Daniela Nardini
Encyclopedia
Daniela Nardini is a Scottish
actress of Italian
ancestry, best known for playing Anna Forbes in the BBC Two
television
series This Life
. The role earned her a BAFTA Best Actress award in 1998 and also earned her a Scottish BAFTA. She won a second Scottish BAFTA in 2009 for her role in Annie Griffin
's New Town.
in Glasgow
. Her parents managed Nardini's, a well-known ice cream
parlour and restaurant in Largs
. This was mentioned on the popular BBC lexicographical
programme Balderdash & Piffle. Daniela spoke about her family in the context of the mysterious history of the 99 Flake
ice cream
.
When she was 16, her elder brother was killed in a car accident. She was on the point of giving up acting and training to become a drama teacher when she was offered the part of Anna in This Life.
comedy-drama New Town, shown on BBC Four
in February 2009, for which she won a Scottish BAFTA. Other television appearances include Reckless
(1997); Big Women (1998); Undercover Heart (1998); Love in the 21st Century (1999); Tube Tales (1999); Rough Treatment (2000); Sirens (2002); Outside the Rules (2002) and Quite Ugly One Morning
(2004).
She appeared as Lady Huntly in the four-hour BBC epic Gunpowder, Treason & Plot in 2004, and played a shopaholic in Shiny, Shiny Bright New Hole in My Heart, again for the BBC, in 2006. Also in 2006, she reprised the role of Anna Forbes for the 10th anniversary reunion episode of This Life (This Life +10), which was shown on BBC 2 in January 2007, and in November 2007, she read a story for Junior Jackanory
on CBeebies
. She appeared in an episode of the Inspector Morse
spin-off series Lewis
in 2008.
She has appeared in several films, including Elephant Juice (1999), written by This Life creator Amy Jenkins
; Cargo (2004), and Festival (2005), a film comedy about the Edinburgh Festival
. Although the film was not well received by critics and performed poorly at the box office, it was nominated for six Scottish BAFTAs.
She also has extensive stage
experience including the lead role in David McVicar
's production of Camille
at the Lyric, Hammersmith in 2003; Top Girls
at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow (2004) and Cue Deadly at the Riverside Studios
(2004). In 2005, Nardini appeared in the title role in Etta Jenks at the Finborough Theatre
, London
. Between July and October 2009, she appeared in A Streetcar Named Desire
at the Donmar Warehouse
in London.
In 2007 Nardini played Servalan
in B7 Productions Blake's 7
Audio adventures
with her partner, Ivan Stein, a former civil servant-turned-chef, and their daughter. She had previously lived in Notting Hill
in London, but moved back to Scotland after the birth of her daughter.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
actress of Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
ancestry, best known for playing Anna Forbes in the BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series This Life
This Life
This Life is a BBC television drama that was produced by World Productions and screened on BBC Two. Two series were broadcast in 1996 and 1997 and a reunion special in 2007....
. The role earned her a BAFTA Best Actress award in 1998 and also earned her a Scottish BAFTA. She won a second Scottish BAFTA in 2009 for her role in Annie Griffin
Annie Griffin
Annie Griffin is an American writer and director.Griffin relocated to the UK in 1981. In the early 1990s she worked creating animated idents for MTV. In 1993 she worked as an actress on the Oscar nominated short animated film The Village...
's New Town.
Early life
Nardini trained as an actress at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and DramaRoyal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland is a conservatoire of music, drama, and dance in the centre of Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1845 as the Glasgow Educational Association, it is the busiest performing arts venue in Scotland...
in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
. Her parents managed Nardini's, a well-known ice cream
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
parlour and restaurant in Largs
Largs
Largs is a town on the Firth of Clyde in North Ayrshire, Scotland, about from Glasgow. The original name means "the slopes" in Scottish Gaelic....
. This was mentioned on the popular BBC lexicographical
Lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. A lexicon is also a synonym of the word thesaurus. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes. Coined in English 1603, the word "lexicon" derives from the Greek "λεξικόν" , neut...
programme Balderdash & Piffle. Daniela spoke about her family in the context of the mysterious history of the 99 Flake
99 Flake
thumb|right|250px|A 99 FlakeA 99 Flake can refer to an ice cream cone with a Cadbury Flake inserted in it; a specially produced Flake bar for this purpose; or a wrapped ice cream cone product marketed by Cadbury. It was originally designed to be a cuboid, and fit into a wafer...
ice cream
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
.
When she was 16, her elder brother was killed in a car accident. She was on the point of giving up acting and training to become a drama teacher when she was offered the part of Anna in This Life.
Career
She was most recently seen as the ruthless estate agent, Meredith McIlvanney, in the Annie GriffinAnnie Griffin
Annie Griffin is an American writer and director.Griffin relocated to the UK in 1981. In the early 1990s she worked creating animated idents for MTV. In 1993 she worked as an actress on the Oscar nominated short animated film The Village...
comedy-drama New Town, shown on BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
in February 2009, for which she won a Scottish BAFTA. Other television appearances include Reckless
Reckless (TV serial)
Reckless is a British television serial written by Paul Abbott. Produced by Granada Television for the ITV network, it aired in six parts in the UK in 1997.A two-hour sequel, Reckless: The Movie, was shown in 1998....
