Emma Handy (born 24 March 1974) is a British actress best known for her West End stage work and her role as DC Paula McIntyre in the ITV1 award-winning drama series ''

Wire in the Blood ''Wire in the Blood'' is a British crime drama television series, created and produced by Coastal Productions for Tyne Tees Television and broadcast on ITV from 14 November 2002 to 31 October 2008. The series is based on characters created by ...

'' in which she appeared for five series.

Early life

Emma trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). During the summer of her second year Emma was invited to

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia a ...

to play the leading role in the first English translation of '' Csongor és Tünde'' by Peter Zollman at the Merlin International Theatre,

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

Career

During her final year at drama school Emma was offered the part of Yuliya in a new translation of

Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (; 29 January 1860 Old Style date 17 January. – 15 July 1904 Old Style date 2 July.) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the greatest writers of all time. His career ...

's '' The Wood Demon'' by

Frank Dwyer John Francis Dwyer (March 25, 1868 – February 4, 1943) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Stockings (1888–1889), Chicago Pirates (1890), Cincinnati Kelly's Killers (1891), Milwaukee Brewers (1 ...

at the

Playhouse Theatre The Playhouse Theatre is a West End theatre in the City of Westminster, located in Northumberland Avenue, near Trafalgar Square, central London. The Theatre was built by F. H. Fowler and Hill with a seating capacity of 1,200. It was rebuilt i ...

in London's West End. Emma went straight onto the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

to play Jessica in ''

Merchant of Venice ''The Merchant of Venice'' is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. A merchant in Venice named Antonio defaults on a large loan provided by a Jewish moneylender, Shylock. Although classified as a ...

'' and to create the role of Rhona in the premiere of

Robert Holman Robert Holman (1952 – 3 December 2021) was a British dramatist whose work has been produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and the Royal Court Theatre, as well as in the West End theatre, West End and elsewhere, since the 1970s. He was ...

's ''Bad Weather''. Much of Emma's stage work has been involved with new writing creating many roles including Anna Van Gogh in Nicholas Wright's multi award-winning play ''

Vincent in Brixton ''Vincent in Brixton'' is a 2002 play by Nicholas Wright. The play premiered at London's National Theatre with Jochum ten Haaf in the title role. It transferred to the Playhouse Theatre and later to Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * ...

'' directed by

Richard Eyre Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre (born 28 March 1943) is an English film, theatre, television and opera director. Biography Eyre was born in Barnstaple, Devon, England, the son of Richard Galfridus Hastings Giles Eyre and his wife, Minna Ma ...

for the

Royal National Theatre The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...

; Rhona in

's ''Bad Weather'' directed by Steven Pimlott for the

; Lou in

Murray Gold Murray Jonathan Gold (born 28 February 1969) is an English composer for stage, film, and television and a dramatist for both theatre and radio. He is best known as the musical director and composer of the music for ''Doctor Who'' from 2005, unti ...

's ''50 Revolutions'' directed by

Dominic Dromgoole Dominic Dromgoole (born 25 October 1963)DROMGOOLE, Dominic Charles Flemi ...

for the

Trafalgar Studios Trafalgar Theatre is a new West End theatre in Whitehall, near Trafalgar Square, in the City of Westminster, London. It is set to open in spring 2021 following a major multi-million pound restoration project aiming to reinstate it back to its ...

and Cathy in Polly Teale's award-winning ''Speechless'' for

Shared Experience Shared Experience is a British theatre company.
Its current joint

at the

Traverse Theatre The Traverse Theatre is a theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 1963 by John Calder, John Malcolm, Jim Haynes and Richard Demarco. The Traverse Theatre company commissions and develops new plays or adaptations from contemporary p ...

, Edinburgh. Emma played

Maudie Miller ''The Inbestigators'' (stylised ''The InBESTigators'') is an Australian mockumentary children's television series created by Robyn Butler and Wayne Hope. The show stars Abby Bergman, Anna Cooke, Aston Droomer and Jamil Smyth-Secka as Ava Andrik ...

Trevor Nunn Sir Trevor Robert Nunn (born 14 January 1940) is a British theatre director. He has been the Artistic Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theatre, and, currently, the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. He has directed dramas f ...

's 2011 revival of ''

Flare Path ''Flare Path'' is a play by Terence Rattigan, written in 1941 and first staged in 1942.Darlow, Michael"Terence Rattigan, Biography – War", ''Official Terence Rattigan website''. Retrieved 2011-02-22. Set in a hotel near an RAF Bomber Command ...

'' at the

Theatre Royal Haymarket The Theatre Royal Haymarket (also known as Haymarket Theatre or the Little Theatre) is a West End theatre on Haymarket in the City of Westminster which dates back to 1720, making it the third-oldest London playhouse still in use. Samuel Foot ...

marking the centenary of

Terence Rattigan Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan (10 June 191130 November 1977) was a British dramatist and screenwriter. He was one of England's most popular mid-20th-century dramatists. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background.Geoffrey Wan ...

's birth. In January 2013, Emma performed at the

Adelaide Festival The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural ...

in Australia in the premiere of ''Thursday'' by the acclaimed playwright

Bryony Lavery Bryony Lavery (born 1947) is a British dramatist, known for her successful and award-winning 1998 play '' Frozen''. In addition to her work in theatre, she has also written for television and radio. She has written books including the biography ...

('' Frozen'') in a collaboration with Australian-based theatre company Brink Productions and

English Touring Theatre English Touring Theatre (ETT) is a major touring theatre company based in London, England. History English Touring Theatre was founded in 1993 by Stephen Unwin. In 2008, the directorship of the company was taken over by Rachel Tackley, making E ...

. Handy performed a lead role, the young Queen Elizabeth ll, 'Liz' in Moira Buffini's critically acclaimed play '' Handbagged'' examining the relationship between the Queen and prime minister

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...

. The production toured the UK in 2015, including performances at the Theatre Royale in Bath, the

Cambridge Arts Theatre Cambridge Arts Theatre is a 666-seat theatre on Peas Hill and St Edward's Passage in central Cambridge, England. The theatre presents a varied mix of drama, dance, opera and pantomime. It attracts some of the highest-quality touring productions ...

, and also at the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham. In 2016, Handy talked about playing the queen in an interview timed to coincide with the monarch's 90th birthday. In 2021, Handy played the role of Ida in the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

drama series ''Faith, Hope and Glory''.

Filmography

Television

Film

Theatre

References

External links

*
Profile at Coastal Productions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Handy, Emma 1974 births Alumni of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art Living people 20th-century British actresses 21st-century British actresses British film actresses British stage actresses British television actresses