Charlotte Spencer
Spencer at the BFI London Film Festival in 2014
Born (1991-09-26) 26 September 1991 (age 32)
Harlow, Essex, England
EducationSylvia Young Theatre School
Occupation(s)Actress, singer, dancer
Years active2004–present

Charlotte Spencer (born 26 September 1991) is an English actress, dancer and singer. She is known for playing the female lead in The Living and the Dead.[1][2] Screen International magazine named her a Star of Tomorrow 2015.[3]

Early and personal life

Spencer was born on 26 September 1991 in Harlow, Essex,[3][4] to Peter and Karen. She has a younger sister and brother.[5] Spencer said of her background, "I come from a working class background; my dad's a builder and my mum works in a school."[6] She started ballet aged three and wanted to perform since then.[6] At the age of 11, her parents sent her to the Sylvia Young Theatre School in Marylebone, London.[3] Her parents remortgaged their house to support her acting career.[5] In 2016,[needs update] she lived with her parents when not working as an actor,[5] and worked with her grandmother at a charity shop and helps with the choir at her mother's infants' school. She has a dog, Chip.[5]

Career

Theatre

Spencer with the cast of Mary Poppins in 2004

Spencer made her acting debut at the age of 12 as Jane Banks in Richard Eyre's 2004 production of the musical Mary Poppins.[3][7] In 2009, she played Bet in Oliver!.[8] In 2013, Eyre again cast her, this time as Christine Keeler, in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Stephen Ward, with Charlotte Blackledge as Mandy Rice-Davies.[3][9] The show's run was cancelled shortly afterwards.[7]

Film and television

Spencer appeared as Dexter Fletcher's daughter in Hotel Babylon.[5] She was the voice of Angelina Ballerina on Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps when she was 17,[citation needed] and has since worked as a voice actor, as Nettles in the 2018 television series Watership Down and as a continuity announcer for the Disney Channel.[7] She appeared in the films Wild Bill and Les Misérables in 2011[5][10] and then Dark Shadows with Johnny Depp in 2012.[5]

After her theatre appearance as Christine Keeler ended, Spencer had a small part in Line of Duty and then was cast by the same director as the jockey Tina Fallon in the 2014 E4 television series Glue.[11][7] She was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for this role in 2015.[3][12] Deadline Hollywood reported that she would star in Broad Squad;[13] in 2015, she appeared in a pilot of Broad Squad as a 1970s police officer on ABC,[3] which was not made into a series.[5] She starred as Niamh in the BFI short, Above, which won Best Short Film at the National Film Awards UK.[14] She played the lead role, Lilly, in the film Bypass with George MacKay[6] and appeared as Ellie in the BBC2 television series Stonemouth.[15] In 2015, she was nominated for best actress awards for Stonemouth at BAFTA Scotland.[16] In the BBC1 horror television series The Living and the Dead, broadcast in June 2016, she played the role of Charlotte Appelby, a photographer turned housewife, with Colin Morgan.[17] She said of the role, "Since I was a child, I've always wanted to do a period drama."[18] She appeared in another period drama in autumn 2019, as Esther Denham in Sanditon, a television adaptation of the unfinished Jane Austen novel.[7] She defended the inclusion of sex and nudity as historically accurate and "humanising".[19]

In May 2016, she filmed the BBC/NFTS short film Diagnosis in the lead role of Sally, a woman who acts in medical role play.[20] Spencer will also play[needs update] a hapless youth in the teen horror film Gateway, which uses the Momo Challenge as a plot device.[21]

Filmography

Television

Title Role Notes
2007 Five Days Jaime Episode: "Day Seventy Nine and Day One"
2008 Hotel Babylon Liz Casemore Episode: "Ke Koa Lokomaika'i"
2008 Genie in the House Cara Episode: "Look to the Future"
2009 Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps Angelina Ballerina Voice role
2014 Line of Duty Carly Kirk
2014 Glue Tina
2015 Stonemouth[22] Ellie Murston
2016 The Living and the Dead Charlotte Appleby
2018 Watership Down Nettles Voice role
2019–2022 Sanditon Esther Denham 16 episodes
2020 Us[23] Karen Petersen 4 episodes
2020 Baghdad Central Megan Ford
2021 Jeopardy Charlotte Spencer 10 episodes
2021 Ted Lasso Mary (Red Dress) Episode "Beard after Hours"
2023 The Gold Nicki Jennings 6 episodes[24]

