Indira Anne Varma (born 27 September 1973) is a British actress and narrator. Her film debut and first major role was in '' Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love''. She is known for her television roles, such as playing Niobe in the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

and

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

series ''

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

'' (2005–07), Suzie Costello in the

series '' Torchwood'' (2006), Zoe Luther in the

series '' Luther'' (2010), Ilsa Pucci in '' Human Target'' (2010–11), Ellaria Sand in the

series '' Game of Thrones'' (2014–2017), and The Bride in the DCU/ Max adult animated series '' Creature Commandos'' (2024–present). In September 2016 she began starring in the ITV/ Netflix series '' Paranoid'' as DS Nina Suresh. She has also worked extensively in the theatre, winning a Laurence Olivier Award for her performance in '' Present Laughter'' (2019) and receiving an additional nomination for her performance in '' Oedipus'' (2025).

Early life

Varma was raised in

Bath, Somerset Bath (Received Pronunciation, RP: , ) is a city in Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman Baths (Bath), Roman-built baths. At the 2021 census, the population was 94,092. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, Bristol, River A ...

, the only child of an Indian father and a Swiss mother who was of part Genoese Italian descent. Her mother was a graphic designer and her father was an illustrator. She was a member of Musical Youth Theatre Company and graduated from the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...

(RADA) in London, in 1995.

Career

Varma's first role after graduating from RADA was as a courtesan in '' Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love'' in 1996. She then went on to act in '' Jinnah'' in 1998, and '' Bride and Prejudice'' in 2004. Her first television appearance was in 1996 in ''Crucial Tales''. An early television role was the young Roman wife Niobe in the 2005 first series of

's award-winning historical drama ''

''. Her character appeared briefly in the second series when it was shown on 14 January 2007. In 2006 she played Suzie Costello in the first and eighth episodes, " Everything Changes" and " They Keep Killing Suzie", of BBC Three's science-fiction drama series '' Torchwood''. She appeared as Dr Adrienne Holland in the CBS medical drama '' 3 lbs'' which premiered on 14 November 2006 and was cancelled on 30 November 2006 due to poor ratings. Varma guest starred in the fourth-season premiere of hit US detective drama '' Bones'' as Scotland Yard Inspector Cate Pritchard. She also played the role of Zoe Luther in the first series of the BBC drama '' Luther''. Varma played the role of Ilsa Pucci in the second season of the Fox series '' Human Target'' until the show was cancelled on 10 May 2011. In 2014, Varma was cast as Ellaria Sand, the paramour of Oberyn Martell in season 4 of the

series '' Game of Thrones''. She played the role through season 7. She lent her voice to the Circle mage

Vivienne Vivian (and variants such as Vivien and Vivienne) is a given name, and less often a surname, derived from a Latin name of the Roman Empire period, masculine '' Vivianus'' and feminine '' Viviana'', which survived into modern use because it is the ...

, in the 2014 role-playing video game '' Dragon Age: Inquisition''. Later on, she also gave her voice to Katherine Proudmoore in '' Battle for Azeroth'', one of the most recent expansion in the MMO role-playing game ''

World of Warcraft ''World of Warcraft'' (''WoW'') is a 2004 massively multiplayer online role-playing (MMORPG) video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment for Windows and Mac OS X. Set in the '' Warcraft'' fantasy universe, ''World of War ...

''. In 2016, she played the lead role of DC Nina Suresh in the eight-episode British television drama '' Paranoid'', streamed worldwide on Netflix. Varma portrays a reform-minded corrections official in the 2020 ABC

legal drama Legal drama, also called courtroom drama, is a genre of film and television that generally focuses on narratives regarding legal practice and the justice system. The American Film Institute (AFI) defines "courtroom drama" as a genre of film in wh ...

'' For Life'', and appears as the double agent Tala Durith in the '' Obi-Wan Kenobi'' series for

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

, as well as '' Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One''. In 2022, Varma began narrating the ''Witches'' series of audio books by Terry Pratchett. In May 2023, it was announced that Varma would portray The Duchess in the first season of ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'' in the episode Rogue.

Theatre

In 1997, Varma appeared in two

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...

plays: she portrayed Audrey in '' As You Like It'' at the Nottingham Playhouse, and later that year played Bianca in '' Othello'' at the National Theatre,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. In 2000 to 2001, she appeared in

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A List of Nobel laureates in Literature, Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramat ...

and Di Trevis's NT stage adaptation of Pinter's ''The Proust Screenplay'', '' Remembrance of Things Past'', based on ', by Marcel Proust. In the summer of 2001, she played Gila in '' One for the Road'', by

, at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. In 2002, she played Sasha Lebedieff in '' Ivanov'' by

Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; ; 29 January 1860 – 15 July 1904) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer, widely considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his b ...

at the National Theatre and Bunty Mainwaring in '' The Vortex'' by

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time (magazine), Time'' called "a sense of personal style, a combination of c ...

at the Donmar Theatre, London. In 2004, she played Sabina in '' The Skin of Our Teeth'' by Thornton Wilder at the Young Vic Theatre Theatre, London. In 2008, she played Nadia Baliye in '' The Vertical Hour'' by David Hare at the Royal Court Theatre London. In 2009, she played Olivia in Shakespeare's '' Twelfth Night'' with Donmar West End at Wyndham's Theatre, London. In 2012, she played Jessica in Terry Johnson's '' Hysteria'' at the Theatre Royal, Bath. In 2013 she played Miss Cutts in '' The Hothouse'' by

in the Trafalgar Transformed season at Trafalgar Studios. In 2014, Varma played Tamora, Queen of the Goths, in Lucy Bailey's "gore-fest" production of '' Titus Andronicus'' at Shakespeare's Globe. In 2015, she appeared alongside Ralph Fiennes in

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

's '' Man and Superman'' at the National Theatre. In 2020, pre-lockdown, she starred in Chekhov's ''

The Seagull ''The Seagull'' () is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 in literature, 1895 and first produced in 1896 in literature#Drama, 1896. ''The Seagull'' is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramati ...

'' as Irina alongside ''Game of Thrones'' co-star Emilia Clarke at the Playhouse Theatre. Her 2019 performance in '' Present Laughter'' at The Old Vic theatre earned Varma a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. In 2023-2024 she played Lady Macbeth opposite Ralph Fiennes in

Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...

at a number of UK theatres and at the Shakespeare Theatre Company in Washington D.C. She was awarded a Helen Hayes Award for her performance. She returned to The Old Vic in 2025 in '' Oedipus'' opposite Rami Malek and received her second Olivier nomination.

Personal life

Varma met actor Colin Tierney in 1997 while they were performing together in ''Othello'' at the National Theatre. They later married and the couple reside in Hornsey, North London, with their daughter.

Filmography

Film

Television

Audio drama

Video games

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Varma, Indira Living people 1973 births 20th-century English actresses 20th-century Swiss actresses 21st-century English actresses 21st-century Swiss actresses Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Audiobook narrators British Shakespearean actresses English film actresses English people of Indian descent English people of Italian descent English people of Swiss descent English stage actresses English television actresses English video game actresses English voice actresses Laurence Olivier Award winners Method actors Actresses from Bath, Somerset Swiss film actresses