| Anna Chancellor | |
| Birth Name: | Anna Theodora Chancellor |
| Birth Date: | 1965 4, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Richmond, London, England |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Years Active: | 1990–present |
| Children: | 1 |
| Relatives: | Edward Chancellor (brother) Cecilia Chancellor (cousin) |
Anna Theodora Chancellor (born 27 April 1965) is an English actress who has appeared widely on TV, film and in the theatre. She received a nomination for BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lix Storm in The Hour (2011–2012), and has twice been nominated for Olivier Awards, in 1997 for her performances in Stanley at the National Theatre, and again in 2014 for Private Lives at the Gielgud Theatre. She was also nominated for an award at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival in 2007 and for one at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards in 2013.
On television, she is also known for her roles in the ITV series Kavanagh QC (1995-1997) and Grantchester (2016); the BBC series Pride and Prejudice (1995), Tipping the Velvet (2002), Spooks (2005-2007), Pramface (2012–2014), Ordeal by Innocence (2018) and Rain Dogs (2023); the Channel 5 series Suburban Shootout (2006–2007); the Netflix series The Crown (2017); the Epix series Pennyworth (2019–2021); and the BritBox series Hotel Portofino (2022).
Her films include Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), and How I Live Now (2013).
Chancellor was born in Richmond, England to barrister John Paget Chancellor and Hon. Mary Jolliffe, a daughter of Lord Hylton. Her father was the son of Sir Christopher Chancellor and Sylvia Mary Paget, a daughter of Sir Richard Paget and philanthropist Lady Muriel, daughter of Murray Finch-Hatton, 12th Earl of Winchilsea. The Chancellor family were Scottish landed gentry who had owned land at Quothquan since 1432.[1]
Chancellor was brought up in Somerset and educated at St Mary's School, Shaftesbury, which was a Roman Catholic boarding school for girls in Dorset, but left at sixteen to live in London, later describing her early years there as "quite wild".[2] In her early twenties she married the poet Jock Scot (1952–2016), with whom she had a daughter in 1988 while still studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She separated from Scot a few years later.[3]
Chancellor is a niece of the journalist Alexander Chancellor, a great-granddaughter of Raymond Asquith (son of the liberal prime minister H. H. Asquith), a first cousin of both the actress Dolly Wells[4] and the model Cecilia Chancellor, a second cousin of the actress Helena Bonham Carter. Chancellor was also the great niece of Jane Austen eight generations removed through Edward Austen Knight.[5] [6] [7] Chancellor herself has spoken of her lineage, stating:
Chancellor got her first acting role on television playing Mercedes Page in Jupiter Moon, a BSkyB soap, then came a commercial for Boddingtons beer and a part in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994),[2] playing Henrietta (nicknamed "Duckface") opposite Hugh Grant.
She played Julia Piper in series 1 to 3 of Kavanagh QC.[2] She also played Caroline Bingley in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.
In 1997, she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in Stanley at the Royal National Theatre-Cottesloe.
She played Questular Rontok in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). The same year, she joined the cast of BBC One television drama series Spooks as Juliet Shaw.[2] She has also appeared in The Vice, Karaoke, Cold Lazarus, The Dreamers, Tipping the Velvet (2002),[2] and Fortysomething, and had a leading role in the satirical black comedy Suburban Shootout.
In 2011, she took a supporting role as Lix Storm in the BBC thriller serial The Hour, for which she was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 2012 British Academy Television Awards.
In 2014, she was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for her part in Private Lives at the Gielgud Theatre.
She is a patron of the London children's charity Scene & Heard.[8]
Chancellor had one daughter, Poppy, with poet Jock Scot. Poppy died from leukaemia on 29 September 2023 aged 36.[9]
| Denotes works that have not yet been released |
| Year | Film | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Killing Dad or How to Love Your Mother | Barmaid | ||
| 1993 | Century | Woman in Police Station | ||
| 1994 | Four Weddings and a Funeral | Henrietta ‘Duck Face’– Wedding Four | ||
| Tom and Viv | Woman | |||
| Staggered | Carmen Svennipeg | |||
| Mrs. Peake | ||||
| 1997 | Peter Pan | |||
| The Man Who Knew Too Little | Barbara Ritchie | |||
| 1999 | Heart | Nicola Farmer | ||
| 2001 | Crush | Molly Cartwright | ||
| 2003 | What a Girl Wants | Glynnis Payne | ||
| The Dreamers | Mother | |||
| Confused | Short film | |||
| 2004 | Lady Josephine Kenworth | |||
