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Imelda Staunton's career has spanned three decades and memorable starring roles in three mediums; film, television, and theatre.

The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) gradu- ate was an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominee for her performance in the title role of Mike Leigh's Vera Drake, which also earned Ms. Staunton a BAFTA Award, among other honors.

She previously acted for Taking Woodstock direc- tor Ang Lee in Sense and Sensibility, for which Emma Thompson won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Among Ms. Staunton's other films are the Academy Award-winning Shakespeare in Love, directed by John Madden; David Yates' Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; Kirk Jones' Nanny McPhee; Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing and Peter's Friends; Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night; Richard LaGravenese's Free- dom Writers; John McKay's Crush; Stephen Fry's Bright Young Things; Peter Lord and Nick Park's Chicken Run (in voiceover); and Beeban Kidron's Antonia and Jane, in which she starred as the latter.

Her television credits include starring in the series Up the Garden Path, Little Britain (during the third sea- son), and Big and Small. She was a member of the reper- tory cast of the television series Thompson, with Emma Thompson, Kenneth Branagh, and Robbie Coltrane; and has starred in such notable miniseries and telefilms as Jon Amiel's The Singing Detective (written by Dennis Pot- ter), Simon Curtis' David Copperfield, Rachel Talalay's The Wind in the Willows, Aisling Walsh's Fingersmith, and, most recently, Cranford.

The London native began her career in repertory theatre. She has since won two Olivier Awards, for Alan Ayckbourn's National Theatre staging of his play A Cho- rus of Disapproval, and for Richard Jones' staging of Ste- phen Sondheim's musical Into the Woods. Ms. Staunton was also an Olivier Award nominee for her performance in Richard Eyre's Royal National Theatre staging of Guys and Dolls (opposite Henry Goodman of Taking Wood- stock).