Cathy Tyson

Catherine Tyson (born 12 June 1965) is a British actress. She won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film Mona Lisa, which also earned her Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Golden Globes and BAFTA Awards. She has starred in The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), Priest (1994), and Band of Gold (1995–1997). She won the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2022 for her performance in the film Help. She grew up in Liverpool, She attended Liverpool's Everyman Youth Theatre in her teens,

Career

Tyson joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1984, taking the lead role in their performance of Golden Girls. Also in 1984, Tyson made an early TV appearance playing Joanna in Scully.

Tyson's film debut was in Mona Lisa (1986) as Simone, an elegant prostitute, a performance which brought her critical acclaim. Probably her best-known television appearance was also as a prostitute, Carol Johnson, in the ITV series Band of Gold.

In 2007, Tyson joined the cast of two long-running television series. She played headmistress Miss Gayle in the BBC One school drama Grange Hill, and featured in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale as single mother Andrea Hayworth. Tyson played Herodia in BBC Three's Liverpool Nativity, a modern adaptation of the traditional Christmas story. Recorded as a live event in Liverpool City Centre on 16 December 2007, it was broadcast several times over the Christmas period and repeated the following year.

In September 2009, Tyson enrolled at the adult learning centre City Lit on an access to higher education course in creative studies. She completed a degree in English and Drama at Brunel University in 2013.

In 2018 Tyson played DI Siobhan Clarke in the stage play Rebus: Long Shadows, written by Rona Munro and Ian Rankin.

In 2020, Tyson was cast as the second titular character in the CBeebies series JoJo & Gran Gran.

In 2021, she guest starred in an episode of TV drama McDonald & Dodds. In 2021, Tyson also appeared in Channel 4 film Help playing Poll, an elderly resident of a care home during the COVID-19 pandemic; the following year she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.

In 2023 she appeared as Maureen in the film Bank of Dave. She also produced the short The Consequence.

In 2024 she played Sam in Luna Carmoon's debut feature Hoard, and Mother Superior Raquella Berto-Anirul in Dune: Prophecy. She also played one of the Furies, Alecto, in the TV series Kaos. Over Christmas 2024 she performed as Mrs Higgins in My Fair Lady at the Curve Theatre, Leicester. In 2025 Cathy appears in the third series of BBC drama Blue Lights.

Charity work Tyson hosted a charity event for the Sick Children's Trust on 17 November 2007, and again on 1 November 2008. The event, organised by Friends of Eckersley House, a committee supporting the charity's Leeds house, was held at the Haven Golden Sands resort in Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire. She is also one of the Honorary Patrons of the London children's charity Scene & Heard.

Personal life Tyson married actor and comedian Craig Charles in 1984.

Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture 44th Golden Globe Awards

Night and Day Best Actress The British Soap Awards

Help Best Supporting Actress 2022 British Academy Television Awards