Helen Baxendale

 Helen Victoria Baxendale  (born 7 June 1970) is an English actress of stage andTELEVISION, best known for her roles in Cold Feet, Friends,Cardiac Arrest and An Unsuitable Job for a Woman.

Early life
Baxendale was born on 7 June 1970 in Pontefract,[ 1 ] West Riding of Yorkshire.[ 2 ][ 3 ]

She grew up in Shenstone, Staffordshire and wanted to be a ballet dancer when she was younger. She trained at the Elmhurst School for Dance but dropped out at 17 in favour of an actingCAREER. She moved to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and thenWORKED at theGlasgow Citizens' Theatre from 1992–1994.

Career
It was via Glasgow Citizens' Theatre that she was cast in the hospitalTV series Cardiac Arrest (although it was not her firstTELEVISIONrole). Her role as Dr. Claire MaitlandEARNED her a Scottish BAFTAnomination in 1995.

She was one of the stars of the popularTV series Cold Feet, playingRachel Bradley, a role which garnered her a British Comedy Award nomination in 1997 in the pilot episode. She also starred in An Unsuitable Job for a Woman, playing Cordelia Gray, and made notable recurring appearances on the American series Friends as Ross Geller's girlfriend, wife and finally ex-wife Emily Waltham, which gave her wide exposure on American network television. Other notable roles include Lorna Johnson in Truth or Dare (in which John Hannah also starred), Caroline Meagher in The Investigator (alongside Laura Fraser), and Julie Matthews in Curt Truninger's Dead by Monday.

She was nominated for another Scottish BAFTA in 1997 for her role as Lorna Johnson. Dead by Monday won the Angel Award for Best Film at the Monaco International Film Festival in 2003 and the Portland Festival of World Cinema award for best feature film in 2001.

On-stage, Baxendale starred as Christine in Patrick Marber's After Miss Julie, and in 2005 appeared as Romy, the eponymous title role in The Woman Before at the Royal Court alongside Nigel Lindsay, Saskia Reeves, Tom Riley andGeorgia Taylor but has also played various roles including that of Ophelia in Hamlet (the Marovitz Hamlet) along withHenry Ian Cusick. For her 1993 performance in Soldiers at the Glasgow Citizens Theatre, she was nominated for an Ian Charleson Award (best classical actor under 30).[ 4 ] In 2009 Baxendale played Lara in Amongst Friends alongside Aden Gillett and Emma Cunniffe at Hampstead Theatre.[ 5 ]

She played Pandora Braithwaite in Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years in 2001 and "Maggie" in the multiple award-winning Bolse Vita. She also appeared in Saving Nellie, a physics programme running on Teachers TV. In 2007 to January 2008 she starred in Swimming with Sharks alongside Christian Slater at London's Vaudville Theatre.[ 2 ] In 2008 and 2009 she has also appeared in several TV adverts for Morrisons, a British supermarket chain.[ 6 ]

<p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:15px;">In January 2011, she co-starred with Trevor Eve in the three-part ITV drama Kidnap and Ransom, filmed on location in South Africa.<span class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:0.53em;line-height:0;position:relative;top:-0.5em;">[ 7 ] Later in the same year, she starred as DCI Marion Bettany in Val McDermid's radio crime drama Village SOS.<span class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:0.53em;line-height:0;position:relative;top:-0.5em;">[ 8 ]

<p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:15px;">In 2010 Helen Baxendale appeared in the pilot episode of Dirk Gently as Susan Harmison. In 2012 she reprised her role in the second episode of theCOMMISSIONED first and only series. She then appeared in the Inspector George Gentlyepisode "The Lost Child" alongside Mark Gatiss.

<p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:15px;">She currently stars in Cuckoo as Lorna, the mother in-law of the titular Dale 'Cuckoo' Ashbrick.

<span class="mw-headline" id="Personal_life" style="box-sizing:border-box;">Personal life
<p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:15px;">Baxendale has been with her partner David L. Williams since her Glasgow days and together they have three children: Nelly, Eric, and Rudi.<span class="reference" id="cite_ref-Laws_9-0" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:0.53em;line-height:0;position:relative;top:-0.5em;">[ 9 ] Her first pregnancy was written into An Unsuitable Job for a Woman and her second was written into the fourth series of Cold Feet.<span class="reference" id="cite_ref-Laws_9-1" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:0.53em;line-height:0;position:relative;top:-0.5em;">[ 9 ]

<p style="box-sizing:border-box;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:15px;">Her first pregnancy (coupled with the fact that her country of residence was Britain, rather than the USA) meant that her character was written out of Friends earlier than the writers had originally intended. Baxendale appeared in only 14 episodes, despite her character dating, marrying, and then divorcing Ross Geller (David Schwimmer), one of the show's main characters.<span class="reference" id="cite_ref-Laws_9-2" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:0.53em;line-height:0;position:relative;top:-0.5em;">[ 9 ]<span class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="box-sizing:border-box;font-size:0.53em;line-height:0;position:relative;top:-0.5em;">[ 10 ]