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 (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).
Early life and education
Anna Theodora Chancellor was born in Richmond, England to publisher 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 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 Wells 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. Chancellor has said that she had worked hard to become an actress, and her lineage does not define who she is.
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.
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),
Personal life
Chancellor had one daughter, Poppy, with poet Jock Scot. Poppy died from leukaemia on 29 September 2023 aged 36.
Filmography
{| class="wikitable"
|+Key
| style="background:#FFFFCC;"|
|Denotes works that have not yet been released
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Film
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Film
! Role
! Notes
|-
| 1990
| Killing Dad or How to Love Your Mother
| Barmaid
|
|-
| 1993
| Century
| Woman in Police Station
|
|-
| rowspan="4"| 1994
| Four Weddings and a Funeral
| Henrietta ‘Duck Face’– Wedding Four
|
|-
| Tom and Viv
| Woman
|
|-
| Staggered
| Carmen Svennipeg
|
|-
| Princess Caraboo
| Mrs. Peake
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1997
| FairyTale: A True Story
| Peter Pan
|
|-
| The Man Who Knew Too Little
| Barbara Ritchie
|
|-
| 1999
| Heart
| Nicola Farmer
|
|-
| 2001
| Crush
| Molly Cartwright
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 2003
| What a Girl Wants
| Glynnis Payne
|
|-
| The Dreamers
| Mother
|
|-
| Confused
|
| Short film
|-
| 2004
| Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London
| Lady Josephine Kenworth
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2005
| The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
| Questular Rontok
|
|-
| Feeder
| Doctor
| Short film
|-
| The Best Man
| Dana
|
|-
| 2006
| Breaking and Entering
| Kate
|
|-
| 2007
| St. Trinians
| Miss Bagstock
|
|-
| 2010
| Critical Eye
| Laura
|
|-
| 2011
| Hysteria
| Mrs Bellamy
|
|-
| 2012
| More Afraid of You
| Lucy
| Short film
|-
| rowspan="3" | 2013
| How I Live Now
| Aunt Penn
|
|-
| Confessions of an Alien Abductee
| Narrator
|
|-
| Noël Coward's Private Lives
| Amanda Prynne
|
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2014
| Death Knight Love Story
| Miria
| Voice role
|-
| Testament of Youth
| Mrs. Leighton
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |2016
| The Carer
| Milly
|
|-
| This Beautiful Fantastic
| Bramble
|
|-
| 2017
| Love of My Life
| Grace
|
|-
| rowspan="3"| 2018
| The Happy Prince
| Mrs Arbuthnot
|
|-
| Benjamin
| Tessa
|
|-
| Nativity Rocks!
| Clara Hargreaves
|
|-
| 2019
| For Love or Money
| Carol
|
|-
| 2020
| Come Away
| Eleanor Murrow
| Film
|-
| 2022
| Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris
| Lady Dant
|
|-
|2022
| Stromboli
|Diane
|
|}
Television
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Film
! Role
! Notes
|-
| 1990–1996
| Jupiter Moon
| Mercedes Page
| 50 episodes
|-
| 1992
| Inspector Morse
| Sally Smith
| Episode: "Cherubim and Seraphim"
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1993
| Agatha Christie's Poirot
| Virginie Mesnard
| Episode: "The Chocolate Box"
|-
| Comedy Playhouse
| Julia
| Episode: "The Complete Guide to Relationships"
|-
| 1994
| Ellington
| Ally Stone
| TV film
|-
| 1995
| Pride & Prejudice
| Caroline Bingley
| Miniseries; 6 episodes
|-
| 1995–1997
| Kavanagh QC
| Julia Piper
