Lara Pulver is an English actress. She has played Erin Watts in the BBC spy drama Spooks and Irene Adler on BBC's TV adaptation Sherlock. She won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical in the West End's revival of the Broadway musical Gypsy.

Early life and education

Pulver was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England on September 1st, 1980. Her father is from a Jewish family; her mother converted to Judaism when they married.^[1][2] She has a sister, Erika who is four years older and works as a teacher.^[1]

Pulver attended the National Youth Music Theatre between 1994 and 1998, as well as The Liz Burville Dance Centre, Bexley.^[3] In 1997, she began studying at the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts, and graduated in 2000.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Pulver was nominated for the 2008 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the role of Lucille Frank in the first West End production of the musical Parade at the Donmar Warehouse. She reprised the role in the Los Angeles production at the Mark Taper Forum opposite T.R. Knight.

In 2008, Pulver recorded a song for the CD Act One – Songs from the Musicals of Alexander S. Bermange. Pulver joined the cast of the BBC's Robin Hood in 2009 as Isabella, the sister of Guy of Gisbourne.^[4]

In 2010, Pulver joined the cast of the third series of HBO's True Blood as Sookie Stackhouse's fairy godmother, Claudine Crane.

Pulver played Erin Watts, the new chief of Section D, in the tenth and final series of BBC spy drama Spooks, a role she reprised in the 2015 feature film Spooks: The Greater Good

Pulver played Irene Adler in "A Scandal in Belgravia", the first episode of the second series of Sherlock.^[5] Her appearance caused an "enormous" response,^[6] with the Evening Standard calling the scene where she greets Sherlock Holmes nude "infamous".^[7] To The Telegraph, Pulver called the scene "empowering".^[8] The BBC received over 100 complaints about the footage.^[9]

In 2012 she joined the cast of Da Vinci's Demons as the "seductive and politically-minded" Clarice Orsini, a series regular and wife of Lorenzo Medici.^[10]

In 2014, she played Louise in a revival of Gypsy at the Chichester Festival Theatre.^[11] The production transferred to the West End in April 2015.^[12] Miss Pulver won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for the same role in the Savoy Theatre production of Gypsy. Louise is actually the title role, as "Louise" becomes the real-life early-20th-century American strip-tease sensation Gypsy Rose Lee, on whose memoirs the musical is based. Pulver's co-star in the Savoy production, Imelda Staunton, won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as the larger-than-life Mama Rose.

Personal life

In 2003, Pulver met American actor Josh Dallas while he was in the UK studying at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. They married in December 2007 in Devon.^[13][14] Dallas confirmed their divorce in an interview on Bob Rivers's radio show on 2 December 2011.^{[citation needed]}

Pulver began dating fellow Spooks actor Raza Jaffrey in 2012 and the two married on 27 December 2014. As of 2015^[update], they were residing in Los Angeles.^[15] The couple have a son and daughter.^[16]

Filmography

Film

Television

Other

• Game of Thrones (2014; Video Game), as Lady Elissa Forrester
• Sherlock Series By Intouch Games And Slot Factory as Irene Adler
• Dota 2, as the "Mirana of Nightsilver" persona item, reprising her role from Dragon's Blood

Stage credits

• Parade (Lucille Frank), Donmar Warehouse,^[18] nominated for Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical^[19] and Whatsonstage.com Awards
• Into the Woods (Lucinda), Royal Opera House^[18]
• The Last Five Years (Cathy), Menier Chocolate Factory^[20]
• Honk! (Henrietta), Royal National Theatre (Best New Musical, Laurence Olivier Awards 2000) and national tour
• Miss Saigon (Ellen)
• High Society
• A Chorus Line (Bebe)
• The Darling Buds of May
• The Boy Friend
• Gypsy (Louise)
• Chicago
• Grease
• 42nd Street
• The Wizard of Oz
• (Adverts) Smirnoff Vodka Range – Hatter's Summer Night Dream with Smirnoff
• Uncle Vanya

Awards and nominations

Television

Theatre