Martha Howe-Douglas (born 19 September 1980) is an English actress and writer. She is known as a member of the Them There collective with which she wrote and starred in productions including '' Horrible Histories'', '' Yonderland'', and '' Ghosts''. She also played receptionist Donna Parmar in the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

daytime soap '' Doctors''.

Early life

Howe-Douglas was born and raised in

Moseley Moseley ( ') is an affluent suburb in south Birmingham, England, south of the city centre. It is located within the eponymous Moseley ward of the constituency of Birmingham Hall Green and Moseley (UK Parliament constituency), Hall Green and ...

, a suburb of south

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, on 19 September 1980. She attended Edgbaston High School. She graduated from RADA in 2003.

Career

After graduating from RADA, Howe-Douglas appeared in the Christmas special of '' The Office'', as a receptionist at Wernham-Hogg. From 24 April 2006 until 11 May 2007, Howe-Douglas played receptionist Donna Parmar 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 ...

daytime soap opera '' Doctors''. For her role as Donna, Howe-Douglas received nominations for Best Comedy Performance and Best Newcomer at the 2007 British Soap Awards. In 2009, she landed one of the main multi-role parts on a new children's TV history sketch show programme, CBBC's '' Horrible Histories'', where over five years and five series, she played numerous characters including the queens

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. She was the last and longest reigning monarch of the House of Tudo ...

, Boudicea and Victoria. In 2011, she appeared in ''

The Proms The BBC Proms is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hall in central London. Robert Newman founded The Proms in 1895. Since 1927, the ...

'', in a special live "''Horrible Histories'' Big Prom Party" performance. In 2013, she co-created, co-wrote and co-starred in Sky1's series '' Yonderland'', in which she played lead character Debbie Maddox in all three series. Howe-Douglas' other acting roles have included appearing in '' The Armstrong & Miller Show'' on

and playing Flora Dies-Early in the radio comedy show '' Bleak Expectations'', as well as Lady Anne Woodstock in the radio show '' The Castle''. In 2018, she appeared in the BBC soap opera ''

EastEnders ''EastEnders'' is a British television soap opera created by Julia Smith (producer), Julia Smith and Tony Holland which has been broadcast on BBC One since February 1985. Set in the fictional borough of Walford in the East End of London, the ...

'' as Annie Pritchard. From 15 April 2019, Howe-Douglas co-wrote, produced and starred in the BBC sitcom '' Ghosts'', which sees her reunited with the ''Horrible Histories'' cast.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Howe-Douglas Living people English television actresses English soap opera actresses English radio actresses English voice actresses Actresses from Birmingham, West Midlands Writers from Birmingham, West Midlands Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art 20th-century English actresses 21st-century English actresses 1980 births People from Moseley English television writers