Michelle Terry

Michelle Terry is an Olivier Award–winning English actress and writer, known for her extensive work for Shakespeare's Globe, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre, as well as her television work, notably writing and starring in the Sky One television series The Café.

She read English literature at Cardiff University before training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 2004.

Terry made her professional debut in the touring and subsequent West End production of Blithe Spirit, playing the Maid and understudying Elvira.

Her other theatre credits include The War on Terror, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, The Man Who Had All the Luck, Tribes and As You Like It.

Her work at the National Theatre includes London Assurance, All's Well That Ends Well and England People Very Nice.

She also appeared in broadcast versions of London Assurance and All's Well That Ends Well as part of National Theatre Live.

For the Royal Shakespeare Company, Terry has appeared in productions of Days of Significance, Pericles, The Winter's Tale, The Crucible and Love's Labour's Lost, playing Rosaline.

Terry won Best Actress in a Visiting Production at the 2008 Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards, for the Donmar Warehouse production of The Man Who Had All the Luck.

She was among the writers of Sudden Loss of Dignity, staged at the Bush Theatre in 2009.

Terry won critical acclaim for her work at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, for her performance of Rosalind in As You Like It.

London's Financial Times wrote "I'm not sure it's possible to see Michelle Terry on a stage without falling a little in love with her. She has the intelligence, inventiveness and vivacity to play the character and the show simultaneously, not setting herself above the material but relishing her immersion in the role and inviting us to share it with her."

She also appeared in productions of Love's Labour's Lost and A Midsummer Night's Dream at that venue, both of which were released on DVD.

She was co-writer, with Ralf Little, of the comedy drama TV series, The Café, which aired on Sky1 from 2011 to 2013, in which she played "Sarah Porter".

The series was set and filmed in her own hometown, Weston-super-Mare.

Terry is married to the actor Paul Ready.

They have one daughter.

She won Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the 2011 Laurence Olivier Awards, for her portrayal of Sylvia in the Royal Court Theatre production of Tribes.

On 24 July 2017 she was announced as its fourth Artistic Director, to succeed Emma Rice in April 2018.

Terry took up the role of artistic director at Shakespeare's Globe in April 2018.

Terry was born in Nuneaton, moving whilst still a child to grow up in Weston-super-Mare.

She was raised in Kewstoke, and attended Priory Community School and Broadoak Sixth Form Centre.

Terry aspired to be an actress from an early age.

She attended an amateur dramatic society and took LAMDA exams at school in poetry, prose and spoken verse.

At the age of fourteen she joined the National Youth Theatre.

Terry starred in the lead role in a 2018 gender fluid version of Hamlet.

The Spectator said in their review "No one but Ms Terry would have hired Ms Terry for this role. She's a decent second-tier actress without any special vocal or physical endowments."

The Guardian called the play "a perfectly decent production and a welcome relief from the work of the previous Globe regime, which seemed to assume that the plays were a bit boring unless jazzed up."

The Stage said: "It's a production that places clarity of verse and emotion over directorial fireworks. One of the most striking elements is Terry's costume. When she assumes her antic disposition, she also dons a white clown suit with a jagged lipstick grin. By making Hamlet a jester, it licenses her to behave in different ways. It shifts her status in the family. It grants her power and marks her apart. Laughter can be a weapon after all. It's an interesting idea that is under-explored."

Terry starred in the lead role of Lady Macbeth opposite her husband Paul Ready in Macbeth at the Globe's candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

In The Globe's 2021 production of Twelfth Night, directed by Sean Holmes, Terry starred as Viola.

In The Globe's upcoming 2024 production of Richard III, Terry has been cast in the lead, which generated backlash and controversy over a non-disabled actor casting themselves as a disabled character.

Several disabled actors have directly spoken out against this casting, namely Brittanie Pallett and Ben Wilson, who have accused Terry of "cripping up".

Her television credits include episodes of Extras, Law & Order: UK and the Mike Bullen pilot Reunited, playing "Sara".