Sally Julia Dexter is an English

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 of stage and screen.

She was educated at Chiltern Edge School

Chiltern Edge School

Chiltern Edge School, also known as Chiltern Edge Secondary School is a mixed, comprehensive 11-16 school in Sonning Common, Reading, Berkshire...

, King James's College at Henley-on-Thames

Henley-on-Thames

Henley-on-Thames is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in South Oxfordshire, England, about 10 miles downstream and north-east from Reading, 10 miles upstream and west from Maidenhead...

, now The Henley College. and 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...

 (LAMDA).

Her many on screen appearances have included A Touch of Frost

A Touch of Frost (TV series)

A Touch of Frost is a television detective series produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV from 1992 until 2010, initially based on the Frost novels by R. D. Wingfield....

, Dalziel and Pascoe

Dalziel and Pascoe (BBC TV series)

Dalziel and Pascoe is a popular British television crime drama based on the Dalziel and Pascoe books by Reginald Hill, which was first broadcast in March 1996. It is set in Yorkshire, and is about two detectives...

and Family as well as the long-running Night and Day

Night and Day (TV series)

Night and Day was a British soap opera which was produced by Granada Television for LWT and ran on ITV from 2001 to 2003.Its theme-song, "Always & Forever", was sung by Kylie Minogue.-Synopsis:...

.

As a stage actress, Dexter has appeared in both straight plays and musicals in London's 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...

. Her credits include Nancy in Sam Mendes

Sam Mendes

Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret , Oliver! , Company and Gypsy . He's currently working on the 23rd James Bond...

's 1994 revival of Oliver!

Oliver!

Oliver! is a British musical, with script, music and lyrics by Lionel Bart. The musical is based upon the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens....

at the London Palladium

London Palladium

The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...

 opposite Jonathan Pryce

Jonathan Pryce

Jonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...

. For her highly acclaimed performance in Oliver!, she received an Olivier Award nomination. The Variety Magazine reviewer wrote: "If this 'Oliver!' creates any star, it should be RSC alumna Sally Dexter, whose blowsy, huge-voiced Nancy is the career-making performance this actress has long deserved."

Other roles include Mrs. Wilkinson in Billy Elliot the Musical

Billy Elliot the Musical

Billy Elliot the Musical is a musical based on the 2000 film Billy Elliot. The music is by Sir Elton John, and book and lyrics are by Lee Hall, who wrote the film's screenplay. The plot revolves around motherless Billy, who trades boxing gloves for ballet shoes...

opposite Leon Cooke

Leon Cooke

Leon Dominic Cooke is an English stage actor, singer, dancer and all round musical performer.- Early life :Leon Cooke hails from Newcastle-under-Lyme, born in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire and has 7 siblings all of whom have danced or still do including his mother Joy and father Michael...

for 12 months, leaving the show to standing ovations, Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth

Lady Macbeth may refer to:*Lady Macbeth, from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth**Queen Gruoch of Scotland, the real-life Queen on whom Shakespeare based the character...

in Macbeth

Macbeth

The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...

opposite Rufus Sewell

Rufus Sewell

Rufus Frederik Sewell is an English actor. In film, he has appeared in The Woodlanders, Dangerous Beauty, Dark City, A Knight's Tale, The Illusionist, Tristan and Isolde, and Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence. On television, he starred in the 2010 mini-series The Pillars of the Earth...

, Anna in the original production of Patrick Marber

Patrick Marber

Patrick Albert Crispin Marber is an English comedian, playwright, director, puppeteer, actor and screenwriter.-Early life and education:...

's Closer

Closer (play)

Closer is the third play written by English playwright Patrick Marber. The play was premiered at the Royal National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre in London in 1997, and made its North American debut at the Music Box Theatre on Broadway on 25 January 1999....

and Regan in King Lear

King Lear

King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...

. She spent several years playing roles with 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...

 and at 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...

, London.

Dexter won the Olivier Award in 1987 as Most Promising Newcomer of the Year in Theatre for her performance in the 1986 production of Dalliance

Dalliance

"Dalliance," by Tom Stoppard is based on the play "Liebelei," by Arthur Schnitzler. "Dalliance" was first performed at the Lyttelton Theatre, London, on May 27, 1986.-Plot summary:...

.

She starred in Bad Girls - the Musical at the Garrick Theatre

Garrick Theatre

The Garrick Theatre is a West End theatre, located on Charing Cross Road, in the City of Westminster. It opened on 24 April 1889 with The Profligate, a play by Arthur Wing Pinero. In its early years, it appears to have specialised in the performance of melodrama, and today the theatre is a...

, London in 2007 and can be heard on its original cast recording along with the London Palladium

London Palladium

The London Palladium is a 2,286 seat West End theatre located off Oxford Street in the City of Westminster. From the roster of stars who have played there and many televised performances, it is arguably the most famous theatre in London and the United Kingdom, especially for musical variety...

 cast recording for Oliver! and as Madame Giry

Madame Giry

Madame Giry is a character in the Gaston Leroux novel, The Phantom of the Opera. She is a fairly intermediate character in the novel, although her role is much increased in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical...

 on the concept cast recording of Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...

's Love Never Dies. She took over in the role of Mother Superior in the London Palladium production of Sister Act from September to October 2010.

She co-wrote and created the three-part 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...

 comedy drama series Sugartown

Sugartown (TV series)

Sugartown is a three-part comedy drama series for the BBC filmed in and around the seaside towns of Filey in North Yorkshire, and Bridlington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, utilising the John Bull rock factory...

, starring Tom Ellis

Tom Ellis (actor)

Tom Ellis is a Welsh actor best known for playing Dr. Oliver Cousins in the BBC soap opera EastEnders and Detective Sergeant Sam Speed in a Life on Mars parody on the The Catherine Tate Show...

, Sue Johnston

Sue Johnston

Susan "Sue" Johnston, OBE is a BAFTA nominated English actress best known for playing Sheila Grant in the long-running soap opera Brookside , Grace Foley in Waking the Dead from 2000 to 2011 and Barbara Royle in the BBC comedy The Royle Family between 1998 and 2000, and again in 2006, 2008, 2009,...

 and Miranda Raison

Miranda Raison

-Early life:Born in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, her father Nick Raison is a jazz pianist and artist, while her mother Caroline read the news for Anglia Television. She has two brothers and two sisters: Ed , Rosie, Sam and May. Her parents divorced when she was six years old, and her father remarried...

 in 2011.

Cast as Gertrude opposite Michael Sheen in Ian Rickson's Young Vic production of Hamlet previewing in October 2011.

External links