Emma Fielding
Encyclopedia
Emma Georgina Annalies Fielding (born 10 July 1965, Catterick, Yorkshire) is an English
actress.
soldier, Fielding spent much of her childhood in Malaysia and Nigeria
, and a period in Malvern
above her grandparents' betting shop. Whilst studying at the Berkhamsted Collegiate
boarding school
, she won a place at the University of Cambridge
to study law, but abandoned it and spent a gap year which included five months in a West Bank
kibbutz
picking watermelon
s, and as an usherette
at the Oxford Apollo; before embarking on the study of acting at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
.
After graduation she worked for the Royal National Theatre
and the Royal Shakespeare Company
, coming to the attention of critics in 1993's RSC production of Tom Stoppard
's Arcadia
, in which she created the role of Thomasina, and then most notably in John Ford
's The Broken Heart
for which she won the Dame Peggy Ashcroft Award
for Best Actress and the Ian Charleson Award. She made her Broadway theatre
debut in 2003 in Noel Coward
's Private Lives
. She has also appeared in numerous radio plays for the BBC
, including playing Esme in Tom Stoppard
's Rock 'n' Roll
, a role she also played in the West End
. More recently, she appeared in the BBC TV mini-series Cranford.
In 2009 she appeared as Daisy alongside Timothy West
in the BBC Radio 4
adaptation of John Mortimer
's "Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders".
She has narrated the following
for Naxos Audiobooks:
for Random House Audio:
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actress.
Biography
The lapsed Roman Catholic daughter of a British ArmyBritish Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
soldier, Fielding spent much of her childhood in Malaysia and Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, and a period in Malvern
Malvern, Worcestershire
Malvern is a town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, governed by Malvern Town Council. As of the 2001 census it has a population of 28,749, and includes the historical settlement and commercial centre of Great Malvern on the steep eastern flank of the Malvern Hills, and the former...
above her grandparents' betting shop. Whilst studying at the Berkhamsted Collegiate
Berkhamsted Collegiate School
Berkhamsted School is an independent school in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, England. The present school was formed in 1997 by the amalgamation of the original Berkhamsted School, founded in 1541 by John Incent, Dean of St Paul's Cathedral, Berkhamsted School for Girls, established in 1888, and...
boarding school
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
, she won a place at the University of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
to study law, but abandoned it and spent a gap year which included five months in a West Bank
West Bank
The West Bank ) of the Jordan River is the landlocked geographical eastern part of the Palestinian territories located in Western Asia. To the west, north, and south, the West Bank shares borders with the state of Israel. To the east, across the Jordan River, lies the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan...
kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
picking watermelon
Watermelon
Watermelon is a vine-like flowering plant originally from southern Africa. Its fruit, which is also called watermelon, is a special kind referred to by botanists as a pepo, a berry which has a thick rind and fleshy center...
s, and as an usherette
Usher (occupation)
Ushers assist visitors by formally showing the way in a large building or to their appropriate seats. This may coincide with a security role. The word comes from the French huissier, with the same meaning , ushers were servants or courtiers who showed or ushered visitors in and out of meetings in...
at the Oxford Apollo; before embarking on the study of acting at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama
Royal 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...
.
After graduation she worked for the Royal National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
and the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
, coming to the attention of critics in 1993's RSC production of Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
's Arcadia
Arcadia (play)
Arcadia is a 1993 play by Tom Stoppard concerning the relationship between past and present and between order and disorder and the certainty of knowledge...
, in which she created the role of Thomasina, and then most notably in John Ford
John Ford
John Ford was an American film director. He was famous for both his westerns such as Stagecoach, The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and adaptations of such classic 20th-century American novels as The Grapes of Wrath...
's The Broken Heart
The Broken Heart
The Broken Heart is a Caroline era tragedy written by John Ford, and first published in 1633."The play has long vied with Tis Pity She's a Whore as Ford's greatest work...the supreme reach of his genius...."...
for which she won the Dame Peggy Ashcroft Award
Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE was an English actress.-Early years:Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
for Best Actress and the Ian Charleson Award. She made her Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
debut in 2003 in Noel Coward
Noël Coward
Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
's Private Lives
Private Lives
Private Lives is a 1930 comedy of manners in three acts by Noël Coward. It focuses on a divorced couple who discover that they are honeymooning with their new spouses in neighbouring rooms at the same hotel. Despite a perpetually stormy relationship, they realise that they still have feelings for...
