Anna Chancellor

Anna Theodora Chancellor, born on 27 April 1965 in Richmond, England, is an English actress whose work spans theatre, television, and film. She is the daughter of publisher John Paget Chancellor and the Hon. Mary Jolliffe, a daughter of Lord Hylton. Her father was the son of Sir Christopher Chancellor and Sylvia Mary Paget, a daughter of Sir Richard Paget and philanthropist Lady Muriel, daughter of Murray Finch-Hatton, 12th Earl of Winchilsea. Among her notable family connections, Chancellor is a niece of journalist Alexander Chancellor, a great-granddaughter of Raymond Asquith, son of Liberal prime minister H. H. Asquith, and a first cousin of actress Dolly Wells and model Cecilia Chancellor. She is also a second cousin of actress Helena Bonham Carter and, through Edward Austen Knight, a great-niece of Jane Austen eight generations removed. The Chancellor family were Scottish landed gentry who had held land at Quothquhan since 1432.

Chancellor grew up in Somerset and attended St Mary's School, Shaftesbury, a Roman Catholic boarding school for girls in Dorset, leaving at sixteen to move to London. In her early twenties she married poet Jock Scot (1952–2016), and the couple had a daughter, Poppy, in 1988 while Chancellor was still studying at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She and Scot separated some years later. Poppy died from leukaemia on 29 September 2023, aged 36.

Chancellor's early professional work included the role of Mercedes Page in Jupiter Moon, a BSkyB soap opera, followed by a commercial for Boddingtons beer. Her film career gained significant attention with her appearance in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), in which she played Henrietta, nicknamed "Duckface," opposite Hugh Grant. She went on to appear in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), playing Questular Rontok, and How I Live Now (2013).

On stage, Chancellor earned her first Olivier Award nomination in 1997, when she was put forward for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in Stanley at the Royal National Theatre's Cottesloe venue. That same production brought her to Broadway in 1997, marking her appearance on the Broadway stage. A second Olivier nomination followed in 2014, this time for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress, for her role as Amanda in Private Lives, which played at the Gielgud Theatre in London. Her additional theatre credits include Boston Marriage at the Donmar Warehouse and in the West End (2001–2002), Never So Good at the National Theatre (2008), The Observer at the National Theatre (2009), The Last of the Duchess at the Hampstead Theatre (2011), The Wolf From the Door at the Royal Court Theatre (2014), and The Seagull at the National Theatre (2016).

Chancellor's television work has been extensive across British broadcasters and international platforms. She played Julia Piper in series one through three of the ITV drama Kavanagh QC (1995–1997) and Caroline Bingley in the BBC's 1995 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Further BBC credits include Tipping the Velvet (2002), Spooks (2005–2007), in which she played Juliet Shaw, Pramface (2012–2014), Ordeal by Innocence (2018), and Rain Dogs (2023). In 2011 she took the role of Lix Storm in the BBC thriller serial The Hour, a performance that earned her a nomination for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 2012 British Academy Television Awards. Additional television work includes the Channel 5 series Suburban Shootout (2006–2007), the Netflix series The Crown (2017), the ITV series Grantchester (2016), the Epix series Pennyworth (2019–2021), and the BritBox series Hotel Portofino (2022). She also received a nomination at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival in 2007 and a nomination at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards in 2013.

Chancellor has additionally recorded audiobook roles for BBC dramatisations of John le Carré novels, playing Ann Smiley in adaptations of Call for the Dead, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, and Smiley's People. She is a patron of Scene & Heard, a London children's charity.