Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham Carter (born 26 May 1966) is a British actress born in London. Raised in Golders Green, she was educated at South Hampstead High School and completed her A-levels at Westminster School. Without formal acting training, she entered the profession after winning a national writing contest in 1979, using the prize money to pay for her entry into the Spotlight actors' directory. She made her professional acting debut at age 16 in a television commercial and subsequently had a minor role in the 1983 television film A Pattern of Roses.

Bonham Carter achieved her breakthrough playing Lucy Honeychurch in A Room with a View (1985) and the title role in Lady Jane (1986). Her early work in period dramas led to her being typecast as a virginal "English rose" and "corset queen," an image with which she felt uncomfortable. In the early 1990s, she studied clowning under Philippe Gaulier. During this decade, she appeared in films such as Hamlet (1990), Howards End (1992), Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994), Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Twelfth Night (1996), and Fight Club (1999). For her role as Kate Croy in The Wings of the Dove (1997), she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Throughout her career, Bonham Carter has collaborated frequently with director and ex-husband Tim Burton on films including Big Fish (2003), Corpse Bride (2005), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Alice in Wonderland (2010), and Dark Shadows (2012). Her performance as Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd earned her an Evening Standard British Film Award and an Empire Award. She gained wide recognition playing Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter film series from 2007 to 2011. Her voice work includes roles in Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) and The Gruffalo (2009).

In 2009, Bonham Carter starred as author Enid Blyton in the television film Enid, winning the 2010 International Emmy Award for Best Actress and earning a British Academy Television Award nomination. Her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in The King's Speech (2010) won her the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and earned her an Academy Award nomination. She later appeared in films such as Great Expectations (2012), Les Misérables (2012), Cinderella (2015), Ocean's 8 (2018), Enola Holmes (2020), and Four Letters of Love (2024).

Bonham Carter's television work includes playing Anne Boleyn in Henry VIII (2003), Elizabeth Taylor in Burton & Taylor (2013), and Princess Margaret in Netflix's The Crown from 2019 to 2020, for which she earned two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. Outside acting, she launched the fashion line "The Pantaloonies" in 2006 with designer Samantha Sage and served on the 2006 Cannes Film Festival jury. In 2022, she was appointed as the first female president of the London Library.