Tuppence Middleton

Tuppence Amelia Middleton (born 21 February 1987) is an English actress. In 2010, she was nominated for the London Evening Standard Film Awards for Most Promising Newcomer.

Middleton appeared in various films before making her breakthrough in Morten Tyldum's historical drama The Imitation Game (2014), and subsequently appeared in The Wachowskis' science fiction film Jupiter Ascending (2015), Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's historical drama The Current War (2017), David Fincher's film Mank (2020), and the historical drama films Downton Abbey (2019) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022).

She made her first television appearance in Bones (2008) and subsequently appeared as a guest in New Tricks (2010), Friday Night Dinner (2011), and Lewis (2013). She also appeared as Jem in the Black Mirror episode "White Bear" (2013), as Miss Havisham in Dickensian (2015–2016), as Russian princess Hélène Kuragina in War & Peace (2016), and as Riley "Blue" Gunnarsdóttir in Sense8 (2015–2018).

Early life Middleton was born in Bristol on 21 February 1987, the daughter of Tina Sheppard and Nigel Middleton. She has an older sister named Angel and younger brother named Josh, who plays guitar and sings in the metal band Sylosis. She was raised in Clevedon, Somerset. She attended Bristol Grammar School, where she was involved in school plays such as Guys and Dolls. She also attended Stagecoach, a performing arts school in Portishead. She appeared in local drama productions, including a pantomime with her sister at the Princes Hall in Clevedon. Her character, head girl Justine Fielding, dates one of the most popular boys in school, only to find that he and his friends were responsible for a classmate's death. She has also appeared in adverts for the chewing gum Extra and for Sky TV.

In 2010, she was nominated for the London Evening Standard Film Awards 2010 for Most Promising Newcomer and she starred in Samuel Abrahams's BAFTA-nominated short film Connect. In 2011, she played the character Tanya Green in the British sitcom Friday Night Dinner, and Sarah in Sirens. In 2012, she appeared in the spy thriller film Cleanskin.

In 2013, she made her professional theatre debut in The Living Room, before playing a minor role in Danny Boyle's psychological thriller film Trance and giving a highly praised performance in the Black Mirror episode "White Bear". In 2014, after working on Lilly and Lana Wachowski's space opera film Jupiter Ascending (2015), she joined the main cast of their Netflix science fiction series Sense8 (2015–2018).

In 2016, she starred in the BBC drama War & Peace, playing Russian aristocrat Princess Hélène Kuragina. The series received critical acclaim. The Daily Express said: "Rising star Tuppence Middleton takes on the role of the delightfully evil Hélène Kuragina, who is one half of the incestuous duo. Audiences witnessed her brother getting a little too intimate with his sibling in the first episode before she turned her attentions to Pierre and dug her claws into him. She is a vile character who will use and abuse Pierre without giving him a second thought." Andrew Davies, who adapted War and Peace, described Middleton's Hélène as "the naughtiest woman on TV at the moment".

In 2018, she starred in Vicky Jones' play The One at the Soho Theatre in London and got the part of Lucy Smith in the feature film Downton Abbey (2019), which she later reprised in Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022). In 2019, she played the lead role in the mystery drama Disappearance at Clifton Hill. This film was soon followed by the psychological horror Possessor (2020), the Netflix-distributed historical miniseries The Defeated (2020), also known as Shadowplay, and David Fincher's biographical drama Mank (2020), in which she portrayed the wife of Herman J. Mankiewicz, the co-writer of Citizen Kane (1941).

She narrated BBC World Service documentaries about the Spitfire and the life of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in 2020 and 2021, respectively. In 2021, Middleton also narrated an immersive step inside a story audiovisual tour for Hyde Park in London based around The Great Exhibition and written by Elizabeth Macneal for the BARDEUM mobile app. She recently starred alongside Martin Compston and Rupert Penry-Jones in ITV1's drama Our House (2022), and is set to star in the folk horror film Lord of Misrule with Ralph Ineson and Matt Stokoe, directed by William Brent Bell. In 2023 she starred in the National Theatre as Elizabeth Taylor in the Sam Mendes directed Jack Thorne play The Motive and the Cue opposite Johnny Flynn as Richard Burton and Mark Gatiss as John Gielgud.

In 2025, she played Annie Ernaux in the stage adaptation of her autobiographical novel The Years.

Personal life Middleton has obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) that she developed at the age of 12. In 2021, she conducted a series of interviews on the matter for BBC Radio 4, in which she talked with a clinical psychologist and a couple of other people struggling with the disorder. Middleton revealed that she "struggles with self-imposed routines that sometimes stop her leaving the house, as well as obsessive mental counting and compulsive checking behaviours". She also stated that she has emetophobia, a fear of vomiting, which increases her excessive preoccupation with cleanliness.

In August 2022, it was reported that Middleton had given birth to her first child with Swedish film director Måns Mårlind.

Acting credits Films

Television Year Title Role Notes 2008 Bones Vera Waterhouse Episodes: "Yanks in the U.K. Part 1 & 2" 2010 New Tricks Melanie Higgs Episode: "Fashion Victim" First Light Grace TV film 2011 Friday Night Dinner Tanya Green Episodes: "The Date", "The Dress" Sirens Sarah Fraisor Episodes: "Up, Horny, Down", "I.C.E." 2012 Sinbad Tiger 4 episodes 2013 Lewis Vicki Walmsley 2 episodes Spies of Warsaw Gabrielle 4 episodes Black Mirror Jem Episode: "White Bear" The Lady Vanishes Iris Carr TV film 2015–2016 Dickensian Amelia Havisham Main role; 20 episodes 2015–2018 Sense8 Riley "Blue" Gunnarsdóttir Main role; 24 episodes 2016 War & Peace Princess Helene Kuragina 6 episodes 2017 Diana and I Laura Phillips TV film Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams Linda Episode: "The Commuter" 2019 A Working Mom's Nightmare Hannah TV film 2020 The Defeated Claire Franklin 8 episodes 2022 Our House Fi Lawson Main role; 4 episodes His Dark Materials Father Gomez's Daemon (voice) Episode: "The Botanic Garden" 2023 Caught Penny Pimberhurst 6 episodes 2025 The Forsytes Frances Forsyte 6 episodes Death by Lightning Kate Chase Sprague Edith Filming

Theatre Year Title Role Playwright Venue 2007 Hay Fever Judith Bliss Noël Coward Arts Educational Schools 2008 Cause Célèbre Alma Rattenbury Terence Rattigan The Lights Lillian Howard Korder 2013 The Living Room Rose Pemberton Graham Greene Jermyn Street Theatre 2018 The One Jo Vicky Jones Soho Theatre 2023 The Motive and the Cue Elizabeth Taylor Jack Thorne National Theatre / Noël Coward Theatre 2025 The Years Annie 3 Annie Ernaux adapted by Eline Arbo Harold Pinter Theatre

Music videos YearTitleArtistDirectorRole 2014 "Real" Years & Years Robert Francis Müller Clubber

Video games Year Title Role 2018 World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth Lady Lucille Waycrest (voice)