. She has also appeared in numerous radio plays for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, including playing Esme in Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
's Rock 'n' Roll
Rock 'n' Roll (play)
Rock 'n' Roll is a play by British playwright Tom Stoppard that premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2006.-Plot summary:The play is concerned with the significance of rock and roll in the emergence of the socialist movement in Eastern Bloc Czechoslovakia between the Prague Spring of...
, a role she also played in the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
. More recently, she appeared in the BBC TV mini-series Cranford.
In 2009 she appeared as Daisy alongside Timothy West
Timothy West
Timothy Lancaster West, CBE is an English film, stage and television actor.-Career:West's craggy looks ensured a career as a character actor rather than a leading man. He began his career as an Assistant Stage Manager at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956, and followed this with several seasons of...
in the BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
adaptation of John Mortimer
John Mortimer
Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE, QC was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...
's "Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders".
Awards and nominations
- Fielding was nominated for a 1999 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance for her role in The School for ScandalThe School for ScandalThe School for Scandal is a play written by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It was first performed in London at Drury Lane Theatre on May 8, 1777.The prologue, written by David Garrick, commends the play, its subject, and its author to the audience...
in the 1998 season. - She was nominated for a 2002 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role of 2001 for her performance in Private LivesPrivate LivesPrivate Lives is a 1930 comedy of manners in three acts by Noël Coward. It focuses on a divorced couple who discover that they are honeymooning with their new spouses in neighbouring rooms at the same hotel. Despite a perpetually stormy relationship, they realise that they still have feelings for...
at the Albery Theatre, London. She won a Theatre World AwardTheatre World AwardThe Theatre World Award, first awarded for the 1945-46 season, is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or off-Broadway.-History:...
for outstanding Broadway debut for the same role when the show was produced on Broadway in 2002. - She was awarded the 1993 Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her performances in ArcadiaArcadia (play)Arcadia is a 1993 play by Tom Stoppard concerning the relationship between past and present and between order and disorder and the certainty of knowledge...
and The School for WivesThe School for WivesThe School for Wives is a theatrical comedy written by the seventeenth century French playwright Molière and considered by some critics to be one of his finest achievements. It was first staged at the Palais Royal theatre on 26 December 1662 for the brother of the King...
.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Tell-Tale Hearts | Becky Wilson | TV |
| 1993 | Agatha Christie: Poirot | Ruth Chevenix | TV (1 episode: "Dead Man's Mirror") |
| Performance | Joan | TV (1 episode: "The Maitlands") | |
| 1996 | 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.... |
Caroline Wicks | TV (1 episode: "Job Satisfaction") |
| 1997 | Drovers' Gold | Elizabeth Watkins | TV |
| A Dance to the Music of Time A Dance to the Music of Time A Dance to the Music of Time is a twelve-volume cycle of novels by Anthony Powell, inspired by the painting of the same name by Nicolas Poussin. One of the longest works of fiction in literature, it was published between 1951 and 1975 to critical acclaim... |
Isobel | TV (2 episodes) | |
| 1998 | The Life of Confucius | Mother | TV |
| A Respectable Trade | Frances Scott Cole | TV | |
| The Scarlet Tunic | Frances Groves | ||
| The Mrs. Bradley Mysteries The Mrs Bradley Mysteries The Mrs Bradley Mysteries is a British television drama series, produced in-house by the BBC for broadcast on the BBC One channel, based on the character created by detective writer Gladys Mitchell... |
Eleanor Bing | TV (1 episode: "Speedy Death") | |
| 1999 | Big Bad World | Beatrice Dempsey | TV (7 episodes) |
| 2000 | Pandaemonium | Mary Wordsworth | |
| Other People's Children | Josie | TV (1 episode: "Episode #1.2") | |
| Exposure | Bridget | Short | |
| 2001 | The Inspector Lynley Mysteries The Inspector Lynley Mysteries The Inspector Lynley Mysteries is a series of BBC television programmes about Detective Inspector Thomas "Tommy" Lynley, 8th Earl of Asherton of Scotland Yard and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers... |
Helen Clyde | TV (1 episode: "A Great Deliverance") |
| The Discovery of Heaven The Discovery of Heaven The Discovery of Heaven is a 1992 novel by Dutch author Harry Mulisch. It describes the intense friendship between two men and the mystical journey of another to return to Heaven the stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments.... |
