Tamsin Greig

Tamsin Margaret Mary Greig (; born 12 July 1966) is an English actress, narrator and comedian. She played Fran Katzenjammer in the Channel 4 sitcom ''Black Books'', Dr Caroline Todd in the Channel 4 sitcom ''Green Wing'', Beverly Lincoln in British-American sitcom ''Episodes'' and Jackie Goodman in the Channel 4 sitcom ''Friday Night Dinner''. Other roles include Alice Chenery in BBC One's comedy-drama series ''Love Soup'', Debbie Aldridge in BBC Radio 4's soap opera ''The Archers'', Miss Bates in the 2009 BBC version of Jane Austen's '' Emma'', and Beth Hardiment in the 2010 film version of ''Tamara Drewe''. In 2020, Greig starred as Anne Trenchard in Julian Fellowes' ITV series ''Belgravia''.

Greig is also an acclaimed stage actress; she won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in 2007 for ''Much Ado About Nothing'', and was nominated again in 2011 and 2015 for her roles in ''The Little Dog Laughed'' and ''Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown''.

Early life

Greig was born in Maidstone, Kent, the second of three sisters. Her father, Eric, worked as a colour chemist creating dyes, and her mother, Ann, was enthusiastic about amateur dramatics. Her maternal grandfather was a Polish Jew. The family moved to Kilburn when she was three.

She went to Malorees Junior School, followed by Camden School for Girls later graduating with a first-class BA in Drama and Theatre Arts from the University of Birmingham in 1988. After graduating, she worked at the Family Planning Association and continued doing temporary work until 1996. She also spent some time at a secretarial college.''Seriously funny''
an interview with ''The Telegraph'' with Tamsin Greig. Written by Jasper Rees, 29 July 2006. Retrieved 17 June 2007.

Career

Her professional acting career began in early 1990. Greig is known for both dramatic and comedic roles. Comedy roles can pose problems for Greig, who has problems with corpsing.

Radio

Greig has had a long-running part as Debbie Aldridge in the BBC Radio 4 soap opera ''The Archers'' since 1991. As her other work increased, her appearances in the show decreased and her character Debbie spends most of her time living in Hungary.

Her other radio work includes narrating the Radio 4 comedy ''Warhorses of Letters'', and guest-starring in five episodes of the second series of the radio version of '' Absolute Power'', playing Charles Prentiss's former lover Gayle Shand, who now runs a rival firm.

Television

Greig appeared in a number of supporting parts, notably as Lamia in ''Neverwhere'' (1996) and The Mother in an episode of '' People Like Us'' (2000). Her first major role was Fran Katzenjammer in the sitcom ''Black Books'', which ran for three series from 2000. Fran was a friend of the main character, Bernard, and originally owned a gift shop called "Nifty Gifty" next door to his bookshop.

In 2004, she played constantly embarrassed surgical registrar Dr Caroline Todd, the lead character in the Channel 4 comedy drama series ''Green Wing''. Her performance won her "Best Comedy Performance" in the 2005 Royal Television Society Awards. She also appeared as Caroline in an appearance at ''The Secret Policeman's Ball''.

She starred in the BBC
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