Jodhi Tania May (''née'' Hakim-Edwards; 8 May 1975) is a British actress. She remains the youngest recipient of the Best Actress award at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

, for ''A World Apart'' (1988). Her other film appearances include ''

The Last of the Mohicans ''The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757'' is a historical romance written by James Fenimore Cooper in 1826. It is the second book of the ''Leatherstocking Tales'' pentalogy and the best known to contemporary audiences. '' The Pathfinder ...

'' (1992), ''

Sister My Sister ''Sister My Sister'' is a 1994 film starring British actresses Julie Walters, Joely Richardson, and Jodhi May. The film was directed by Nancy Meckler and written by Wendy Kesselman, based on her own play, ''My Sister in This House''. The fil ...

'' (1994), and '' A Quiet Passion'' (2016).

Early life

May was born Jodhi Tania Hakim-Edwards in 1975 in

Camden Town Camden Town (), often shortened to Camden, is a district of northwest London, England, north of Charing Cross. Historically in Middlesex, it is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Camden, and identified in the London Plan as o ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

.England & Wales, Birth Index: 1916-2006 atabase online/ref> Her name was later legally changed to Jodhi Tania May. Her mother, Jocelyn Hakim, is an art teacher of French-Turkish descent who as a student arranged to marry artist-designer Malcolm McLaren to obtain citizenship, paying him £50 to marry her in a Lewisham register office in 1972. They later divorced, a move that cost McLaren's grandmother £2,000. May has not publicly identified her father, besides stating he is German. She was educated at

Camden School for Girls The Camden School for Girls (CSG) is a comprehensive secondary school for girls, with a co-educational sixth form, in the London Borough of Camden in north London. It has about one thousand students of ages eleven to eighteen, and specialist- ...

. May first acted at the age of 12 for '' A World Apart'' (1988). For the role she received a Best Actress award at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival, shared with her co-stars

Barbara Hershey Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey (born February 5, 1948), is an American actress. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema in several genres, including weste ...

and

Linda Mvusi Linda Mvusi (c. 1954, in Bloemfontein) is an actress and architect. Mvusi took an award for best actress

. Other than a brief lull while studying

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is located in the centre of Oxford, at the intersection of Broad Street and Parks Road. Wadham College was founded in 1610 by Dorothy W ...

, she has had near constant work since her debut, and can regularly be seen on film, television and the British stage.

Career

Notable roles have included Alice Munro in

Michael Mann Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American director, screenwriter, and producer of film and television who is best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include the films ''Thief'' (1981), ' ...

's ''

'',

Lea Papin Lea or LEA may refer to: Places Australia * Lea River, Tasmania, Australia * Lake Lea, Tasmania, from which the Lea River flows * RAAF Base Learmonth, IATA airport code "LEA" England * Lea, Cheshire, a civil parish * Lea, Derbyshire, a settl ...

in ''

'',

Lady Sarah Lennox Lady Sarah Lennox (14 February 1745 – August 1826) was the most notorious of the famous Lennox sisters, daughters of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Sarah Cadogan. Early life After the deaths of both her parents when she was only fi ...

in ''

Aristocrats Aristocracy (, ) is a form of government that places strength in the hands of a small, privileged ruling class, the aristocrats. The term derives from the el, αριστοκρατία (), meaning 'rule of the best'. At the time of the word' ...

'', Florence Banner in ''

Tipping the Velvet ''Tipping the Velvet'' (1998) is a historical novel by Sarah Waters; it is her debut novel. Set in England during the 1890s, it tells a coming of age story about a young woman named Nan who falls in love with a male impersonator, follows her ...

'',

Anne Boleyn Anne Boleyn (; 1501 or 1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536, as the second wife of King Henry VIII. The circumstances of her marriage and of her execution by beheading for treason and other charges made her a key ...

in the first adaptation of ''

The Other Boleyn Girl ''The Other Boleyn Girl'' (2001) is a historical novel written by British author Philippa Gregory, loosely based on the life of 16th-century aristocrat Mary Boleyn (the sister of Anne Boleyn) of whom little is known. Inspired by Mary's life s ...

