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Anna Friel extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Anna Friel
Born	Anna Louise Friel 12 July 1976 (1976-07-12) (age 33) Rochdale, England, UK
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1986–present
Domestic partner(s)	David Thewlis (2001-present)
Official website

Anna Louise Friel (born 12 July 1976) is an English actress. She rose to fame in the UK on Channel 4 soap Brookside, and has had a successful career since in UK and US TV and cinema.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Acting career 3 Personal life 4 Awards and nominations 5 Filmography 6 References 7 External links

Early life

Friel was born in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, the daughter of Julie, a special needs teacher, and Des Friel, a former teacher of French and owner of a Web Design Company.¹² Friel's Irish Catholic father, a former folk guitarist, was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and grew up in Donegal, Ireland.³⁴⁵ Her brother Michael starred in the Hovis television adverts. She attended Crompton House Church of England High School, in High Crompton, Shaw and Crompton. She then attended Holy Cross College in Bury. Friel became interested in acting at an early age and received frequent praise for her work at local talent shows.⁶

Acting career

At the age of 13, she was hired for her first professional acting job in the Channel 4 drama serial G.B.H., as the daughter of Michael Palin's character. Her performance led to a series of appearances on various British television shows, including Emmerdale. In 1992, she was added to the cast on the Channel 4 soap opera Brookside, where she gained greater exposure in the role of Beth Jordache. Though she only stayed on the programme for two years, Friel's lesbian kiss remains one of the most talked-about moments in British soap history.⁷ In 1995, Friel won the National Television Award for Most Popular Actress for her work on Brookside.

In 1996, Friel courted further controversy⁸ when she appeared in the television film The Tribe by Stephen Poliakoff, which included nudity and a much discussed ménage à trois sex scene between characters played by Friel, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Jeremy Northam.

In 1998 she appeared in the original Broadway run of Closer by Patrick Marber at the Music Box Theatre in Manhattan, United States winning a Drama Desk Award and a Theatre World award for her performance as Alice. In 2001, she made her West End stage debut in London in a fringe production of Lulu which also transferred to Broadway.

Friel's film credits include playing Nick Leeson's wife Lisa in Rogue Trader opposite Ewan McGregor; David Leland's The Land Girls, which also starred Rachel Weisz and Catherine McCormack; All for Love with Richard E. Grant; A Midsummer Night's Dream as Hermia, opposite Christian Bale, Dominic West and Calista Flockhart; Timeline as Gerard Butler's object of affection; Me Without You opposite Michelle Williams; and Goal! and Goal! 2: Living the Dream....

Her television work includes the short lived The Jury for the Fox and ITV1's Watermelon which was based on the novel by Marian Keyes. In 2007 she started playing Charlotte "Chuck" Charles in Pushing Daisies, a new television series from the creator of Dead Like Me, Spoon and Wonderfalls, on the American network ABC.⁹ Although popular with critics, in November 2008, creator Bryan Fuller stated that it had been cancelled due to poor ratings. The show ran for two seasons.

In the pilot season following the cancellation of Pushing Daisies, Friel was offered six pilots but declined all six roles in favour of focusing on her movie career.¹⁰

In November 2006, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Bolton for contributions to the performing arts.¹¹

She has also been seen as the face of Pantene Pro-V Ice shine in the United Kingdom, appearing in both television advertisements and print advertising. She has also appeared in adverts on television for 3 Mobile and Virgin Atlantic Airways.

In May 2009, Friel confirmed that she will star in a West End adaptation of the novel Breakfast at Tiffany's. The show started in September 2009 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.¹²

Friel is due to star in a film London Boulevard alongside Ray Winstone, Colin Farrell, and Keira Knightley which is expected to be released in 2010. It also stars her real life partner David Thewlis.

Personal life

In 2001, Friel began a relationship with actor David Thewlis, whom she met on a flight to Cannes. Their daughter, Gracie Ellen Mary Friel,¹³ was born on 9 July 2005, at Portland Hospital in London.

In 2008 Friel began supporting the Fashion Targets Breast Cancer campaign in support of Breakthrough Breast Cancer, alongside fellow celebrities, Alan Carr, Angela Griffin, Natalie Imbruglia, Edith Bowman and Twiggy.¹⁴

Friel advocates the work of the Burma Campaign UK, an NGO committed to bringing about change in the deeply troubled nation.

Awards and nominations

• 2009 Royal Television Society North West Award - Best Performance in a Single Drama or Drama Series for The Street
• 2008 Golden Globe – Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Comedy or Musical Nomination for Pushing Daisies (nominee)
• 2008 Satellite Awards – Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series, Comedy or Musical Nomination for Pushing Daisies (nominee)
• 1999 Drama Desk Awards – Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for "Closer"
• 1995 TV Times Awards – Best Actress
• 1994 TV Quick Magazine – Best Newcomer

Honorary degree, awarded by University of Bolton.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1991	G.B.H.	Susan Nelson	TV mini-series
1992	Emmerdale	Poppy Bruce	Episodes
1993	Medics	Holly Jarrett	Episode (#3.3)
1993-1995	Brookside	Beth Jordache	Episodes
1995	The Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis Show		Episode (#2.1)
1996	Tales from the Crypt	Angelica	Episode ("About Face")
	Cadfael	Sioned	Episode ("A Morbid Taste for Bones")
1998	The Land Girls	Prue (Prudence)
	Our Mutual Friend	Bella Wilfer	Episodes (#1.1, #1.2)
	The Stringer	Helen
	The Tribe	Lizzie
	St. Ives	Flora Gilchrist
1999	A Midsummer Night's Dream	Hermia
	Rogue Trader	Lisa Leeson
	Mad Cows	Maddy
2000	Sunset Strip	Tammy Franklin
	An Everlasting Piece	Bronagh
2001	The Fear	Storyteller	Recurring
	The War Bride	Lily
	Me Without You	Marina
2002	Fields of Gold	Lucia Merritt	TV film
2003	Watermelon	Claire Ryan	TV film
	Last Rumba in Rochdale	Bodney	Voice actor
	Timeline	Lady Claire
2004	Perfect Strangers	Susie Wilding
2005	Goal!	Roz Harmison
2006	Irish Jam	Maureen
	Niagara Motel	Denise
2007	Goal! 2: Living the Dream...	Roz Harmison
	Rubbish	Isobel
2007-2008	Pushing Daisies	Charlotte "Chuck" Charles	Main Cast
2008	Bathory	Countess Erzsébet Báthory
2009	Land of the Lost	Holly Cantrell
	The Street	Dee Purnell	Episodes (#3.2 and #3.3)
2010	London Boulevard	Briony	upcoming film
	Angel Makers	Lizzie	upcoming film
	You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger	Unknown	post-production

References

External links

• Anna Friel at the Internet Movie Database
• Anna Friel's Sentimental Journey Horkins, Tony Page Six Magazine Oct. 19, 2008

Persondata
NAME	Friel, Anna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Friel, Anna Louise
SHORT DESCRIPTION	English actress
DATE OF BIRTH	12 July 1976
PLACE OF BIRTH	Rochdale, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH