Anna Chancellor
Encyclopedia

Family

Chancellor was born in Richmond, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England, the daughter of the Hon. Mary Alice Jolliffe (daughter of William Jolliffe, 4th Baron Hylton
William Jolliffe, 4th Baron Hylton
William George Hervey Jolliffe, 4th Baron Hylton , was a British peer and soldier.Hylton was the son of Hylton Jolliffe, 3rd Baron Hylton, and Lady Alice Adeliza Hervey. He achieved the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel in the Coldstream Guards and also served as Lord Lieutenant of Somerset from 1949 to...

) and John Paget Chancellor. Through her mother's mother, Lady Perdita Rose Mary Asquith, Chancellor is the great-granddaughter of The Hon. Raymond Aquith
Raymond Asquith
Raymond Asquith was an English barrister and eldest son and heir of British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith by his first wife Helen Kelsall Melland .- Career and honours :...

 and the great-great-granddaughter of Prime Minister H. H. Asquith
H. H. Asquith
Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, KG, PC, KC served as the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916...

, and through her father, she is the great-great-granddaughter of the 12th Earl of Winchilsea and Nottingham
Murray Finch-Hatton, 12th Earl of Winchilsea
Murray Edward Gordon Finch-Hatton, 12th Earl of Winchilsea and 7th Earl of Nottingham , styled the Hon. Murray Finch-Hatton until 1887, was a British Conservative politician and agriculturalist....

 (a descendant of Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter
Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter
Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter, KG , known as Lord Burghley from 1598 to 1605, was an English politician and soldier.-Life:...

 and William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572...

). She is distantly related to actress Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress of film, stage, and television. She made her acting debut in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses before winning her first film role as the titular character in Lady Jane...

, through her mother's side. Her uncle is journalist Alexander Chancellor
Alexander Chancellor
Alexander Chancellor is a British journalist. He was educated at Eton College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was the editor of the conservative Spectator magazine from 1975 to 1984, and now contributes a weekly column in The Guardian, published in the "Weekend" supplement each Saturday...

, the father of model Cecilia Chancellor, her eight-times great-aunt was author Jane Austen
Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...

, herself a great-niece of James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos
James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos
James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos, MP, PC was the first of fourteen children by Sir James Brydges, 3rd Baronet of Wilton Castle, Sheriff of Herefordshire, 8th Baron Chandos; and Elizabeth Barnard...

, and her second cousin six times removed was poet Lord Byron. She is also twice a descendant of Mary Boleyn
Mary Boleyn
Mary Boleyn , was the sister of English queen consort Anne Boleyn and a member of the Boleyn family, which enjoyed considerable influence during the reign of King Henry VIII of England...

 and once of Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich
Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich
Sir Richard Rich, 1st Baron Rich , was Lord Chancellor during the reign of King Edward VI of England. He was the founder of Felsted School with its associated alms houses in Essex in 1564....

 and John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Prince of Mindelheim, KG, PC , was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs through the late 17th and early 18th centuries...

.

Chancellor was accepted into the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art
The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art is a leading British drama school in west London. LAMDA's president is Timothy West and its new principal is Joanna Read, who recently succeeded Peter James...

, but in her third year she became pregnant and dropped out. Her daughter with Scots poet Jock Scott, Poppy Chancellor, was born in 1988. When their relationship ended, she then married a cameraman, Nigel Willoughby, whom she had met in 1993 while shooting a Boddington's advertisement. However, they divorced in 1998. She is now married to Redha Debbah.

Career

Chancellor had a prominent role in the series Kavanagh QC
Kavanagh QC
Kavanagh QC is a British television series made by Carlton Television for ITV between 1995 and 2001. It has been shown on ITV3 as recently as August 2011; series 1–6 are available on Region 2 DVDs....

. She is also known for her performance as "Duckface" in Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings and a Funeral is a 1994 British comedy film directed by Mike Newell. It was the first of several films by screenwriter Richard Curtis to feature Hugh Grant...

opposite Hugh Grant
Hugh Grant
Hugh John Mungo Grant is an English actor and film producer. He has received a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA, and an Honorary César. His films have earned more than $2.4 billion from 25 theatrical releases worldwide. Grant achieved international stardom after appearing in Richard Curtis's...

. She has also been noted for her work as Caroline Bingley in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and as Questular Rontok in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a 2005 comic science fiction film based on the book of the same name by Douglas Adams. Shooting was completed in August 2004 and the movie was released on April 28, 2005 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and on the following day in Canada and the United...

. In 2005, she joined the cast of the popular BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 television drama series Spooks
Spooks
Spooks is a British television drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 – 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a...

as a new regular character, Juliet Shaw
Juliet Shaw
Juliet Shaw is a fictional character in the British TV show Spooks, portrayed by British actress Anna Chancellor. She rose fast as a spy, achieving the position of National Security Coordinator, at the Cabinet Office...

. She has also appeared in The Vice
The Vice (TV series)
The Vice is an ITV police drama about the Metropolitan Police Vice Squad. It ran for five short series between 1999 and 2003. It tells the story of the London Metropolitan police forces vice squad, where prostitution, underage sex, and other such organized crime are regular occurrences...

, Jupiter Moon
Jupiter Moon
Jupiter Moon was a science fiction television series first broadcast by BSB's Galaxy Channel from 26 March 1990 until December the same year. 150 episodes were commissioned, but only the first 108 were broadcast by BSB...

, Karaoke
Karaoke (play)
Karaoke is a British television drama written by Dennis Potter with the knowledge that he was dying from cancer of the pancreas.It forms a pair with the serial Cold Lazarus...

, Cold Lazarus
Cold Lazarus
Cold Lazarus is a four-part British television drama written by Dennis Potter with the knowledge that he was dying of cancer of the pancreas....

, The Dreamers, and Tipping the Velvet
Tipping the Velvet (TV serial)
Tipping the Velvet is a 2002 BBC television drama serial based on the bestselling debut novel by Sarah Waters of the same name. It originally screened in three episodes on BBC Two and was produced for the BBC by the independent production company Sally Head Productions...

, and has a starring role in the satirical black comedy Suburban Shootout
Suburban Shootout
Suburban Shootout is a British satirical black comedy television series produced for Five and Paramount Comedy by Feelgood Fiction in association with Oxygen. The first series aired in the UK on Five from 27 April 2006. It began airing in the United States on 22 March 2006 on Oxygen and in Germany...

. In 2011, she took a supporting role in the thriller serial The Hour.

Filmography

Year Film Role Notes
1990 Killing Dad or How to Love Your Mother Barmaid
Jupiter Moon
Jupiter Moon
Jupiter Moon was a science fiction television series first broadcast by BSB's Galaxy Channel from 26 March 1990 until December the same year. 150 episodes were commissioned, but only the first 108 were broadcast by BSB...

Mercedes Page TV series (50 episodes: 1990-1996)
1992 Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse (TV series)
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. Dexter makes a cameo appearance in all but three of the episodes....

Sally Smith TV series (1 episode: "Cherubim and Seraphim")
1993 Agatha Christie: Poirot Virginie Mesnard TV series (1 episode: "The Chocolate Box")
Comedy Playhouse
Comedy Playhouse
Comedy Playhouse was a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served?...

Julia TV series (1 episode: "The Complete Guide to Relationships")
Century Woman in Police Station
1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Four Weddings and a Funeral is a 1994 British comedy film directed by Mike Newell. It was the first of several films by screenwriter Richard Curtis to feature Hugh Grant...

Henrietta - Wedding Two
Tom & Viv Woman
Staggered Carmen Svennipeg
Princess Caraboo
Princess Caraboo (film)
Princess Caraboo is a 1994 British-American historical comedy-drama film co-written and directed by Michael Austin, based on the real-life 19th-century character Princess Caraboo, who passed herself off in British society as an exotic princess who spoke a strange foreign language; she is portrayed...

Mrs. Peake
Ellington Ally Stone TV movie
1995 Pride & Prejudice Caroline Bingley TV mini-series (6 episodes)
Kavanagh QC
Kavanagh QC
Kavanagh QC is a British television series made by Carlton Television for ITV between 1995 and 2001. It has been shown on ITV3 as recently as August 2011; series 1–6 are available on Region 2 DVDs....