| 2005 | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Questular Rontok | ||
| Feeder | Doctor | Short film | ||
| The Best Man | Dana | |||
| 2006 | Breaking and Entering | Kate | ||
| 2007 | St. Trinians | Miss Bagstock | ||
| 2010 | Critical Eye | Laura | ||
| 2012 | More Afraid of You | Lucy | Short film | |
| 2011 | Hysteria | Mrs Bellamy | ||
| 2012 | More of You | Lucy | Short film | |
| 2013 | How I Live Now | Aunt Penn | ||
| Confessions of an Alien Abductee | Narrator | |||
| Noël Coward's Private Lives | Amanda Prynne | |||
| 2014 | Death Knight Love Story | Miria | Voice role | |
| Testament of Youth | Mrs. Leighton | |||
| 2016 | The Carer | Milly | ||
| This Beautiful Fantastic | Bramble | |||
| 2017 | Love of My Life | Grace | ||
| 2018 | The Happy Prince | Mrs Arbuthnot | ||
| Benjamin | Tessa | |||
| Nativity Rocks! | Clara Hargreaves | |||
| 2019 | For Love or Money | Carol | ||
| 2020 | Come Away | Eleanor Murrow | Film | |
| 2022 | Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris | Lady Dant | ||
| 2022 | Stromboli | Diane |
| Year | Film | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990–1996 | Jupiter Moon | Mercedes Page | 50 episodes | |
| 1992 | Inspector Morse | Sally Smith | Episode: "Cherubim and Seraphim" | |
| 1993 | Agatha Christie's Poirot | Virginie Mesnard | Episode: "The Chocolate Box" | |
| Comedy Playhouse | Julia | Episode: "The Complete Guide to Relationships" | ||
| 1994 | Ellington | Ally Stone | TV film | |
| 1995 | Pride & Prejudice | Caroline Bingley | Miniseries; 6 episodes | |
| 1995–1997 | Kavanagh QC | Julia Piper | 11 episodes | |
| 1996 | Karaoke | Anna Griffiths | Miniseries; 4 episodes | |
| Cold Lazarus | Anna Griffiths | Miniseries; 3 episodes | ||
| 1999 | The Vice | Dr. Christine Weir | 5 episodes | |
| 2000 | Longitude | Muriel Gould | TV film | |
| 2001 | The Cazalets | Diana Mackintosh | 6 episodes | |
| 2002 | Tipping the Velvet | Diana Lethaby | 2 episodes | |
| 2002 | The Real Jane Austen | Herself/host | TV special | |
| 2003 | Georgian Underworld | Narrator | Episode: "Queer as 18th Century Folk" | |
| Doc Martin and the Legend of the Cloutie | Nicky Bowden | TV film | ||
| Fortysomething | Estelle Slippery | 6 episodes | ||
| 2004 | Blue Dove | Maria Bishop | 2 episodes | |
| Roman Road | Maddy Bancroft | TV film | ||
| 2005 | A Waste of Shame: Shakespeare and His Sonnets | Anne Hathaway | TV film | |
| 2005–2007 | Spooks | Juliet Shaw | 15 episodes | |
| 2006 | Rebus | Amanda Morrison | Episode: "Let It Bleed" | |
| The Secret Life of Mrs Beeton | Elizabeth Dorling | TV film | ||
| 2006–2007 | Suburban Shootout | Camilla Diamond | 11 episodes | |
| 2007 | Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars | Irene Adler | TV film | |
| Christmas at the Riviera | Diane | TV film | ||
| 2008 | My Family | Zelda Nobbs | Episode: "Cards on the Table" | |
| Agatha Christie's Marple Murder Is Easy | Lydia Horton | TV film | ||
| 2009 | Evelyn Wyndham | 2 episodes | ||
| 2010 | Silent Witness | Chief Supt. Karen Somerville | 2 episodes | |
| Miranda | Helena | Episode: "A New Low" | ||
| 2011 | Hustle | Wendy Stanton | Episode: "As Good as it Gets" | |
| Waking the Dead | Lucy Christie | 2 episodes | ||
| Lewis | Judith Suskin | Episode: "The Gift of Promise" | ||
| Hidden | Elspeth Verney | 4 episodes | ||
| 2011–2012 | The Hour | Lix Storm | ||
| 2012–2014 | Pramface | Janet Derbyshire | 14 episodes | |
| 2012 | We'll Take Manhattan | Lucie Clayton | TV film | |
| 2013 | A Touch of Cloth | Hope Goodgirl | 2 episodes | |
| 2014 | Inside No. 9 | Elizabeth | Episode: "Sardines" | |
| Second Officer Monday | 4 episodes | |||
| Penny Dreadful | Claire Ives | 1 episode | ||
| Downton Abbey | Lady Anstruther | 1 episode | ||
| Mapp & Lucia | Emmeline 'Lucia' Lucas | 3 episodes | ||
| 2016 | Shetland | Phyllis Brennan | 4 episodes | |
| New Blood | Eleanor Davies | 7 episodes | ||
| Grantchester | Aunt Cece | Christmas special | ||
| Flowers | Aunty Viv | 1 episode | ||
| 2017 | The Crown | Lady Rosse | Episode: "Matrimonium" | |
| 2018 | Ordeal by Innocence | Rachel Argyll | 3 episodes[10] | |
| Trust | Penelope Kittson | 5 episodes | ||
| 2019 | Death in Paradise | Ciss Dacre | Episode: "Frappe Death Day" | |
| Timewasters | Victoria | 5 episodes | ||
| 2019–2021 | Pennyworth | Dr. Frances Gaunt | 7 episodes | |
| 2020–2022 | The Split | Melanie Aickman | Series 2-3[11] | |
| 2021 | The Watch[12] | Lord Vetinari | Main role | |
| 2022 | Hotel Portofino | Lady Latchmere | Main role | |
| That Dirty Black Bag | Hellen | TV Series | ||
| 2023 | Rain Dogs | Allegra[13] | ||
| 2024 | My Lady Jane | Lady Frances Grey | 8 episodes | |
| TBA | Outrageous | Sydney Bowles |
Chancellor has played the role of Ann Smiley in BBC dramatisations of the John le Carré novels Call for the Dead,[16] Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy,[17] The Honourable Schoolboy[18] and Smiley's People.[19]