Harriet Walter

Dame Harriet Mary Walter is an English stage, film, and television actor born in 1950. She is widely recognized for her extensive dramatic career across theatre and screen, including her television portrayals of Natalie Chandler in Law & Order: UK and Harriet Vane in the BBC's Lord Peter Wimsey adaptations, as well as her performance in the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Walter was raised in London, England, by her father, Roderick Walter, and her mother, Xandra Carandini Lee. Her maternal uncle was actor Sir Christopher Lee, and her ancestry includes Italian heritage through a marquis as well as descent from the Australian opera singer Marie Carandini. Her mother worked for the Naval Intelligence Division during World War II, while her paternal lineage traces to John Walter, the founder of The Times newspaper. She attended Cranborne Chase School and, after choosing against university and being rejected by five drama schools, trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She gained early professional experience with the Joint Stock Theatre Company, Paines Plough, and the Duke's Playhouse.

Walter established a long association with the Royal Shakespeare Company, becoming an associate artist in 1987. She won an Olivier Award for Best Actress for her performances in Twelfth Night and Three Sisters, and earned further Olivier nominations for Life x 3 and Mary Stuart. Her leading stage work includes RSC productions of Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, and Antony and Cleopatra. She made her Broadway debut in 1983 in All's Well That Ends Well and returned in Mary Stuart. Between 2012 and 2016, she starred in an all-female Shakespeare trilogy at the Donmar Warehouse, portraying Brutus in Julius Caesar, the title role in Henry IV, and Prospero in The Tempest.

On screen, Walter has appeared in numerous high-profile feature films, including Sense and Sensibility, The Governess, Atonement, The Young Victoria, A Royal Affair, Denial, The Sense of an Ending, Rocketman, and The Last Duel. Her major television credits encompass Downton Abbey, London Spy, The Crown, Patrick Melrose, Succession, The Spanish Princess, Killing Eve, Ted Lasso, This Is Going to Hurt, and Silo.

Throughout her career, Walter has earned an Olivier Award alongside nominations for a Tony Award, two Drama Desk Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, five Emmy Awards, and BAFTA TV Awards for her roles in Succession and Ted Lasso. In 2000, she was made a CBE, and in 2011 she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to drama. She also holds an honorary doctorate and fellowship from the Shakespeare Institute.

In her personal life, Walter was in a relationship with actor Peter Blythe from 1996 until his death in 2004, and she married actor Guy Paul in 2011. A feminist since her youth, she incorporates her political views into her acting work and serves as a patron for charities including the Shakespeare Schools Festival, Prisoners Abroad, and Clean Break. Her recent screen projects include Playing Gracie Darling and playing Margaret Thatcher in Brian and Maggie.