Shauna Macdonald

Shauna Macdonald is a Scottish actress. She began her career starring in The Debt Collector. She then had her breakthrough starring as Sam Buxton in the television series Spooks (2003–2004). After departing the series, she starred as Sarah Carter in the horror film The Descent (2005), the role for which she is best known. She gained widespread recognition and praise for her performance, and was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actress. The film established Macdonald as a scream queen. She reprised her role in its sequel The Descent Part 2 (2009).

Macdonald has continued having starring roles in horror films, portraying Adelaide in Mutant Chronicles (2008), Kate in Howl (2015), Dana in Nails (2017), and Dr. Elle Chrysler in White Chamber (2018), for which she won the Scottish BAFTA Award for Best Actress. She is also known for her roles as Carole Robertson in the film Filth (2013), Agnes Muncie in the television series In Plain Sight (2016), a pilot in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), and as psychiatrist Dr. Wallace in the critically acclaimed miniseries The Cry (2018). She is the voice of Professor Squawkencluck in the 2015 revival of the 80s animated television series Danger Mouse (2015–2019).

Macdonald has been the co-artistic director of Edinburgh Youth Theatre in Bellfield since 2014. She also teaches public speaking classes, through her own company, If In Doubt Shout.

Early life and education Shauna Macdonald was born in Malaysia while her father was working in the country. At the age of three, she moved back to her family's native Edinburgh in Scotland. As a child, Macdonald was very shy. She had a lisp and went to speech therapy. Her mother made her join a choir group that did musical theatre. Her first role was when she was four years old, portraying a fairy in a church hall in Portobello. She attended Towerbank Primary School in Portobello. After working as a cleaner for the brother of Ann Coulter, a Scottish talent agent, Coulter signed with Macdonald as her agent. Macdonald attended Portobello High School, where she participated in the school plays.

After graduating from school, she studied acting at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, where she was two years below James McAvoy. He later became is a patron of the Edinburgh Youth Theatre, which Macdonald runs.

Career At the age of 17, Macdonald was cast in and then made her screen debut in the film The Debt Collector (1999), opposite Billy Connolly. While in her second year of university she landed a starring role in The Rocket Post (2004), alongside Kevin McKidd, but the film would take five years after filming to release. She next made appearances in the films Daybreak (2000) and Late Night Shopping (2001) and guest starred in the series Murder Rooms: Mysteries of the Real Sherlock Holmes (2000) and Taggart (2002). In 2002 she also appeared in the play Victory at the Royal Lyceum Theatre. appeared on several top ten film lists in 2006, and was a box office success, grossing $57.1 million against a £3.5 million budget. Macdonald's performance in particular was widely praised and she was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Actress The Descent opened in cinemas in the United Kingdom on 8 July 2005. It premiered in the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and released on 4 August 2006 in the United States.

In August 2006 Macdonald appeared in the play Realism at the National Theatre of Scotland. and appeared in the television film Wedding Belles (2007). Thereafter she starred as Adelaide in the sci-fi horror film Mutant Chronicles (2008). Macdonald reprised her role as Sarah Carter in the sequel The Descent Part 2 (2009). Unlike the first film, the sequel received generally mixed to negative reviews. In 2011 Macdonald starred as Helen in the film The Hike and returned to the Royal Lyceum Theatre to star as the title character in Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off (2011). and in August that year starred as the lead role in Born to Run (2012) at the Traverse Theatre. Her performance in the latter was widely acclaimed.

The next year Macdonald received recognition for starring opposite her friend and former classmate, James McAvoy, as his character's wife, Carole Robertson, in the film Filth (2013). In 2015 Macdonald began voicing the role of Professor Squawkencluck in the animated television series Danger Mouse (2015–present), and returned to the horror genre with the film Howl (2015). In 2016 Macdonald had starring roles as Agnes Muncie in the series In Plain Sight, and as Jodie, a veteran struggling with posttraumatic stress disorder, in the short film Soldier Bee. For her performance in the latter she won the award for Best Actress in an International Short at the Mumbai International Film Festival and was nominated for Best Actress at the Winter Film Awards.

In 2017, Macdonald returned to the horror genre, starring in the film Nails and had a small role as a pilot in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017). In 2018 she had a main role as psychiatrist Dr. Wallace in the critically acclaimed miniseries The Cry and starred as Dr. Elle Chrysler in the sci-fi film White Chamber (2018), which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. For her performance, she won the Scottish BAFTA Award for Best Actress. In 2019 she appeared alongside Laura Harrier in the film Balance, Not Symmetry as Catherine, and had a recurring role as Georgie, the estranged daughter of James Cosmo's character, in the series Hold the Sunset (2019).

From 2019 to early 2020, Macdonald starred as Libby in Mouthpiece at the Traverse Theatre. Macdonald later guest starred in the series Liar (2020) and The Nest (2020),

Personal life Macdonald is married to Scottish actor Cal MacAninch, whom she met after relocating to London after graduating from college. They have three children together and live in Portobello. Macdonald also teaches public speaking classes with her own company called If In Doubt Shout.

Theatre

Filmography

Film

Television

Radio Year Title Role Director Station 2004 Soft Fall the Sounds of Eden Vari Gaynor Macfarlane BBC Radio 4 Friday Play 2011 Rightfully Mine Amy Lu Kemp BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Play The Black Book Nell & Marie Bruce Young BBC Radio 4Classic Serial 2017 Transformations Narrator Kirsty Williams BBC Radio 4 2018 4/4 Skye Gaynor Macfarlane BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Drama (After) Fear Ishbel Kirsty Williams BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3 When The Pips Stop Older Sister BBC Radio 4 Afternoon Drama

Awards and nominations