Helga | ||
| 2002 | Shooters | D.I. Sarah Pryce | |
| The Gist | Harriet Gould | TV | |
| Green-Eyed Monster | Marni McGuire | TV | |
| Birthday Girl | Tracey Jones | TV | |
| 2003 | My Uncle Silas | Hermione | TV (1 episode: "A Funny Thing") |
| My Uncle Silas II | Hermione | TV | |
| Unscrew | Judy | Short | |
| 2004 | 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... |
Dr. Greta Simpson | TV (2 episodes) |
| 2005 | The Government Inspector | Susan Watts | TV |
| Beneath the Skin | Jennifer Hintlesham | TV | |
| The Ghost Squad The Ghost Squad The Ghost Squad was a 2005 British crime drama series produced by Company Pictures, for Channel 4. The show was created by Tom Grieves. Inspired by the real life "Ghost Squad" that existed between 1994 and 1998, secretly investigating police corruption, the premise of the series is that the squad... |
D.I. Carole McKay | TV (5 episodes) | |
| 2007 | Fallen Angel | Janet Byfield | TV (1 episode: "The Office of the Dead") |
| Doragon kuesuto sôdo: Kamen no joô to kagami no tô | Queen Curtana | Video Game | |
| Cranford Cranford (TV series) Cranford is a British television series directed by Simon Curtis and Steve Hudson. The teleplay by Heidi Thomas was adapted from three novellas by Elizabeth Gaskell published between 1849 and 1858: Cranford, My Lady Ludlow, and Mr Harrison's Confessions... |
Miss Galindo | TV (7 episodes) | |
| 2008 | The Other Man The Other Man (2008 film) The Other Man is a British-American movie directed by Richard Eyre. It stars Liam Neeson and Antonio Banderas as competitors for a woman's love .-Plot:... |
Gail | |
| 2009 | Dragon Age: Origins Dragon Age: Origins Dragon Age: Origins is a single-player role-playing video game developed by BioWare's Edmonton studio and published by Electronic Arts. It is the first game in the Dragon Age franchise... |
Various Voices | Video Game |
| 2010 | Midsomer Murders Midsomer Murders Midsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was... |
Faith Kent | TV (1 episode: "The Silent Land") |
| 2011 | Kidnap and Ransom Kidnap and Ransom Kidnap and Ransom is a three-part television miniseries which aired on the ITV in January 2011. The series revolves around the latest case for expert British hostage negotiator Dominic King... |
Naomi Shaffer | TV (3 episodes) |
| The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher | Mary Kent | TV | |
| The Great Ghost Rescue | Mabel | post-production | |
| 2012 | Twenty8k | Jean Weaver | post-production |
Audiobooks
- His Dark MaterialsHis Dark MaterialsHis Dark Materials is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman comprising Northern Lights , The Subtle Knife , and The Amber Spyglass...
as Mrs CoulterMarisa CoulterMarisa Coulter is a fictional character in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy and one of the main antagonists of Northern Lights. As with her lover, Lord Asriel, Mrs. Coulter undergoes several transformations during the series.-Lyra:In the beginning of the book The Northern Lights Marisa... - Vanity Fair as Rebecca Sharp Crawley
She has narrated the following
for Naxos Audiobooks:
- HamletHamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
- Hedda GablerHedda GablerHedda Gabler is a play first published in 1890 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The play premiered in 1891 in Germany to negative reviews, but has subsequently gained recognition as a classic of realism, nineteenth century theatre, and world drama...
- Jane EyreJane EyreJane Eyre is a novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë. It was published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith, Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An Autobiography under the pen name "Currer Bell." The first American edition was released the following year by Harper & Brothers of New York...
- Lady Windermere's FanLady Windermere's FanLady Windermere's Fan, A Play About a Good Woman is a four act comedy by Oscar Wilde, first produced 22 February 1892 at the St James's Theatre in London. The play was first published in 1893...
- OthelloOthelloThe Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
- RebeccaRebecca (novel)Rebecca is a novel by Daphne du Maurier. When Rebecca was published in 1938, du Maurier became – to her great surprise – one of the most popular authors of the day. Rebecca is considered to be one of her best works...
- The Turn of the ScrewThe Turn of the ScrewThe Turn of the Screw is a novella written by Henry James. Originally published in 1898, it is ostensibly a ghost story.Due to its ambiguous content, it became a favourite text of academics who subscribe to New Criticism. The novella has had differing interpretations, often mutually exclusive...
- Fanny HillFanny HillMemoirs of a Woman of Pleasure is an erotic novel by John Cleland first published in England in 1748...
for Random House Audio:
- I Don't Know How She Does ItI Don't Know How She Does ItI Don't Know How She Does It is a 2011 American comedy film based on Allison Pearson's novel of the same name. The film stars Sarah Jessica Parker, Pierce Brosnan, and Greg Kinnear about Kate Reddy, a financial executive and the breadwinner of her family....