Biography

Olivia Colman

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Olivia Colman was born on January 30, 1974 in Norwich, Norfolk, England, UK. She is an actress and producer, known for The Favourite (2018), Tyrannosaur (2011) and The Lost Daughter (2021). She has been married to Ed Sinclair since August 2001. They have three children.

Worked as a cleaner before becoming an actress.
Convinced director Susanne Bier to hire her for the role of Angela Burr on The Night Manager (2016) despite the fact she was heavily pregnant with her third child by making reference to how well Frances McDormand's pregnant character Marge Gunderson worked on the movie Fargo (1996). Coincidentally, it was McDormand who handed Olivia the Best Actress Oscar for her role in The Favourite (2018).
She was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to Drama.
She asked for her character on Peep Show (2003) to be characterized as less likable, after convincing the writers that her behavior and treatment of David Mitchell's character had been poor.
She felt so nervous singing the Portishead song "Glory Box", which she did for the album "BBC Children in Need: Got It Covered", that she requested Phoebe Waller-Bridge and her sister Isobel Waller-Bridge to be present and play ukulele to calm her down.

[on The Suspicions of Mr Whicher: The Murder in Angel Lane (2013)] I had already agreed to do this before I'd even read the script, because Paddy [Paddy Considine] was in it. It was weird acting with him because, on Tyrannosaur (2011), he was the best director in the world. On this, when the director gave me notes, I'd keep checking Paddy's eyes to see if everything was all right, and he'd have to tell me, "I'm not the director!"
[on what drew her to the role of Queen Anne] I loved that she had every emotion under the sun every five minutes. That's an actor's dream. She's spoiled, grieving, sensitive and cruel.
If someone doesn't like me because of the size of my bum, they can fuck off. Because I'm quite a nice person to be with, actually

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