Geraldine Somerville

Also that year, she played Louisa Stockbridge in Gosford Park, a satirical comedy drama set in an English country house in the 1930s.

The film was written by Julian Fellowes and directed by Robert Altman; it went on to be nominated for nine BAFTAs and seven Academy Awards, winning Best Original Screenplay.

Somerville and the cast also received five awards for Best Ensemble, including a Screen Actors Guild award.

Geraldine Margaret Agnew-Somerville (born 19 May 1967) is an Irish-British actress.

Somerville was born in County Meath on 19 May 1967, the second child of Sir Quentin Charles Agnew-Somerville, 2nd Baronet (1929−2010), a Naval officer and insurance consultant, and his wife Margaret April Irene (née Drummond), daughter of John Drummond, 15th Baron Strange.

She has two siblings.

When Somerville was six, the family moved to the Isle of Man; from the age of eight, she attended the Arts Educational School, a boarding school in Tring, Hertfordshire, where, having originally studied ballet, she first developed an interest in acting.

At sixteen, she left the school to continue her studies in London, before gaining a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 1988.

Somerville's early television roles include guest roles in Poirot, Casualty and The Bill.

In 1991, she starred as Biddy Millican in The Black Velvet Gown, an ITV production based on the 1984 novel by Catherine Cookson.

The film was watched by 12.8 million viewers, and received an International Emmy Award for Drama.

In that same year, she made her film debut in Stephen Poliakoff's Close My Eyes in a supporting role.

In 1993, she was cast as DS Jane "Panhandle" Penhaligon in crime drama Cracker, written by Jimmy McGovern.

In 1994, she appeared in two episodes of Performance, a BBC2 anthology series which originally aired between 1991 and 1998, broadcasting productions of both classic and contemporary plays: Somerville played Ann Welch in The Deep Blue Sea, and Miss Julie in After Miss Julie.

In 1995, Somerville was nominated for a BAFTA Award for playing Jane Penhaligon in the television series Cracker.

The critically-acclaimed series starred Robbie Coltrane as the eponymous criminal psychologist, and went on to win seven TV BAFTAs; Somerville gained a Best Actress nomination for her performance in 1995.

That year also saw the release of Haunted, a horror film directed by veteran filmmaker Lewis Gilbert, in which she played Kate McCarrick.

In 1996, she featured in sports drama True Blue, which recounted the events of the 1987 Oxford-Cambridge boat race.

The film was selected to be screened at the Royal Film Performance, attended by Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1998, Somerville starred as Olivia in romantic comedy Jilting Joe, opposite James Purefoy.

In 1999, Somerville portrayed Lady Emily Lennox in BBC period drama series Aristocrats, based on Stella Tillyard's biography of the lives and loves of the four Lennox sisters.

The series was nominated for Best Drama and Best Costume Design at the Irish Film and Television Awards, and received two nominations from the Royal Television Society for its costumes and makeup.

She played Val McArdle in four episodes of Daylight Robbery, an ITV crime drama series about four Essex housewives struggling with personal and domestic problems.

She is known for her roles in the film Gosford Park (2001) and the Harry Potter film series (2001–2011).

In 2001, she made her first appearance as Lily Potter in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, a role she would go on to reprise in all eight films in the franchise.

In 2002, Somerville played trauma psychologist Dr. Sam Graham in television film The Safe House; she also appeared in an episode of Murder in Mind, an anthology series created by Anthony Horowitz, featuring self-contained stories with a murderous theme, seen from the perspective of the killer.

In 2005, she featured in an episode of period crime drama series Jericho as Fiona Hewitt.

In 2006, she played Alice Barrie in biographical comedy-drama Sixty Six.

Her other roles have included Daphne (2007), My Week with Marilyn (2011) and Grace of Monaco (2014).

In 2007, Somerville starred as best-selling novelist Daphne Du Maurier in biographical drama Daphne, adapted from the authorised biography by Margaret Forster.

The film aired on 12 May on BBC2, and co-starred Janet McTeer as Gertrude Lawrence and Elizabeth McGovern as Ellen Doubleday, the object of du Maurier's unrequited affections.

Later that year, she appeared in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries as DS Michelle Tate.

In 2008, Somerville played the grieving mother of a murdered child in three episodes of ITV thriller The Children.

In 2010, she played Fiona Douglas in sci-fi drama Survivors, a BBC series about a group of people battling for survival on a post-apocalyptic Earth after a devastating influenza epidemic.

The series was created by Julian Fellowes to mark the 100th anniversary of the disaster.

In the same year, she also appeared in short film The Girl, which saw her nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Madrid International Film Festival.

In 2012, Somerville starred in ITV drama series Titanic as Louisa, Countess of Manton, a fictional passenger travelling on its ill-fated maiden voyage.

In 2014, she appeared in three films: British drama The Riot Club, sci-fi action film Automata, and Grace Kelly biopic Grace of Monaco, where she portrayed Princess Antoinette, a member of the House of Grimaldi.

She also appeared in two episodes of Quirke, a British-Irish crime drama miniseries, adapted by Andrew Davies from the Quirke novels by John Banville.

In 2015, Somerville played Assistant Commissioner Cynthia Kline in long-running police procedural New Tricks.