Julia Piper TV series (11 episodes: 1995-1997)
1996 Karaoke Anna Griffiths TV mini-series (4 episodes)
Cold Lazarus
Cold Lazarus
Cold Lazarus is a four-part British television drama written by Dennis Potter with the knowledge that he was dying of cancer of the pancreas....

Anna Griffiths TV mini-series (3 episodes)
1997 FairyTale: A True Story
FairyTale: A True Story
FairyTale: A True Story is a 1997 film from Paramount Pictures, loosely based on the story of the Cottingley Fairies.-Plot:Early 20th Century England was a time and place ripe for believing, both in scientific advancements such as electric light and photography, and in anomalous phenomena of all...

Peter Pan
The Man Who Knew Too Little
The Man Who Knew Too Little
The Man Who Knew Too Little is a 1997 American comedy espionage film starring Bill Murray, directed by Jon Amiel, and written by Robert Farrar and Howard Franklin...

Barbara Ritchie
1999 The Vice
The Vice (TV series)
The Vice is an ITV police drama about the Metropolitan Police Vice Squad. It ran for five short series between 1999 and 2003. It tells the story of the London Metropolitan police forces vice squad, where prostitution, underage sex, and other such organized crime are regular occurrences...

Dr. Christine Weir TV series (5 episodes)
Heart Nicola Farmer
2000 Longitude Muriel Gould TV movie
2001 The Cazalets
The Cazalets
The Cazalets is a 2001 five-episode television drama series about a large privileged family set at the time of World War II, set between 1937 and 1947. It was based on the novels of Elizabeth Jane Howard, adapted by the screenwriter Douglas Livingstone. The series was originally produced by Cinema...

Diana Mackintosh TV series (6 episodes)
Crush Molly Cartwright
2002 Tipping the Velvet Diana Lethaby TV series (2 episodes)
2003 Georgian Underworld Narrator TV series (1 episode: "Queer as 18th Century Folk")
What a Girl Wants
What a Girl Wants (film)
What a Girl Wants is a 2003 film starring Amanda Bynes, Colin Firth, Kelly Preston and Oliver James. Directed by Dennie Gordon, the film is a remake of the 1958 film, The Reluctant Debutante which had a screenplay by William Douglas-Home, based on his play of the same name.The title, "What a Girl...

Glynnis Payne
Doc Martin and the Legend of the Cloutie Nicky Bowden TV movie
Fortysomething Estelle Slippery TV series (6 episodes)
The Dreamers Mother
Confused short
2004 Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London
Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London
Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London is an English-American action comedy film and the sequel to the 2003 film Agent Cody Banks, and was released in the United States on March 12, 2004. Frankie Muniz was the only major returning star, with Hannah Spearritt now playing the love interest and...

Lady Josephine Kenworth
Blue Dove Maria Bishop TV series (2 episodes)
Roman Road
Roman Road (TV Drama)
-Plot summary:Vince is a burglar who finds himself in a difficult spot after a job and talks his old college friend Matt to join him on an expedition. They both set off to walk the Roman road from Chichester to London, but it doesn't take long for it to become apparent that they're being chased by...

Maddy Bancroft TV movie
2005 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (film)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a 2005 comic science fiction film based on the book of the same name by Douglas Adams. Shooting was completed in August 2004 and the movie was released on April 28, 2005 in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, and on the following day in Canada and the United...

Questular Rontok
Feeder Doctor short
The Best Man Dana
A Waste of Shame: Shakespeare and His Sonnets
A Waste of Shame
A Waste of Shame is a 90-minute television drama on the circumstances surrounding William Shakespeare's composition of his sonnets. It takes its title from the first line of Sonnet 129...

Anne Hathaway TV movie
Spooks
Spooks
Spooks is a British television drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 – 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a...

Juliet Shaw TV series (15 episodes: 2005-2007)
2006 Breaking and Entering
Breaking and Entering (film)
Gabriel Yared and Underworld collaborated on the film's original music score.-External links:* at TIFF, by Andrea Miller /CANOE Live...

