Joanne Froggatt

Joanne Froggatt (born 23 August 1980) is a British actress. From 2010 to 2015, she portrayed Anna Bates in the ITV period drama series ''Downton Abbey''. For this role, she received three Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress on Television in 2014. From 2017 to 2020, she starred in the ITV drama series '' Liar''.

Froggatt's early television appearances include ''Coronation Street'' (1997–1998), '' Bad Girls'' (1999), '' dinnerladies'' (1999) and ''A Touch of Frost'' (2001). She went on to star in the television films '' Danielle Cable: Eyewitness'' (2003), '' See No Evil: The Moors Murders'' (2006) and '' Murder in the Outback'' (2007), before winning the British Independent Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her leading role in the 2010 film ''In Our Name''.

Early life and education

Froggatt was born and brought up in the village of Littlebeck in North Yorkshire. Her parents, Ann and Keith Froggatt, having run a corner shop, next started a rare-breed sheep farm on a smallholding near Whitby. Joanne has likened her childhood setting to the backdrop of Emily Brontë's classic novel ''Wuthering Heights''. Froggatt initially joined a drama group in Scarborough, and then left her family home at the age of 13 to attend the Redroofs Theatre School in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

Career

In 1996, Froggatt made her TV debut in the long-running ITV drama ''The Bill'', and shortly afterwards landed the role of teenage mother Zoe Tattersall in ''Coronation Street''. She left the program in 1998, when her character was written out. In 1999, she appeared in the first four episodes of the first series of prison drama '' Bad Girls'', portraying teenage mother Rachel Hicks.

In 2003, Froggatt played the leading role in the controversial one-off drama '' Danielle Cable: Eyewitness'', based on the true story of a teenage girl who witnessed the murder of her boyfriend in a reputed road rage attack. While researching the role, she met Cable, who later contacted her to commend her on her portrayal. The film earned a BAFTA TV Award nomination for Best Single Drama.

Froggatt played the role of Angelique Mahy in the ITV mini-series ''Island at War'', which tells the story of the German occupation of the Channel Islands. It aired on 11 July 2004. In the same year, she played Myra in the BBC Radio 4 drama ''My Turn to Make the Tea'' by Monica Dickens.

Froggatt starred as a main character in the drama ''Missing'', made by SMG Productions in 2006, alongside Gregor Fisher. The two-part thriller was not broadcast on STV until November 2008, because ITV had changed its format to 60-minute time slots and ''Missing'' was two 90-minute time slots.

Also in 2006, Froggatt played the sister of Myra Hindley in the ITV drama '' See No Evil: The Moors Murders''. She later appeared in another controversial role as the title character in '' Joanne Lees: Murder in the Outback'', which first aired on Channel Ten in Australia on 18 March 2007, and was screened in Britain on ITV on 8 April 2007. The role involved the depiction of a real-life kidnap, in which Froggatt had to perform scenes tied up with tape around her mouth as a gag. She appeared on the London stage in the adaptation of ''All About My Mother'' in the part of Sister Rosa, which ran from July to November 2007 at the Old Vic Theatre.

Froggatt portrayed Kate, a peasant, in the third season of the BBC TV series ''Robin Hood''.
She played Hannah in '' Spooks: Code 9'', and features in the BBC Radio adaptation of ''Solaris'' as Rheya. In May 2009, she played Kelly in the BBC
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