Film

Title Role Notes
2011 Wild Bill Steph
2012 Dark Shadows Unnamed
2012 Les Miserables Unnamed
2017 Diagnosis Sally Short
2015 Above Niamh BFI short
2020 Misbehaviour Marjorie Jones
2020 The Duke Pammy
2021 Cinderella Narissa

References

  1. ^ "Interview with Charlotte Spencer". BBC Media Centre. 9 June 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  2. ^ "Colin Morgan and Charlotte Spencer land leads in BBC's 'Living and the Dead' series". United Press International. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Halligan, Fionnuala (5 October 2015). "Charlotte Spencer, Stars of Tomorrow 2015". Screen Daily. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  4. ^ "Charlotte Spencer On Being Ginger, NSFW Scenes + Angelina Ballerina (Yes, Really)". InStyle UK. Archived from the original on 1 September 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
    - "Harlow actress Charlotte Spencer to star in The Living and the Dead". Harlow Star. 28 June 2016. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h Christie, Janet (25 June 2016). "Interview: Actor Charlotte Spencer on new BBC drama, The Living and the Dead". The Scotsman. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  6. ^ a b c Walpole, James (13 May 2015). "Charlotte Spencer Talks Bypass". Mr Rumsey's Film Related Musings. Archived from the original on 14 January 2019. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  7. ^ a b c d e Bates, Scott (4 October 2019). "Far Out Meets: Charlotte Spencer, the British actress fighting her way to the top". Far Out.
  8. ^ Marshall, Charlotte (4 December 2013). "Introducing... Charlotte Spencer". Official London Theatre. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  9. ^ "From Mary Poppins child star to Profumo femme fatale in Lloyd Webber's latest". Evening Standard. 6 September 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
    - Lewis, Tim (1 December 2013). "Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies were misunderstood". The Observer. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  10. ^ "Charlotte Spencer On Being Ginger, NSFW Scenes + Angelina Ballerina (Yes, Really)". InStyle. 20 June 2016. Archived from the original on 1 September 2016. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  11. ^ "Interview with Charlotte Spencer for Glue". Channel 4. 3 September 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  12. ^ Mendoza, Monica (8 April 2015). "Benedict Cumberbatch secures sixth BAFTA TV nomination". Screen Daily. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  13. ^ Andreeva, Nellie (20 February 2015). "Stacey Farber To Star In 'Take It From Us', Charlotte Spencer In 'Broad Squad'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 25 July 2016.
  14. ^ "National Film Awards UK 2016 winners announced". National Film Awards. April 2016.
  15. ^ Power, Vicki (30 May 2015). "Christian Cooke and Charlotte Spencer on new BBC thriller Stonemouth". The Express. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
  16. ^ "British Academy Scotland Awards: Winners in 2015". BAFTA. 15 November 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  17. ^ Debnath, Neela (28 June 2016). "The Living and the Dead: Charlotte Spencer says show harks back to 'traditional horror'". The Express. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  18. ^ "Actress Charlotte Spencer gives us an insight into her new BBC1 series 'The Living And The Dead'". Fault. 21 June 2016. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  19. ^ Gordon, Naomi (8 August 2019). "Sanditon's Charlotte Spencer defends sex scene and male nudity in Jane Austen remake". Harper's Bazaar.
  20. ^ Rosser, Michael (31 May 2016). "First NFTS-BBC Films 'Greenlight' project begins shoot". Screen Daily. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
  21. ^ N'Duka, Amanda (14 May 2019). "Lance Reddick Joins 'Faith Based'; Rapper YG Cast In 'Tuscaloosa'; 'Getaway' Horror Film Sets Cast". Deadline. Archived from the original on 18 May 2019. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
  22. ^ Wollaston, Sam (12 June 2015). "Stonemouth review: 'visually fabulous, but lacks knuckle-chewing suspense'". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  23. ^ "BBC – Tom Hollander to star in Us, David Nicholls' adaptation of his bestselling novel for BBC One – Media Centre". Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  24. ^ "First Look images and further casting announced for upcoming BBC Drama The Gold". bbc.co.uk/mediacentre. Retrieved 17 January 2023.

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