Maxine Peake
Acting
Biography
Maxine Peake (born 14 July 1974) is an English stage, radio, film and television actress, playwright, producer, director and political activist, who made her name as Twinkle in Victoria Wood's sitcom Dinnerladies. She has since played Veronica in Channel 4's Manchester-based drama series Shameless, barrister Martha Costello in the BBC legal drama Silk and Grace Middleton in The Village. She is also an accomplished stage actress, having played the title role in Hamlet, and had a role in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything. In 2018 she played the lead in the film Funny Cow and had a starring role in Mike Leigh's epic Peterloo, a film very close to her heart.
Born: July 14, 1974
Place of Birth: Westhoughton, Lancashire, England, UK
Known For
Art Matters
Join Melvyn Bragg for an insightful journey into why “Art Matters,” With a career spanning over 60 years, Bragg passionately advocates for the importance of the arts as he reflects on his early experiences and engages with influential figures from the artistic world.
Tish
A working-class photographer captures the impact of Thatcherism on the north of England but is unable to escape the poverty and inequality she exposed.
Dinnerladies Diaries
In 1998 Victoria Wood put pen to paper and wrote her multi-award-winning comedy, dinnerladies. Twenty years on this documentary takes a look back at what it was like working on this well-loved sitcom.
Black Mirror
Twisted tales run wild in this mind-bending anthology series that reveals humanity's worst traits, greatest innovations and more.
Hamlet
From its sell-out run at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre comes a film version of this unique and critically acclaimed production of Hamlet with BAFTA-nominee Maxine Peake in the title role. This ground-breaking stage production, directed by Sarah Frankcom, was the Royal Exchange's fastest-selling show in a decade.
Inside No. 9
An anthology of darkly comic twisted tales, each one taking place behind a door marked 'number 9'.
I Swear
Diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome at 15, John Davidson navigates his way against the odds through troubled teenage years and into adulthood, finding inspiration in the kindness of others to discover his true purpose in life.
The Theory of Everything
The Theory of Everything is the extraordinary story of one of the world’s greatest living minds, the renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, who falls deeply in love with fellow Cambridge student Jane Wilde.
Little Dorrit
Amy Dorrit spends her days earning money for the family and looking after her proud father who is a long term inmate of Marshalsea debtors' prison in London. Amy and her family's world is transformed when her employer's son, Arthur Clennam, returns from overseas to solve his family's mysterious legacy and discovers that their lives are interlinked.
Early Doors
A sitcom set in a small pub in Manchester, “The Grapes”, where daily life is bound up in the issues of love, loneliness, and blocked urinals. Regular drinkers Joe and Duffy pass the time with landlord Ken and his police officer cronies.
Filmography
as Self
as Narrator
as Dottie Achenbach
as Anna Politkovskaya
as Older Dolours Price
as Self
as Helen
as Narrator
as Tish Murtha (voice)
as Barbara
as Fiona Lacey
as Irmgard Klaxon (voice)
as Scoot Piccolo
as Self - Actrice (Rules of the Game, Anne)
as Sam Thompson
as Self- Presenter
as Anne Williams
as Kalina Kalfus (voice)
as Susan Blower
as Miss Fozzard
as Alix
as Self - Narrator
as Miriam
as Fanny Lye
as Judy
as Nellie
as Sadie
as Herself
as Elen
as Friedrich Engels (voice)
as Funny Cow
as Self
as Self - Guest
as Narrator (voice)
as Sarah
as Emma
as Sara Rowbotham
as Self (archive footage)
as Self
as Narrator
as Titania
as Rebekah Brooks
as Grown Up Mia
as Eileen Lamont
as Hamlet
as Jane
as Helen Bach
as Elaine Mason
as Charlotte
as Nadia
as Vanetia
as Celia
as Angie
as Grace Middleton
as Hazel Peaceful
as Alice Aisgill
as Doll Tearsheet
as Isabel
as Maggie
as Bella
as Martha Costello QC
as Elly
as Anne Lister
as Helen Marshall
as Elizabeth Lilburne
as Miss Wade
as Angela
as Juliet Miller
as Joan Le Mesurier
as Cindy Mellor
as WPC Kate McFay
as Self
as Self - Guest
as Myra Hindley
as Ticket Attendant
as Linda
as Pauline
as Veronica Fisher
as Janice
as Party girl
as Self - Narrator
as Lulu (voice)
as Receptionist
as DS Vickie Clarke
as Marie Leach
as Sue
as Twinkle
as Marion Cretiss
as Photocopy Assistant
as Linda Ryder