'', and

Sabina Spielrein Sabina Nikolayevna Spielrein ( rus, Сабина Николаевна Шпильрейн, p=sɐˈbʲinə nʲɪkɐˈlajɪvnə ʂpʲɪlʲˈrɛjn; 7 November 25 October 1885 OS – 11 August 1942) was a Russian physician and one of the first fema ...

in the play ''The Talking Cure''. In 2002, May wrote and directed a short film called ''Spyhole''. In August 2005, May appeared in '' Blackbird'' by

David Harrower David Harrower (born 1966) is a Scottish playwright who (as of 2005) lives in Glasgow. Harrorwer has published over 10 original works, as well as numerous translations and adaptations. Career Harrower's first play, ''Knives in Hens'', which p ...

alongside

Roger Allam Roger William Allam (born 26 October 1953) is a British actor, who has performed on stage, in film, on television and radio. He played Inspector Javert in the original London production of the stage musical '' Les Misérables'', First Officer ...

at the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

in a production by German director Peter Stein. The play transferred to the

Albery Theatre Albery is a name. It may refer to: ;People by given name *Albery Allson Whitman (1851−1901), African American poet, minister and orator ;People by surname: *A. S. Albery, British politician *Bronson Albery (1881−1971), English theatre director ...

, London in February 2006 and won a best new play award. In 2010, she played the lead role of Kay in

Mark Haddon Mark Haddon (born 28 October 1962) is an English novelist, best known for '' The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'' (2003). He won the Whitbread Award, the Dolly Gray Children's Literature Award, Guardian Prize, and a Commonwealth W ...

's play

Polar Bears The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...

at the

Donmar Warehouse The Donmar Warehouse is a 251-seat, not-for-profit theatre in Covent Garden, London, England. It first opened on 18 July 1977. Sam Mendes, Michael Grandage and Josie Rourke have all served as artistic director, a post held since 2019 by Mi ...

. May played Janet Stone in the 2011 noir thriller ''

I, Anna ''I, Anna'' is a 2012 British noir thriller film written and directed by Barnaby Southcombe and based on Elsa Lewin's novel of the same name. The film stars Southcombe's mother Charlotte Rampling alongside Gabriel Byrne and Hayley Atwell. Plo ...

'', alongside

Gabriel Byrne Gabriel James Byrne (born 12 May 1950) is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, screenwriter, audiobook narrator, and author. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined London's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's s ...

Charlotte Rampling Tessa Charlotte Rampling (born 5 February 1946) is an English actress, known for her work in European arthouse films in English, French, and Italian. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, she began her career as a model. She was cast in the role ...

Eddie Marsan Edward Maurice Charles Marsan (born 9 June 1968) is an English actor. He won the London Film Critics Circle Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor for the film '' Happy-Go-Lucky'' (2008). He has feature ...

, and

Honor Blackman Honor Blackman (22 August 1925 – 5 April 2020) was an English actress, known for the roles of Cathy Gale in '' The Avengers''Aaker, Everett (2006). ''Encyclopedia of Early Television Crime Fighters''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 58. (1962 ...

. In 2015, she appeared in the

Season 5 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

premiere A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition. A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its first ...

of the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

series ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American fantasy drama television series created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin, the first ...

''. In 2019, she played Queen Calanthe in

The Witcher ''The Witcher'' ( pl, Wiedźmin ) is a series of six fantasy novels and 15 short stories written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The series revolves around the eponymous "witcher", Geralt of Rivia. In Sapkowski's works, "witchers" are be ...

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

's live-action adaptation of

Andrzej Sapkowski Andrzej Sapkowski (; born 21 June 1948) is a Polish fantasy writer, essayist, translator and a trained economist. He is best known for his six-volume series of books '' The Witcher'', which revolves around the eponymous "witcher," a monster-hun ...

's popular book series. In 2020, alongside

Valentina Cervi Valentina Cervi (born 13 April 1976) is an Italian film and television actress. Cervi was born in Rome, Italy. She is the daughter of director Tonino Cervi and granddaughter of actor Gino Cervi. Her mother is the Italian producer of Austrian- ...

Francesco Scianna Francesco Scianna (born 25 March 1982 in Palermo, Italy) is an Italian actor. Biography Early education and career Francesco Scianna began his acting career in theater, debuting in 1997 with the recital of poems by Salvatore Quasimodo, "CEI". ...

Filippo Timi Filippo Timi (born 27 February 1974) is an Italian actor, director and writer. Biography Winner of ‘best actor under 30’ at the 2004 UBU Awards, the maximum prize for Italian theatre, onstage he has been Orpheus, Danton, Perceval, Cupid, H ...

, she was in the cast of

Marco Simon Puccioni Marco Simon Puccioni is an Italian film director and screenwriter. Biography Seventh of eight children, Puccioni was born in and grew up in Rome. After graduating in architecture at the Sapienza University of Rome, he won a Fulbright scholarsh ...

's film ''The Invisible Thread'', produced by

and likely to be released in 2022.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:May, Jodhi 1975 births Living people Alumni of Wadham College, Oxford Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress winners English child actresses English film actresses English radio actresses English stage actresses English television actresses English voice actresses English people of German descent English people of French descent People from Camden Town People educated at Camden School for Girls 20th-century English actresses 21st-century English actresses English people of Turkish descent Actresses from London