Anna Chancellor

Anna Theodora Chancellor (born 27 April 1965) is an English actress who has appeared widely on television and film and in the theatre. She received a nomination for BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Lix Storm in The Hour (2011–2012) and has twice been nominated for Olivier Awards, in 1997 for her performances in Stanley at the National Theatre and again in 2014 for Private Lives at the Gielgud Theatre. She was also nominated for an award at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival in 2007 and for one at the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards in 2013.

On television, she is also known for her roles in the ITV series Kavanagh QC (1995–1997) and Grantchester (2016); the BBC series Pride and Prejudice (1995), Tipping the Velvet (2002), Spooks (2005–2007), Pramface (2012–2014), Ordeal by Innocence (2018) and Rain Dogs (2023); the Channel 5 series Suburban Shootout (2006–2007); the Netflix series The Crown (2017); the Epix series Pennyworth (2019–2021); the BritBox series Hotel Portofino (2022) and the Amazon Prime Video series My Lady Jane (2024).

Her films include Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) and How I Live Now (2013).

Early life and education Anna Theodora Chancellor was born on 27 April 1965 in Richmond, England, to publisher John Paget Chancellor and Hon. Mary Jolliffe, a daughter of Lord Hylton. Her father was the son of Sir Christopher Chancellor and Sylvia Mary Paget, a daughter of Sir Richard Paget and philanthropist Lady Muriel, daughter of Murray Finch-Hatton, 12th Earl of Winchilsea. The Chancellor family were Scottish landed gentry who had owned land at Quothquan since 1432.

Chancellor is a niece of the journalist Alexander Chancellor, a great-granddaughter of Raymond Asquith (son of the Liberal prime minister H. H. Asquith), a first cousin of both the actress Dolly Wells and the model Cecilia Chancellor, a second cousin of the actress Helena Bonham Carter. Chancellor was also the great niece of Jane Austen eight generations removed through Edward Austen Knight. Chancellor has said that she had worked hard to become an actress, and her lineage does not define who she is.

Chancellor was brought up in Somerset and educated at St Mary's School, Shaftesbury, a Roman Catholic boarding school for girls in Dorset, but left at sixteen to live in London, later describing her early years there as "quite wild".

She studied acting at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. In her early twenties she married the poet Jock Scot (1952–2016), whom she met at LAMDA, and with whom she had a daughter in 1988.

Career Chancellor got her first acting role on television playing Mercedes Page in Jupiter Moon, a BSkyB soap, then came a commercial for Boddingtons beer and a part in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994),

Personal life Chancellor had one daughter, Poppy, with poet Jock Scot. Poppy died from leukaemia on 29 September 2023 aged 36.

Filmography +Key Denotes works that have not yet been released

Film Year Film Role Notes 1990 Killing Dad or How to Love Your Mother Barmaid 1993 Century Woman in Police Station 1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral Henrietta ‘Duck Face’– Wedding Four Tom and Viv Woman Staggered Carmen Svennipeg Princess Caraboo Mrs. Peake 1997 FairyTale: A True Story Peter Pan The Man Who Knew Too Little Barbara Ritchie 1999 Heart Nicola Farmer 2001 Crush Molly Cartwright 2003 What a Girl Wants Glynnis Payne The Dreamers Mother Confused Short film 2004 Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London Lady Josephine Kenworth 2005 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Questular Rontok Feeder Doctor Short film The Best Man Dana 2006 Breaking and Entering Kate 2007 St. Trinians Miss Bagstock 2010 Critical Eye Laura 2011 Hysteria Mrs Bellamy 2012 More Afraid of You Lucy Short film 2013 How I Live Now Aunt Penn Confessions of an Alien Abductee Narrator Noël Coward's Private Lives Amanda Prynne 2014 Death Knight Love Story Miria Voice role Testament of Youth Mrs. Leighton 2016 The Carer Milly This Beautiful Fantastic Bramble 2017 Love of My Life Grace 2018 The Happy Prince Mrs Arbuthnot Benjamin Tessa Nativity Rocks! Clara Hargreaves 2019 For Love or Money Carol 2020 Come Away Eleanor Murrow Film 2022 Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris Lady Dant2022 Stromboli Diane

Television

Theatre Boston Marriage, Donmar Warehouse – March–April 2001; Donmar in the West End – November 2001–February 2002 Mammals at the Oxford Playhouse and touring – Lorna, January 2006 Never So Good, National Theatre – summer 2008 The Observer, National Theatre – spring 2009 The Last of the Duchess, Hampstead Theatre – October–November 2011 Private Lives (playing Amanda), Chichester Festival Theatre, September 2012, and the Gielgud Theatre, London (July–September 2013) The Wolf From the Door, Royal Court Theatre, September–November 2014 The Seagull by Anton Chekhov at National Theatre – summer 2016

Audiobooks Chancellor has played the role of Ann Smiley in BBC dramatisations of the John le Carré novels Call for the Dead, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People.

Awards and nominations Year Award Category Nominated work Result Ref. 1997 Laurence Olivier Awards Best Actress in a Supporting Role Stanley, at RNT Cottesloe 2007 Monte-Carlo TV Festival Golden Nymph, Outstanding Actress Comedy Series Suburban Shootout 2012 BAFTA TV Awards BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress The Hour 2013 Broadcasting Press Guild Awards BPG Award for Best Actress Pramface and The Hour