| Lara Pulver | |
| Birth Place: | Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England |
| Occupation: | Actress |
| Years Active: | 2000–present |
| Children: | 2 |
Lara Pulver (born 1 September 1980) is an English actress. She has played Erin Watts in the BBC spy drama Spooks and Irene Adler on BBC's TV adaptation Sherlock. She won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical in the West End's revival of the Broadway musical Gypsy.
Pulver was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England on 1 September 1980 and grew up in the village of Longfield in Kent.[1] [2] Her father is from a Jewish family; her mother converted to Judaism when they married.[3] [4] She has a sister, Erika, who is four years older and works as a teacher.[3]
Pulver attended the National Youth Music Theatre between 1994 and 1998, as well as The Liz Burville Dance Centre, Bexley.[5] In 1997, she began studying at the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts, and graduated in 2000.[6]
Pulver was nominated for the 2008 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the role of Lucille Frank in the first West End production of the musical Parade at the Donmar Warehouse. She reprised the role in the Los Angeles production at the Mark Taper Forum opposite T.R. Knight.
In 2008, Pulver recorded a song for the CD Act One – Songs from the Musicals of Alexander S. Bermange. Pulver joined the cast of the BBC's Robin Hood in 2009 as Isabella, the sister of Guy of Gisbourne.[7]
In 2010, Pulver joined the cast of the third series of HBO's True Blood as Sookie Stackhouse's fairy godmother, Claudine Crane.[8]
Pulver played Erin Watts, the new chief of Section D, in the tenth and final series of BBC spy drama Spooks, a role she reprised in the 2015 feature film
Pulver played Irene Adler in "A Scandal in Belgravia", the first episode of the second series of Sherlock.[9] Her appearance caused an "enormous" response,[10] with the Evening Standard calling the scene where she greets Sherlock Holmes nude "infamous".[11] To The Telegraph, Pulver called the scene "empowering".[12] The BBC received over 100 complaints about the footage.[13]
In 2012 she joined the cast of Da Vinci's Demons as the "seductive and minded" Clarice Orsini, a series regular and wife of Elliot Cowan's character Lorenzo Medici.[14]
In 2014, she played Louise in a revival of Gypsy at the Chichester Festival Theatre.[15] The production transferred to the West End in April 2015.[16] Pulver won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for the same role in the Savoy Theatre production of Gypsy. Louise is actually the title role, as "Louise" becomes the real-life early-20th-century American strip-tease sensation Gypsy Rose Lee, on whose memoirs the musical is based. Pulver's co-star in the Savoy production, Imelda Staunton, won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as the larger-than-life Mama Rose.
In 2003, Pulver met American actor Josh Dallas while he was in the UK studying at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. They married in December 2007 in Devon.[17] [18] Dallas confirmed their divorce in an interview on Bob Rivers's radio show on 2 December 2011.[19]
Pulver began dating fellow Spooks actor Raza Jaffrey in 2012 and the two married on 27 December 2014. They lived in Los Angeles for ten years and have a son and daughter.[20] Pulver confirmed in an interview on Sunday Brunch on 18 August 2024 that they had sold their bespoke designed home in Los Angeles and moved back to London.
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Legacy | Diane Shaw | ||
| 2011 | Language of a Broken Heart | Violet | ||
| 2014 | Edge of Tomorrow | Karen Lord | Non-speaking cameo | |
| 2015 | A Patch of Fog | Lucy | ||
| 2015 | Erin Watts | |||
| 2016 | Semira | |||
| 2021 | Tetra | Voice role |
| Year | Show | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Robin Hood | Isabella | TV series (8 episodes in Series 3) |
| 2010 | The Special Relationship | Intern | TV movie |
| 2010 | True Blood | Claudine Crane | TV series (5 episodes) |
| 2011 | Spooks | Erin Watts | TV series (main cast in Series 10) |
| 2012, 2014 | Sherlock | Irene Adler | "A Scandal in Belgravia" and "The Sign of Three" |
| 2012 | Coming Up | Annette | "Camouflage" |
| 2013–2015 | Da Vinci's Demons | Clarice Orsini | TV series; main role |
| 2013 | Victoria | TV series; minor role | |
| 2014 | Ann O'Neill | TV series (4 episodes); Main role | |
| 2015 | Erin Watts | Reprising her role from the series | |
| 2016–2017 | Quantico | Charlotte Bishop | Episodes: "ODENVY" and "EPICSHELTER" |
| 2017 | Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams | Paula | Episode: "Real Life" |
| 2018 | The City and the City | Katrynia | TV series |
| 2020 | The Alienist: Angel of Darkness | Karen Stratton | TV series |
| 2021 | Princess Mirana | TV series; main voice role | |
| 2022 | The Split | Kate Pencastle | Main role (series 3) |
| 2022 | Pantheon | News Anchor, Olivia | Guest voice role; Episodes: "The Gods Will Not Be Slain", "Olivia & Farhad" |
| 2023 | Maternal | Catherine MacDiarmid | TV series; main role[21] |
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best Actress in a Musical | Parade | [27] | ||
| 2016 | Laurence Olivier Award | Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical | Gypsy | [28] |