Olivia Grant (actress, born 1983)



Olivia Grant (born 20 September, 1983)[1]  is an English actress. Her first film role was in Stardust (2007), in which she was cast within weeks of graduating from Oxford University.[2]  She is perhaps best known for portraying Lady Adelaide Midwinter in BBC's Lark Rise to Candleford, Grace Darling in BBC3's Personal Affairs, Hermoine Roddice in Women in Love (TV series), Henrietta Armistead in Garrow's Law and Ava Knox in the HBO/Cinemax co-production Strike Back (TV series). She currently lives in Chelsea[2]  and writes a weekly blog for InStylemagazine.



Contents
[hide]  *1 Career  ==Career[edit] == Olivia Grant was born on 20 September, 1983 in southwest London to Irene Whilton, a costume designer, and Kenneth Grant, a district judge.[2]  Training originally in classical ballet,[3]  Olivia was awarded a place as a Junior Associate of the Royal Ballet School at the age of 10 and she performed with The Royal Ballet at Covent Garden Opera House and the Birmingham Royal Ballet at Sadler's Wells.
 * 2 Filmography
 * 3 References
 * 4 External links

Olivia then obtained a place at the St Paul's Girl's School[3]  where she combined her studies with extra-curricula performing; winning a place as a Junior Associate at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama whilst still at school. AtOxford University (Brasenose College,) she then studied English Literature whilst performing in up to two plays a term in parts such as Isabella in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Anna in Patrick Marber's Closer, and Natasha in Chekhov's Three Sisters at the Oxford Playhouse.

In her final year at Oxford she was invited by Royal Shakespeare Company producer Thelma Holt and the Cameron Mackintosh Fund to take part in a showcase at the Old Vic Studios, where her monologue performance of Juliet Stevenson from Anthony Minghella's film script Truly Madly Deeply led to her being contacted by top acting agents in the run up to her finals. Within weeks of graduating Olivia was cast in the Paramount movie Stardust, in a role which saw her magically transformed from a boy to a girl to a goat by an evil witch Lamia (played by Michelle Pfeiffer). During production she rehearsed at Pinewood studios with cast members Clare Danes and Robert De Niro.

After her role in Stardust, Olivia was cast as one of the leads, Lady Adelaide Midwinter, in BBC1's period drama series Lark Rise to Candleford. She spendt six months filming in the Wiltshire countryside alongside cast members Dawn French, Julia Sawalha, and Ben Miles. After finishing the first series she was then cast as the lead Grace Darling in the BBC3 comedy-drama series Personal Affairs in which she played a secret lesbian in the script written by Gabbie Asher.

Olivia was then cast opposite Rhys Ifans in the feature Mr Nice (dir. Bernard Rose). She collaborated again with director Charlie Palmer on the ITV classic series Poirot with David Suchet, Geoffrey Palmer, and Anna Massey, playing the undercover spy Annabel Larkin. The BBC invited her to reprise her role as Lady Adelaide in Lark Rise to Candleford, which she did for Series 3. She then played opposite fellow Oxford alumni Rosamund Pike and Rory Kinnear in BBC4'sproduction of Women In Love as Hermione Roddice, which was shot in South Africa. Following, she played the lead role of Sophia in The Picture at the Salisbury Playhouse and the character of Diane Ablo in the independent film The Devil Went Down To Islington the same year.

In 2012, Olivia played opposite Rupert Graves as his character's new mistress in the BAFTA-nominated BBC period drama Garrow's Law. She spent the summer filming in Malta on the independent feature film Gozo opposite Ophelia Lovibond and appeared in the ITV crime drama series Endeavour as Helen Cartwright. She also returned to South Africa to shoot the Emmy-nominated HBO/Cinemax co-production Strikeback playing Charles Dances' daughter Ava Knox. Other roles that year included Jennifer in the indie feature Copenhagen. Her upcoming roles include the Syco Films and Vertigo co-production of Pudsey due for release in 2014, and BBC Worldwide's Cold War television movieLegacy due for release November 2013. ==Filmography<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;padding-right:0.25em;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;">[edit] ==