House
Grandma's House
Grandma's House is a sitcom television series for BBC Two. Written by Simon Amstell and long term collaborator Dan Swimer, the series stars Simon Amstell playing a version of himself: a television presenter searching for meaning in his life...

Auntie Liz Sitcom

Film

Year Film Role Notes
1994 Beyond Bedlam WPC Foster
2001 From Hell
From Hell (film)
From Hell is a 2001 American crime drama horror mystery film directed by the Hughes brothers. It is an adaptation of the comic book series of the same name by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell about the Jack the Ripper murders.-Plot:...

Martha Tabram
Martha Tabram
Martha Tabram was an English prostitute whose killing was the second of the Whitechapel murders in late 19th century London...

2002 Tomorrow La Scala!
Tomorrow La Scala!
Tomorrow La Scala! is a 2002 British comedy film directed by Francesca Joseph. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Jessica Hynes - Victoria * Samantha Spiro - Jayney Tomorrow La Scala! is a 2002 British comedy film directed by Francesca Joseph....

Janey

Theatre

  • HELLO DOLLY (Dolly) d:Tim Sheader, Regents Park
    • Best Actress in a Musical - 2010 Olivier Awards
  • MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING (Beatrice) d: Tim Sheader, Regents Park
  • TWELFTH NIGHT (Maria) d: Michael Grandage, Donmar / Wyndhams
  • FUNNY GIRL (Fanny Brice) d: Angus Jackson, Chichester Festival
  • THE FAMILY PLAYS (Mother) d: Joe Hill-Gibbons, Royal Court Theatre
  • TWO THOUSAND YEARS d: Mike Leigh, Royal National Theatre
  • A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC (Charlotte) d: Gary Griffin Chicago Shakespeare’s Theatre
    • Winner: Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, Joseph Jefferson Awards 2004
  • A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (Titania/Hippolyta) d: Michael Grandage Crucible, Sheffield
  • BEDROOM FARCE (Jan) d: Loveday Ingram Michael Codron
    Michael Codron
    Michael Victor Codron is a British film and theatre producer, known for his productions of the early work of Harold Pinter, Christopher Hampton, David Hare, Simon Gray and Tom Stoppard...

     Plays
  • MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG (Mary Flynn) d: Michael Grandage Donmar Warehouse
    • Olivier Awards 2001 & Whatsonstage.com Awards 2001 – Best Actress in a Musical
  • AS YOU LIKE IT (Celia) d: Michael Grandage Crucible & Lyric
  • JUMPERS (Dorothy Moore) d: Bill Alexander Birmingham Rep
  • CLEO CAMPING…(Barbara Windsor) d: Terry Johnson Royal National Theatre
  • ROOTS (Beatie Bryant) d: John Retallack Watford Palace/Oxford
  • AS YOU LIKE IT (Phoebe) d: Polly Irvin W. Yorkshire/Bristol
  • TEECHERS (Gail Saunders) d: Graham Watts Hull Truck & No 1 Tour
  • ON THE PISTE (Bev Ryan) d: Graham Watts Hull Truck
  • HOW THE OTHER HALF LOVERS (Mary) d: Penelope Keith Theatre Royal, Windsor
  • GLYN & ‘IT’ (Clara Bow) d: Richard Cottrell
    Richard Cottrell
    Richard Cottrell is an English theatre director. He has been the Director of the Cambridge Theatre Company and the Bristol Old Vic in England, and of the Nimrod Theatre in Sydney, Australia...

     Yvonne Arnaud & tour
  • MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (Hermia) d: Delena Kidd London & Middle East
  • TONS OF MONEY (Simpson) d: David Conville Mercury Th, Colchester
  • MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (First Fairy) d: Ian Talbot Regents Park Open Air
  • AS YOU LIKE IT (Audrey) d: Maria Aitkin Regents Park Open Air
  • LADY BE GOOD (Daisy) d: Ian Talbot Regents Park Open Air
  • MACBETH (Witch) d: Bill Baunt Regents Park Open Air
  • THE BOYS FROM SYRACUSE (Courtesan) d: Judi Dench Regents Park Open Air

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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