(1997); Big Women (1998); Undercover Heart (1998); Love in the 21st Century (1999); Tube Tales (1999); Rough Treatment (2000); Sirens (2002); Outside the Rules (2002) and Quite Ugly One Morning
Quite Ugly One Morning
Quite Ugly One Morning is Christopher Brookmyre's first novel which introduces Jack Parlabane, the writer's most used character.It was published to popular and critical acclaim, winning the inaugural First Blood Award for the best first crime novel of the year.Jack Parlabane is a Glaswegian...
(2004).
She appeared as Lady Huntly in the four-hour BBC epic Gunpowder, Treason & Plot in 2004, and played a shopaholic in Shiny, Shiny Bright New Hole in My Heart, again for the BBC, in 2006. Also in 2006, she reprised the role of Anna Forbes for the 10th anniversary reunion episode of This Life (This Life +10), which was shown on BBC 2 in January 2007, and in November 2007, she read a story for Junior Jackanory
Jackanory
Jackanory is a long-running BBC children's television series that was designed to stimulate an interest in reading. The show was first transmitted on 13 December 1965, the first story being the fairy-tale Cap o' Rushes read by Lee Montague. Jackanory continued to be broadcast until 24 March 1996,...
on CBeebies
CBeebies
CBeebies is the brand used by the BBC for programming aimed at children 6 years and under. It is used as a themed strand in the UK on terrestrial television, as a separate free-to-air domestic British channel and used for international varients supported by advertising, subscription or both...
. She appeared in an episode of the 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....
spin-off series Lewis
Lewis
Lewis is the northern part of Lewis and Harris, the largest island of the Western Isles or Outer Hebrides of Scotland. The total area of Lewis is ....
in 2008.
She has appeared in several films, including Elephant Juice (1999), written by This Life creator Amy Jenkins
Amy Jenkins
Amy Jenkins is an English novelist and screenwriter. She is the daughter of the late political journalist Peter Jenkins and the stepdaughter of The Guardian columnist and author Polly Toynbee....
; Cargo (2004), and Festival (2005), a film comedy about the Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
. Although the film was not well received by critics and performed poorly at the box office, it was nominated for six Scottish BAFTAs.
She also has extensive stage
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
experience including the lead role in David McVicar
David McVicar
David McVicar is a Scottish opera and theatre director. He attended Netherlee Primary School and then Williamwood High School. He studied as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, graduating in 1989...
's production of Camille
The Lady of the Camellias
The Lady of the Camellias is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, fils, first published in 1848, and subsequently adapted for the stage. The Lady of the Camellias premiered at the Théâtre du Vaudeville in Paris, France on February 2, 1852. The play was an instant success, and Giuseppe Verdi immediately set...
at the Lyric, Hammersmith in 2003; Top Girls
Top Girls
Top Girls is a 1982 play by Caryl Churchill. It is about a woman named Marlene, a career-driven woman who is employed at the 'Top Girls' employment agency. The play examines issues of gender discrimination present in the Thatcherite society that it is set in...
at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow (2004) and Cue Deadly at the Riverside Studios
Riverside Studios
Riverside Studios is a production studio, theatre and independent cinema on the banks of the River Thames in Hammersmith, London, England. It plays host to contemporary and international dramatic and dance performance, film, visual art exhibitions and television production.-History:In 1933, the...
(2004). In 2005, Nardini appeared in the title role in Etta Jenks at the Finborough Theatre
Finborough Theatre
The Finborough Theatre is a fifty seat theatre in the Earls Court area of London, United Kingdom , which presents new British writing, UK and premieres of new plays, primarily from the English speaking world including North America, Canada, Scotland and Ireland, music theatre, and rarely seen...
, 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...
. Between July and October 2009, she appeared in A Streetcar Named Desire
A Streetcar Named Desire (play)
A Streetcar Named Desire is a 1947 play written by American playwright Tennessee Williams for which he received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1948. The play opened on Broadway on December 3, 1947, and closed on December 17, 1949, in the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The Broadway production was...
at the Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse
Donmar Warehouse is a small not-for-profit theatre in the Covent Garden area of London, with a capacity of 251.-About:Under the artistic leadership of Michael Grandage, the theatre has presented some of London’s most memorable award-winning theatrical experiences, as well as garnered critical...
in London.
In 2007 Nardini played Servalan
Servalan
Servalan is a fictional character in the BBC science fiction television series Blake's 7, played by Jacqueline Pearce . She was the principal villain of the series...
in B7 Productions Blake's 7
Blake's 7
Blake's 7 is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC for its BBC1 channel. The series was created by Terry Nation, a prolific television writer and creator of the Daleks for the television series Doctor Who. Four series of Blake's 7 were produced and broadcast between 1978...
Audio adventures
Personal life
Nardini currently lives in GlasgowGlasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
with her partner, Ivan Stein, a former civil servant-turned-chef, and their daughter. She had previously lived in Notting Hill
Notting Hill
Notting Hill is an area in London, England, close to the north-western corner of Kensington Gardens, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
in London, but moved back to Scotland after the birth of her daughter.