Lindsay Duncan

Lindsay Vere Duncan CBE was born on 7th November 1950 and is a distinguished Scottish actress. She started her journey in the arts in 1975 and has since received three BAFTA nominations, one Scottish BAFTA nomination, two Olivier Awards and a Tony Award for her stage work. Her rich career includes roles in numerous Harold Pinter plays and a range of film credits which include Prick Up Your Ears (1987), City Hall (1996), Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010), and Blackbird (2019) amongst others. In addition to stage and films, Duncan has appeared in a variety of TV roles such as Barbara Douglas in G.B.H. (1991) and as Lady Smallwood on BBC One's Sherlock (2014-2017).

Duncan was born into a working-class Scottish family and educated at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Her connection with theatre began with school productions and, at 21, she joined the London Central School of Speech and Drama. Her breakthrough role came in Top Girls by Caryl Churchill which won her an Obie. She played the role of Servilia Caepionis in the 2005 HBO-BBC series Rome and won a Tony Award for Best Actress and a second Olivier Award for her performance as Amanda Prynne in Noël Coward's Private Lives. In the course of her career, she has also starred in the plays of Harold Pinter, A Midsummer Night's Dream and as Queen Annis in BBC1's Merlin.