Olivia Colman (born Sarah Caroline Olivia Colman; 30 January 1974) is a two-time BAFTA Award winning English actress, well known for her supporting roles in comedy shows including Sally Owen in Twenty Twelve, Sophie Chapman in Peep Show, Alex Smallbone in Rev. and Harriet Schulenburg in Green Wing. Her performance in the 2011 film Tyrannosaur received critical acclaim. In 2012 she was nominated twice in the “Best Actress” category at the British Comedy Awards.
Colman has appeared in roles in numerous comedy films and other BBC, ITV and Channel 4 television programmes such as Bruiser, People Like Us, Look Around You, Black Books, The Office, The Time Of Your Life and provided the voice-over for Five’s poll for Britain’s Funniest Comedy Character. She regularly features in BBC Radio 4 comedies, such as Concrete Cow, Think the Unthinkable, The House of Milton Jones and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. She is also the voice of Minka, the Polish secretary in the Radio 4 comedy… read more
Olivia Colman (born Sarah Caroline Olivia Colman; 30 January 1974) is a two-time BAFTA Award winning English actress, well known for her supporting roles in comedy shows including Sally Owen in Twenty Twelve, Sophie Chapman in Peep Show, Alex Smallbone in Rev. and Harriet Schulenburg in Green Wing. Her performance in the 2011 film Tyrannosaur received critical acclaim. In 2012 she was nominated twice in the “Best Actress” category at the British Comedy Awards.
Colman has appeared in roles in numerous comedy films and other BBC, ITV and Channel 4 television programmes such as Bruiser, People Like Us, Look Around You, Black Books, The Office, The Time Of Your Life and provided the voice-over for Five’s poll for Britain’s Funniest Comedy Character. She regularly features in BBC Radio 4 comedies, such as Concrete Cow, Think the Unthinkable, The House of Milton Jones and Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. She is also the voice of Minka, the Polish secretary in the Radio 4 comedy Hut 33, set in a fictional codebreaking hut of the real-life Bletchley Park during World War II.
Her film credits include the British mockumentary film Confetti (in which she plays a naturist with Robert Webb – she has described the role as “the worst experience of my life”), Alice in Grow Your Own, Doris Thatcher in Hot Fuzz, and I Could Never Be Your Woman. Colman appeared as ‘Bev’, alongside Mark Burdis as ‘Kev’, in a series of television adverts for AA car insurance. She provided voices for the Andrex “be kind to your behind” adverts and Glade fragrance adverts, where her character is a gorilla.
In October and November 2008, Colman appeared in the BBC sitcom Beautiful People, based on the life of Simon Doonan, as Debbie Doonan, Simon’s mother. She also made a guest appearance in Skins, in the third-series episode “Naomi” as Naomi’s mother Gina. In 2010, Colman took a leading role as Alex Smallbone, the wife of an inner city vicar, in the BBC sitcom Rev. Also in 2010, she played “Mother” in Matt Smith’s debut Doctor Who story.
In January 2011, Colman won a Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Breakout Performances for her role in the film Tyrannosaur. In spring 2011, Colman appeared in the BBC drama Exile, written by Danny Brocklehurst and starring John Simm and Jim Broadbent.
In 2011-12 she played Sally Owen, the love-lorn secretary to Hugh Bonneville’s character Ian Fletcher in Twenty Twelve, a successful television comedy series about planning for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
In 2011 she played Carol Thatcher in the Academy Award-winning film The Iron Lady. In her BAFTA acceptance speech for Best Actress, lead actress Meryl Streep thanked Colman and described her as “divinely gifted”.
In 2013, Colman played DS Ellie Miller in the hit ITV drama Broadchurch. This eight-part drama set in the fictional Dorset town of Broadchurch follows the reaction of a tight-knit community when a young boy is killed under suspicious circumstances.
In April 2013, she was recognised for her versatility with BAFTA nominations for Best Supporting Actress for her turn in The Accused, and for Best Female Comedy Performance in Twenty Twelve. She went on to win both awards.
Colman was a central member of Mitchell & Webb’s acting ensemble. Colman met the duo when they were all students at Cambridge University, and has collaborated with one or both of them on various projects. She has appeared with them in numerous TV and radio projects, such as radio’s That Mitchell and Webb Sound, and the television version, That Mitchell and Webb Look. She decided to leave the programme after deciding that she was becoming too closely associated with the duo and needed to widen her horizons: a decision that was made “with tears”. She continued to appear on Peep Show until 2010.
Colman has worked several times with actor/director Paddy Considine. They acted together in Hot Fuzz, where they met, and also in Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee. Colman was a leading cast member in Considine’s first two directorial exploits: Dog Altogether and Tyrannosaur. For her performance in Tyrannosaur Colman won several awards including World cinema special jury prize, dramatic for breakout performance at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and the 2012 Kermode Award for Best Actress (joint with Tilda Swinton for her role in We Need To Talk About Kevin). —-Wikipedia