Kate
Rebus
Rebus (TV series)
Rebus is the title of the detective drama based on the Inspector Rebus novels by the Scottish author Ian Rankin set in and around Edinburgh produced by STV Productions for the ITV Network....

Amanda Morrison TV series (1 episode: "Let It Bleed")
The Secret Life of Mrs Beeton Elizabeth Dorling TV movie
Suburban Shootout
Suburban Shootout
Suburban Shootout is a British satirical black comedy television series produced for Five and Paramount Comedy by Feelgood Fiction in association with Oxygen. The first series aired in the UK on Five from 27 April 2006. It began airing in the United States on 22 March 2006 on Oxygen and in Germany...

Camilla Diamond TV series (11 episodes: 2006-2007)
2007 Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Iregulars
Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars
Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars was a 2007 BBC television drama about Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street Irregulars, a gang of children who would occasionally help him. It was an original story by Kurti & Doyle, Produced by Andy Rowley and shot and post produced in Dublin, Ireland...

Irene Adler
Irene Adler
Irene Adler is a fictional character featured in the Sherlock Holmes story "A Scandal in Bohemia" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published in July 1891...

TV movie
St. Trinians Miss Bagstock
Christmas at the Riviera
Christmas at the Riviera
Christmas at the Riviera is a 2007 British comedy drama starring Reece Shearsmith, Pam Ferris, Barbara Flynn, Warren Clarke, Alexander Armstrong, Anna Chancellor, Sam Kelly and Darren Boyd...

Diane TV movie
2008 My Family Zelda Nobbs TV series (1 episode: "Cards on the Table")
Marple: Murder Is Easy Lydia Horton TV movie
2009 Law & Order: UK Evelyn Wyndham TV series (2 episodes)
2010 Critical Eye Laura
Silent Witness
Silent Witness
Silent Witness is a BBC crime thriller series focusing on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes. First broadcast in February 1996, the series is still airing to the present day, with a fifteenth series expected to air in January 2012. The series was...

Chief Supt. Karen Somerville TV series (2 episodes)
Miranda
Miranda (TV series)
Miranda is a BBC television series co-written by and starring comedienne Miranda Hart, which first aired on BBC Two on 9 November 2009. The situation comedy also features Sarah Hadland, Tom Ellis, Patricia Hodge, James Holmes and Sally Phillips...

Helena TV series (1 episode: "A New Low")
More Afraid of You Lucy short
2011 Hustle
Hustle (TV series)
Hustle is a British television drama series made by Kudos Film and Television for BBC One in the United Kingdom. Created by Tony Jordan and first broadcast in 2004, the series follows a group of con artists who specialise in "long cons" – extended deceptions which require greater commitment, but...

Wendy Stanton TV series (1 episode: "Silent Witness")
Waking the Dead
Waking the Dead (TV series)
Waking the Dead is a British television police procedural crime drama series produced by the BBC featuring a fictional Cold Case Unit comprising CID police officers, a psychological profiler and a forensic scientist. A pilot episode aired in September 2000 and there have been a total of nine series...

Lucy Christie TV series (2 episodes)
Lewis Judith Suskin TV series (1 episode: "The Gift of Promise")
The Hour Lix Storm TV series (4 episodes)
Hysteria
Hysteria (2011 film)
Hysteria is a British romantic comedy film directed by Tanya Wexler. It stars Felicity Jones, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy. The film, set in the Victorian era, is about the invention of the vibrator...

post-production

Theatre

  • Boston Marriage
    Boston Marriage (play)
    Boston Marriage is a 1999 play by American playwright David Mamet. The play concerns two women at the turn of the 20th century who are in a "Boston marriage," a relationship between two females that may involve both physical and emotional intimacy...

    , 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 - Oct-Nov 2011

External links

  • Anna Chancellor at the bbc.co.uk
    Bbc.co.uk
    BBC Online is the brand name and home for the BBC's UK online service. It is a large network of websites including such high profile sites as BBC News and Sport, the on-demand video and radio services co-branded BBC iPlayer, the pre-school site Cbeebies, and learning services such as Bitesize...

     official Spooks
    Spooks
    Spooks is a British television drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 – 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a...

    website
  • The Anna Chancellor Page
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