Daisy May Cooper (born 1 August 1986) is an English actress and writer. She won the 2018 BAFTA TV Award for Best Female Comedy Performance for playing Kerry Mucklowe in the

BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes targeting 16 to 34-year-olds, covering all genres including animation, comedy, curre ...

series ''

This Country ''This Country'' is a British mockumentary sitcom, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Three on 8 February 2017. Created by, written by and starring siblings Daisy May Cooper and Charlie Cooper and directed by Tom George, the series f ...

'', which she co-created and co-wrote with her brother, Charlie Cooper.

Early life and education

Cooper was born in

Cirencester Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

, in 1986 and is the elder of two children. Her brother, Charlie Cooper, is also an actor and writer. She attended

Cirencester Deer Park School Cirencester Deer Park School is a secondary school with academy status in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, England. It is situated at the top of Tetbury Hill, an area which had been the site of a World War II American Army Hospital, in Cirenceste ...

, followed by drama school at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Sen ...

in London.

Career

After one role as a young mother in ITV series ''

Doc Martin ''Doc Martin'' is a British medical comedy drama television series starring Martin Clunes as Doctor Martin Ellingham. It was created by Dominic Minghella after the character of Dr Martin Bamford in the 2000 comedy film '' Saving Grace''. The ...

'' she returned to the West Country, working as a cleaner with her brother Charlie. For a while the siblings lived together – their experiences would later form part of the writings for ''This Country''. In 2014, she landed the role of PC Garvey in the TV series ''

The Wrong Mans ''The Wrong Mans'' is a British BBC Television comedy-drama series, co-produced with the American online television provider Hulu. It premiered on BBC Two on 24 September 2013 and in the United States on 11 November 2013. Considered a crit ...

''. In the same year, a pilot based on the Coopers' initial series pitch had been shot for ITV as the (never released) film ''Kerry'', setting the basis for ''This Country''. She wrote and starred with her brother, Charlie, in the BBC Three comedy series ''This Country'', for which she won a TV BAFTA award for Best Female Comedy Performance in 2018. Due to the success of the first series of ''This Country'', a second series was commissioned and aired on BBC Three in February 2018. A third series aired in 2020. In 2019, she played

Peggotty The Peggotty family are fictional characters in Charles Dickens's 1850 novel ''David Copperfield''. Daniel Peggotty Yarmouth fisherman Daniel Peggotty is the brother of Clara. Referred to as "Mr Peggotty", he is a fisherman and dealer in lobs ...

in ''

The Personal History of David Copperfield ''The Personal History of David Copperfield'' is a 2019 comedy-drama film written and directed by Armando Iannucci, based on the 1850 novel ''David Copperfield'' by Charles Dickens. It stars Dev Patel as the title character, along with Aneurin ...

'' and in 2020, she had a part in

Armando Iannucci Armando Giovanni Iannucci (; born 28 November 1963) is a Scottish satirist, writer, director, producer, performer, and panellist. Born in Glasgow to Italian parents, Iannucci studied at the University of Glasgow followed by the University of ...

's HBO space comedy ''

Avenue 5 ''Avenue 5'' is a science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space e ...

''. She also appeared with her father, Paul, on ''

Celebrity Gogglebox ''Gogglebox'' is a British reality television series created by Stephen Lambert, Tania Alexander and Tim Harcourt, and broadcast on Channel 4. The series documents families and groups of friends around the United Kingdom who are filmed for thei ...

''. On 29 July 2020, Cooper took part in the tenth series of '' Taskmaster''. In 2022 she played one of the two lead characters in the television sitcom '' The Witchfinder''.

Personal life

Cooper married her long-term partner, Will Weston, on 21 September 2019. The couple have two children, a daughter, Pip and a son born in October 2020, named Jack Michael Weston, in honour of her late friend and ''This Country'' co-star, Michael Sleggs, who played the dull friend of Kurtan and Kerry, Michael ‘Slugs’ Slugett. Michael Sleggs died in 2019, age 33, after battling terminal cancer. In July 2021, it was reported that Cooper had separated from her husband, 10 months after the birth of her son.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Daisy May 1986 births Living people Actresses from Gloucestershire English television actresses Best Female Comedy Performance BAFTA Award (television) winners People from Cirencester WFTV Award winners 21st-century English actresses Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art