Tara Fitzgerald

Tara Anne Cassandra Fitzgerald (born 1967) is an English actress who has appeared in feature films, television, radio and the stage. She won the New York Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play in 1995 as Ophelia in Hamlet. She won the Best Actress Award at The Reims International Television Festival in 1999 for her role of Lady Dona St Columb in Frenchman's Creek. Fitzgerald has appeared in the West End production of The Misanthrope at the Comedy Theatre, and in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Donmar Warehouse. Since 2007, Fitzgerald has appeared in more than 30 episodes of the BBC television series Waking the Dead and played the role of Selyse Baratheon in the HBO series Game of Thrones.

Early life Fitzgerald is the daughter of artist Michael Callaby and Irish portrait photographer Sarah Geraldine Fitzgerald. She spent part of her childhood in the Bahamas, where her maternal grandfather ran a law firm. Her sister, Arabella, was born there. Following the family's return to England when she was three, Fitzgerald's parents separated, and her mother then married the Irish actor Norman Rodway. She has a half-sister from this marriage, Bianca Rodway. Her father, Callaby, died when she was 11. other cousins through the Fitzgerald family are the Irish novelist Jennifer Johnston

Career Film Following her graduation from Drama Centre London, Fitzgerald appeared as the daughter of a beauty queen in the comedy Hear My Song (1991). She came to international attention in 1993 when she starred with Hugh Grant in the Australian film Sirens. The film landed Fitzgerald an Australian Film Institute nomination for Best Actress in a Lead Role. Two years later she again appeared with Grant in the comedy The Englishman who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain. Fitzgerald appeared in a steady stream of independent feature films through the 1990s and 2000s, among them A Man of No Importance (1994), Brassed Off (1996), the Czech World War II fighter pilot drama Dark Blue World (2001), and the 2004 drama, Secret Passage (UK title: The Lion's Mouth), set during the Spanish Inquisition. In 2006, she appeared in In a Dark Place, and, in 2014, she played Miriam in Exodus: Gods and Kings.

Fitzgerald decided to expand her career into directing after becoming frustrated with what she saw as a lack of interesting roles for older actresses. She was one of 12 filmmakers selected for Film London's 2015 Microwave scheme, which provides training and mentoring to filmmakers who then pitch their ideas to a panel that selects the two best ideas for production, with budgets of £150,000 each.

Stage Fitzgerald's first major stage role came in 1992 when she appeared opposite Peter O'Toole in Our Song at the Apollo Theatre. She has alternated between stage and screen for almost two decades, with frequent theatre roles. In 1995, she starred as Ophelia in Hamlet at London's Almeida Theatre, which led to her American stage debut. The production transferred across the Atlantic and played more than 90 performances on Broadway at the Belasco Theatre.

Since then, she has played Antigone in a national UK tour and Blanche Du Bois in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire at the Bristol Old Vic and appeared in A Doll's House at the Donmar Warehouse. Fitzgerald has also appeared in Molière's The Misanthrope in 2009 at the Comedy Theatre (now the Pinter). She appeared in The Winters Tale at the RSC in 2013, performed as Lady Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe theatre and appeared in Gaslight at the Royal and Derngate Theatre in 2015.

Television A veteran of more than twenty television programmes and mini-series, Fitzgerald has portrayed Victorian heroines and modern police detectives. Her first TV role was in the 1991 BBC production The Black Candle, set in Yorkshire in the 1880s. In 1992, she was featured in The Camomile Lawn. After her feature film success, she landed her first starring role in a television film, The Vacillations of Poppy Carew. She won Best Actress at the 1999 Reims International Television Festival for the costumes-and-pirates love story Frenchman's Creek. In 2006, she was featured in The Virgin Queen, before taking on the role of Eve Lockhart on Waking The Dead, joining that cast in 2007. She also had a recurring role on Game of Thrones, playing Selyse Baratheon. In 2020 Tara Fitzgerald played a role as Lady Templemore in the ITV-series Belgravia, a historical drama based on the 2016 novel of the same name by Julian Fellowes.

Personal life

In 2001, Fitzgerald married the English actor-director John Sharian, who directed her in the short film The Snatching of Bookie Bob. They separated in May 2003 and later divorced.

Fitzgerald lives in London.

Filmography Film Year Title Role Notes 1991 Hear My Song Nancy Doyle 1993 Galleria Marie 1994 A Man of No Importance Adele Rice 1994 Sirens Estella Campion 1995 The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain Elizabeth aka Betty from Cardiff 1996 Brassed Off Gloria Mullins 1998 Conquest Daisy MacDonald 1998 The Snatching of Bookie Bob Silk 1999 New World Disorder Kris Paddock 1999 Childhood Ange 2000 Rancid Aluminium Masha 2001 Dark Blue World Susan Whitmore Czech title: Tmavomodrý svět 2003 I Capture the Castle Topaz Mortmain 2004 Five Children and It Mother 2004 The Lion's Mouth Clara 2006 In a Dark Place Mrs. Grose 2014 Exodus: Gods and Kings Miriam 2015 Child 44 Inessa Nesterov 2015 Legend Mrs Shea 2015 We Are Happy Rachel 2016 Una Andrea 2019 The Runaways Maggie 2019 The King Hooper 2020 The Call Centre Helen (Voice) 2021 Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop Diana Branson 2023 The Undertaker Vic Luther: The Fallen Sun Georgette Uncredited

Television Year Title Role Notes 1991 The Black Candle Victoria Mordaunt Television film 1992 The Camomile Lawn Young Polly 4 episodes 1992 Anglo-Saxon Attitudes Young Dollie Stokesay 3 episodes 1992 Performance Emily Episode: "Six Characters in Search of an Author" 1994 Fall from Grace Catherine Pradier Television film 1994 Cadfael Iveta de Massard Episode: "The Leper of Saint Giles" 1995 The Vacillations of Poppy Carew Poppy Carew Television film 1996 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Helen Graham 3 episodes 1997 The Student Prince Grace Television film 1997 The Woman in White Marian Fairlie Television film 1998 Little White Lies Beth Marsh Television film 1998 Frenchman's Creek Dona, Lady St. Columb Television film 1999 In the Name of Love Zoe Walters 2 episodes 2003 Murder in Mind Liz Morton Episode: "Echoes" 2003 Love Again Monica Jones Television film 2004 Agatha Christie's Marple: The Body in the Library Adelaide Jefferson Episode: #1.1 2005 Like Father Like Son D.I. Harkness Television film 2005 Rose and Maloney Annie Sorensen-Johnson Episode: "Annie Johnson" 2006 The Virgin Queen Kat Ashley 3 episodes 2006 Jane Eyre Mrs. Reed 4 episodes 2009 U Be Dead Debra Pemberton Television film 2007–2011 Waking the Dead Eve Lockhart 42 episodes 2011 The Body Farm Eve Lockhart 6 episodes 2014 The Musketeers Marie de Medici Episode: "The Exiles" 2013–2015 Game of Thrones Selyse Baratheon 10 episodes 2016 Death in Paradise Anouk Laban Episode: "Dishing Up Murder" 2014–2016 In the Club Susie 7 episodes 2017 Strike Tansy Bestigui 3 episodes 2018 Requiem Sylvia Walsh 6 episodes 2018 Origin Xavia Grey Episode: "The Road Not Taken" 2018 The ABC Murders Lady Hermione Clarke 3 episodes 2020 Tangled: The Series Zhan Tiri (voice) 2 episodes 2020 Belgravia Lady Templemore 5 episodes 2022 Signora Volpe Isabel Vitale 4 episodes

Theatre

Video games