| 11 episodes
|-
| rowspan="2"| 1996
| Karaoke
| Anna Griffiths
| Miniseries; 4 episodes
|-
| Cold Lazarus
| Anna Griffiths
| Miniseries; 3 episodes
|-
| 1999
| The Vice
| Dr. Christina Weir
| 6 episodes
|-
| 2000
| Longitude
| Muriel Gould
| TV film
|-
| 2001
| The Cazalets
| Diana Mackintosh
| 6 episodes
|-
| 2002
| Tipping the Velvet
| Diana Lethaby
| 2 episodes
|-
| 2002
| The Real Jane Austen
| Herself/host
| TV special
|-
| rowspan="3" | 2003
| Georgian Underworld
| Narrator
| Episode: "Queer as 18th Century Folk"
|-
| Doc Martin and the Legend of the Cloutie
| Nicky Bowden
| TV film
|-
| Fortysomething
| Estelle Slippery
| 6 episodes
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2004
| Blue Dove
| Maria Bishop
| 2 episodes
|-
| Roman Road
| Maddy Bancroft
| TV film
|-
| 2005
| A Waste of Shame: Shakespeare and His Sonnets
| Anne Hathaway
| TV film
|-
| 2005–2007
| Spooks
| Juliet Shaw
| 15 episodes
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2006
| Rebus
| Amanda Morrison
| Episode: "Let It Bleed"
|-
| The Secret Life of Mrs Beeton
| Elizabeth Dorling
| TV film
|-
| 2006–2007
| Suburban Shootout
| Camilla Diamond
| 11 episodes
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2007
| Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars
| Irene Adler
| TV film
|-
| Christmas at the Riviera
| Diane
| TV film
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2008
| My Family
| Zelda Nobbs
| Episode: "Cards on the Table"
|-
| Agatha Christie's Marple: Murder Is Easy
| Lydia Horton
| TV film
|-
| 2009
| Law & Order: UK
| Evelyn Wyndham
| 2 episodes
|-
| rowspan="2"| 2010
| Silent Witness
| Chief Supt. Karen Somerville
| 2 episodes
|-
| Miranda
| Helena
| Episode: "A New Low"
|-
| rowspan="4"| 2011
| Hustle
| Wendy Stanton
| Episode: "As Good as it Gets"
|-
| Waking the Dead
| Lucy Christie
| 2 episodes
|-
| Lewis
| Judith Suskin
| Episode: "The Gift of Promise"
|-
| Hidden
| Elspeth Verney
| 4 episodes
|-
|-
| 2011–2012
| The Hour
| Lix Storm
| 12 episodes<br/>Nom – BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress
|-
| Trust
| Penelope Kittson
| 5 episodes
|-
| rowspan="2" | 2019
| Death in Paradise
| Ciss Dacre
| Episode: "Frappe Death Day"
|-
| Timewasters
| Victoria
| 5 episodes
|-
| 2019–2021
| Pennyworth
| Dr. Frances Gaunt
| 7 episodes
|-
| 2020–2022
|The Split
| Melanie Aickman
| Series 2-3
|-
| 2021
| The Watch
| Lord Vetinari
| Main role
|-
| rowspan=2|2022
| Hotel Portofino
| Lady Latchmere
| Main role
|-
||That Dirty Black Bag
| Hellen
| TV Series
|-
|2023
|Rain Dogs
|Allegra
|
|-
|2024
|My Lady Jane
|Lady Frances Grey
|8 episodes
|-
|2025
|Outrageous
|Sydney Bowles
|-
|2025
|The Girlfriend
|Lillith Greenway
|3 episodes
|}
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
{| width="99%" class="wikitable"
|-
! width="8" | Year
! width="215" | Award
! width="345" | Category
! width="210" | Nominated work
! width="28" | Result
! width="7" | Ref.
|-
| 1997
| Laurence Olivier Awards
| Best Actress in a Supporting Role
| Stanley, at RNT Cottesloe
|
|
|-
| 2007
| Monte-Carlo TV Festival
| Golden Nymph, Outstanding Actress Comedy Series
| Suburban Shootout
|
|
|-
| 2012
| BAFTA TV Awards
| BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress
| The Hour
|
|
|-
| 2013
| Broadcasting Press Guild Awards
| BPG Award for Best Actress
| Pramface and The Hour
|
|
|-
|}
References
External links
- Anna Chancellor at the bbc.co.uk official Spooks website
- The Anna Chancellor Page
- Anna Chancellor sponsored video interview at The Huffington Post