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 The Crown is a political concept used in Commonwealth realms. Depending on the context used, it generally refers to the entirety of the State (polity), state (or in federal realms, the relevant level of government in that state), the executive ...

'' (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).

Background and early life

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. 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". 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. 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 WellsBurke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, vol. III, 2003, pg 3046 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.Gerard Gilbert
Anna Chancellor has a lineage worthy of Tatler but...
dated 20 December 2014 at independent.co.uk. Retrieved 4 October 2016 Chancellor herself has spoken of her lineage, stating:

Career

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), playing Henrietta (nicknamed "Duckface") opposite Hugh Grant. She played Julia Piper in series 1 to 3 of '' Kavanagh QC''. 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 The National Theatre (NT), officially the Royal National Theatre and sometimes referred to in international contexts as the National Theatre of Great Britain, is a performing arts venue and associated theatre company located in London, England, ...

-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. She has also appeared in '' The Vice'', '' Karaoke'', '' Cold Lazarus'', '' The Dreamers'', '' Tipping the Velvet'' (2002), 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.

Charity

She is a patron of the London children's charity Scene & Heard.

Personal life

Chancellor had one daughter, Poppy, with poet Jock Scot. Poppy died from leukaemia on 29 September 2023 aged 36.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

* '' Boston Marriage'', Donmar Warehouse – March–April 2001; Donmar in the West End – November 2001–February 2002 * '' Mammals'' at the Oxford Playhouse and touring – Lorna, January 2006 * '' Never So Good'', National Theatre – summer 2008 * ''The Observer'', National Theatre – spring 2009 * ''The Last of the Duchess'', Hampstead Theatre – October–November 2011 * '' Private Lives'' (playing Amanda), Chichester Festival Theatre, September 2012, and the Gielgud Theatre, London (July–September 2013) * ''The Wolf From the Door'', Royal Court Theatre, September–November 2014 * '' The Seagull'' by Anton Chekhov at National Theatre – summer 2016

Audiobooks

Chancellor has played the role of Ann Smiley in BBC dramatisations of the John le Carré novels '' Call for the Dead'', '' Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'', '' The Honourable Schoolboy'' and '' Smiley's People''.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

*
Anna Chancellor
at the bbc.co.uk official '' Spooks'' website
The Anna Chancellor Page
at '' The Huffington Post'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Chancellor, Anna Living people 1965 births 20th-century English actresses 21st-century English actresses Actresses from London Actresses from Somerset Asquith family English film actresses English radio actresses English stage actresses English television actresses People educated at St Mary's School, Shaftesbury Actors from the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames A Jolliffe family People from Richmond, London