Background

Vinette Robinson was born in Bradford. She attended the former Intake High School (now Leeds West Academy) and took a BTEC

Business And Technology Education Council (BTEC)

The Business and Technology Education Council is the British body which awards vocational qualifications. Such qualifications are commonly referred to as "BTECs"....

. She initially wanted to train as a barrister

Barrister

A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...

 but changed her career plans at the age of 13 after performing a Charles Causley

Charles Causley

Charles Stanley Causley, CBE, FRSL was a Cornish poet, schoolmaster and writer. His work is noted for its simplicity and directness and for its associations with folklore, especially when linked to his native Cornwall....

 poem at a poetry festival.

Career

Robinson attended a child agency school and made her television debut in The Cops

The Cops (TV series)

The Cops is a British television series made by World Productions for the BBC.The production, set in the fictional town of Stanton in Northern England, was noted for its documentary-style camerawork and uncompromising portrayal of the police force...

at the age of 17. Following this she spent three years at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art

Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art

The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, formerly the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, was a drama school, and originally a singing school, in London. It was one of the leading drama schools in Britain, and offered comprehensive training for those intending to pursue a...

, where she was awarded a Laurence Olivier bursary from the Society of London Theatre

The Society of London Theatre

The Society of London Theatre is an umbrella organization for West End theatre in London.- TKTS, Half-Price Theatre Ticket Booth:...

. Additional television roles include minor appearances in Cold Feet

Cold Feet

Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...

and Doctors

Doctors (BBC Soap Opera)

Doctors is a British daytime television soap opera, set in the fictional Midland town of Letherbridge, defined as being close to the City of Birmingham. It was created by Chris Murray; Mal Young drove its development, and Carson Black was the original producer. The first episode was broadcast on...

, and a supporting role in a 2007 episode

42 (Doctor Who)

"42" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 19 May 2007, and is the seventh episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series....

 of Doctor Who

Doctor Who

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

. She had a small role as the Jamaican girl in the 2004 film Vera Drake

Vera Drake

Vera Drake is a 2004 British drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh, telling the story of a working-class woman in London in 1950 who performs illegal abortions...

but was given an entire character backstory by the director Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh

Michael "Mike" Leigh, OBE is a British writer and director of film and theatre. He studied theatre at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and studied further at the Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. He began as a theatre director and playwright in the mid 1960s...

.

In 2006 she played Eve in an acclaimed production of Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...

. Commenting on her nude scene, Sheila Tracy of The Stage

The Stage

The Stage is a weekly British newspaper founded in 1880, available nationally and published on Thursdays. Covering all areas of the entertainment industry but focused primarily on theatre, it contains news, reviews, opinion, features and other items of interest, mainly to those who work within the...

wrote "one can not imagine the action working in any other way". Her performance in Sugar Mummies that same year led New York

New York (magazine)

New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...

to list her as one of "London's hottest young stage actors" in 2007.

Following the conclusion of Sugar Mummies, she appeared in a short feature for Time Out, in which she and five other actors were described as "innovative young theatrical talent".

In 2009, she played Josie Porritt in the BBC television series Hope Springs

Hope Springs (TV Series)

Hope Springs is a British television comedy-drama series following the lives of four female ex-cons in hiding following a multimillion pound robbery. Produced by Shed Productions, the company behind Bad Girls, Footballers' Wives and Waterloo Road, the 8-part series began airing on BBC One on 7 June...

and appeared as newly-qualified English teacher Helen Hopewell in eight episodes of Waterloo Road

Waterloo Road (TV series)

Waterloo Road is an award-winning British television drama series, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 9 March 2006. Set in a troubled comprehensive school in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, the series focuses on the lives of the school's teacher and students, and confronts social...

s fifth series. From December 2009 to January 2010, she starred as the maid Florence in the Hampstead Theatre

Hampstead Theatre

Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in the vicinity of Swiss Cottage and Belsize Park, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. In 2009 it celebrates its 50 year anniversary.The original theatre was...

's Darker Shores. In a Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph

The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

review that rated the play only two stars, Charles Spencer

Charles Spencer (journalist)

Charles Spencer is a British journalist. He has been the drama critic of The Daily Telegraph since 1991. In 2006, Compton Miller of The Independent wrote in a profile: "This convivial ex-alcoholic is best remembered for his description of Nicole Kidman's nude scene in The Blue Room as 'pure...

 commended Robinson's performance has having "a warmth and emotional openness". Kate Bassett for The Independent

The Independent

The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...

also praised her, writing that she "copes admirably". In 2010, she stars as police sergeant Sally Donovan in the BBC series Sherlock.

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Director	Performance history
2004	Measure for Measure Measure for Measure Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...	Juliet		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...
2005	A New Way to Please You	Footman		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...
	Sejanus: His Fall	High Priestess
	Thomas More Sir Thomas More (play) Sir Thomas More is a collaborative Elizabethan play by Anthony Munday and others depicting the life and death of Thomas More. It survives only in a single manuscript, now owned by the British Library...	Lady Roper
	Speaking Like Magpies	May
2006	Paradise Lost Paradise Lost Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the 17th-century English poet John Milton. It was originally published in 1667 in ten books, with a total of over ten thousand individual lines of verse...	Eve		Headlong (formerly the Oxford Stage Company)
	Sugar Mummies	Naomi		Royal Court Theatre Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
2008	War & Peace	Hélène/Mlle Bourienne	Nancy Meckler and Polly Teale	National tour, 7 February–11 May 2008
2009	Darker Shores	Florence Kennedy	Anthony Clarke	Hampstead Theatre Hampstead Theatre Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in the vicinity of Swiss Cottage and Belsize Park, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. In 2009 it celebrates its 50 year anniversary.The original theatre was... , 7 December 2009–16 January 2010

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	The Cops The Cops (TV series) The Cops is a British television series made by World Productions for the BBC.The production, set in the fictional town of Stanton in Northern England, was noted for its documentary-style camerawork and uncompromising portrayal of the police force...	Sarah Midgely	1 episode: Series 1, Episode 6 — Television debut
1999	Children's Ward Children's Ward Children's Ward is a British children's television drama series produced by Granada Television and broadcast on the ITV network as part of its Children's ITV strand on weekday afternoons...	Joy	1 episode: Series 11, Episode 11
	Cold Feet Cold Feet Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...	Female Shop Assistant	1 episode: Series 2, Episode 2
2000	This Is Personal: The Hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper	Rita Rytka
	Fat Friends Fat Friends Fat Friends is an ITV drama , following a group of overweight people, their laughter and pain and addresses the absurdities of dieting in our modern age. The drama looks at people and how they relate to one another and use body weight as an excuse for all sorts of failings in their relationships,...	Young Shop Assistant	1 episode: "Face the Fat"
	Doctors	Cath Bickerstaff	2 episodes: "In Deep" and "In Too Deep"
2003	Between the Sheets Between the Sheets (TV series) Between the Sheets is a 2003, British television mini series. This carnal drama is based around the love life and sexual hangups of several different couples that we find are all linked in some way...	Tracy Ellis
2004	Murphy's Law Murphy's Law (TV series) Murphy's Law is a BBC television drama, produced by Tiger Aspect Productions for BBC Northern Ireland, starring James Nesbitt as an undercover police officer, Tommy Murphy. There were five series of the drama, shown on BBC One. The first two were composed of individual stories. Series three, four...	Aimie	1 episode: "Jack's Back"
	Blue Murder Blue Murder (TV series) Blue Murder is a Canadian crime drama television series, featuring stories that reflected the turbulence of urban life and the crimes that make headlines...	Andrea	1 episode: "Hit and Run"
	Vera Drake Vera Drake Vera Drake is a 2004 British drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh, telling the story of a working-class woman in London in 1950 who performs illegal abortions...	Jamaican Girl	Debut film role
	Doctors	Melanie	1 episode: "Daddy's Girl"
2005	Casualty Casualty (TV series) Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...	Kirsty Evans	1 episode: "Truth Will Out"
	Imagine Me & You Imagine Me & You Imagine Me & You is a 2005 British-American comedy-romance film written and directed by Ol Parker. It centres on the relationship between Rachel, played by Piper Perabo and Luce, played by Lena Headey, who meet on Rachel's wedding day. The movie takes its title from a line in the song "Happy...	Zine
2007	Party Animals Party Animals (TV series) Party Animals is a British television drama series screened on BBC Two in 2007. It was produced by World Productions, the makers of No Angels and This Life....	Kerry	2 episodes: Episode 1 and Episode 4
	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...	Tina	1 episode: "A Designer's Paradise"
	Doctor Who Doctor Who Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...	Abi Lerner	1 episode: "42 42 (Doctor Who) "42" is an episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 19 May 2007, and is the seventh episode of Series 3 of the revived Doctor Who series.... "
	Doctors	Katie Waters	1 episode: "Hero"
2008	The Passion The Passion (TV serial) The Passion is a television drama serial produced by the BBC and HBO Films in association with Deep Indigo Productions. It tells the story of the last week in the life of Jesus. The serial was first proposed by Peter Fincham in 2006, on the success of the contemporary-set Manchester Passion...	Mina
2009	Hope Springs Hope Springs (TV Series) Hope Springs is a British television comedy-drama series following the lives of four female ex-cons in hiding following a multimillion pound robbery. Produced by Shed Productions, the company behind Bad Girls, Footballers' Wives and Waterloo Road, the 8-part series began airing on BBC One on 7 June...	Josie Porritt
	Waterloo Road Waterloo Road (TV series) Waterloo Road is an award-winning British television drama series, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 9 March 2006. Set in a troubled comprehensive school in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, the series focuses on the lives of the school's teacher and students, and confronts social...	Helen Hopewell	8 episodes: Series 5 Episodes 1-8
2010	Powder		Feature film
	Sherlock	Sgt. Sally Donovan

External links