Anna Friel

 ( 1976 Births ) 

Friel's next roles were in the Irish television film Watermelon (2003), where she starred as a headstrong Dublin girl who travels to England for an abortion, and the Richard Donner fantasy adventure film Timeline (2003), where she played the love interest of the main character. She was then cast as Attorney Megan Delaney in The Jury, an American legal drama series that ran on Fox for a single season in 2004. Writing for The New York Times, Alessandra Stanley called the show "clever, innovative" and said of Friel, "hers is the most textured and persuasive character". Friel later admitted to finding the job—her first regular role on U.S. television—a challenge: "Everyone was saying, 'you will never believe how much hard work it is', and I was telling them not to worry because I'm used to it but my God were they right ... You run off the set from one scene and get changed and run back on. It is so fast and so very well organised but it is hard, hard bloody work". Next, she played Geordie nurse Roz in the British-American sports drama Goal! (2005; a part she reprised in its ) and appeared as a recovering drug addict in the Toronto-set Niagara Motel (2006). In a mixed review of Motel, The Georgia Straights Ken Eisner noted that Friel's performance carried "the most weight" in the film, while commending her "perfect local accent". In November 2006, she was awarded an Honorary degree by the University of Bolton for contributions to the performing arts.

In 2007, Friel was cast as Charlotte "Chuck" Charles in Pushing Daisies, an American comedy drama series created by Bryan Fuller, which aired on ABC from October that year until June 2009. The show was warmly reviewed during its run, with television critic John Leonard believing it to be "at once satire, mystery, fairy tale, romance, lollipop, whimsy, and kazoo", and singling out Friel as a highlight. Her portrayal of Charles, a resurrected murder victim and passionate beekeeper, won her a nomination for the 2008 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy Series. Daisies was cancelled shortly after its second season finale, with viewership having dropped from 13 million to 4.9 million. Friel was subsequently offered a number of roles on American television, but turned them down to focus on her film career.

For her portrayal of the title character in Bathory, a 2008 historical drama directed by Juraj Jakubisko, Friel was nominated for that year's Czech Lion Award for Best Actress. With a budget of UK£9.5 million, the film was the most expensive ever made in central Europe and broke box-office records in Slovakia. In her review for The Guardian, Gwladys Fouché described the film as being "bathed in a gothic atmosphere that tops every Dracula movie you've seen", while saying of Friel, "she spends two-and-half hours wielding swords, torturing peasants, surviving poison plots and making love to Caravaggio (yes, the Italian painter) to protect her land", adding that "she rolls her r's in an interesting attempt at a local accent". Her next project was the science fiction adventure film Land of the Lost—her first lead role in a major U.S. production—where she co-starred opposite Will Ferrell. Directed by Brad Silberling and based on the 1970s television series of the same name, Lost was met with tepid reviews and poor box office upon its release in June 2009, though some critics enjoyed Friel's portrayal of Holly Cantrell, a spirited palaeontologist, remarking that she and Ferrell shared onscreen chemistry.

Friel returned to the stage towards the end of 2009 in an adaptation of Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, which ran for four months at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and gained notice for its addition of nudity, with heightened security being implemented at the venue after naked images of Friel were leaked online. The production received mixed reviews, but Friel's portrayal of café society daydreamer Holly Golightly (one of her "all time favourite heroines") was praised: Alice Jones of The Independent described her as "infectious", adding, "Gorgeously gamine and wrapped, like a treat from Tiffany's, in an array of ever more extravagantly bowed cocktail dresses, she's a bewitching stage presence, at once perilously provocative and child-like"; while Ray Bennett of The Hollywood Reporter believed she brought "confidence" and "considerable depth" to the part. In November 2009, Friel won an RTS Award for "Best Performance in a Drama Series" for her work as Dee, a struggling single mother who turns to prostitution, in BBC One's The Street.

In 2012, Friel starred as a vilified probation officer in the BBC crime drama series Public Enemies, with Metro calling her "sharp-suitedly intense". She then headlined two British films— The Look of Love, a biopic where she played the long-suffering wife of millionaire porn baron Paul Raymond, and the independent film dramedy Having You (both 2013)—and returned to the West End in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya at the Vaudeville Theatre (November 2012 to February 2013), receiving praise for her role as aristocratic newlywed Yelena. In September 2013, Friel was cast as one of the main characters in the Ridley Scott-directed television pilot The Vatican, though—due in part to a negative response from affiliates of the Catholic Church—Showtime decided not to proceed with a full series. Her sole film credit of 2014 was the American action thriller Good People, in which Varietys Guy Lodge felt she was she "egregiously wasted in a throwaway best-friend role".

In the thriller series American Odyssey, Friel played the lead role of Sgt. Odelle Ballard, an American special ops soldier on a secret mission in Mali, West Africa. The NBC show ran for a single season between April and June 2015, with some critics comparing it unfavourably to Homeland, though Friel's performance was roundly praised. She starred that same year in the World War II-set Norwegian miniseries The Heavy Water War (known elsewhere as The Saboteurs) and in the British film Urban and the Shed Crew, a drama based on a 2005 memoir. Her next film projects were the independent dark comedy The Cleanse, revenge thriller I.T. (both 2016), and the Irish-Canadian crime drama Tomato Red (2017), where her role as a trailer trash mother drew attention for being against type.

Friel began playing the eponymous Marcella Backland in the British Nordic noir detective series, Marcella, in 2016. Speaking of her decision to take on the part—a former policewoman who returns to work to investigate an unsolved serial killer case—she told a journalist prior to the debut of the second season, "I nearly pulled out of the after I'd accepted it because I just thought, 'Oh God, how can I do this? There are so many amazing female detectives that have done it so well, I don't know what I can offer differently' ... so when the was received as well as it was, I thought maybe I had done something that is different and I've put my own ownership and my own stamp on it". In 2019, Friel collected the International Emmy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Backland, which Decider felt was "extraordinary":

Marcellas third and final season debuted on Netflix in 2020, with Friel commenting afterwards that a fourth season was unlikely to happen.

On the second season of The Girlfriend Experience (2017), an anthology series drama series produced by Steven Soderbergh for the Starz network, Friel played Erica Myles, an ambitious financier engaged in dom-sub partnerships with multiple women. Her performance was described as "outstanding" by The Atlantic and "fantastic" by Variety, who added, "sometimes the just focuses on her eyes, which can either well up with frustrated tears or shutter in Erica's emotions, as changeable as the sky reflected in a lake". Referring to the series' intense work schedule and the explicit nature of its sex scenes, Friel said that the role was her "most challenging job to date". That same year, she was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of a destitute mother in the six-part BBC drama Broken, with Metros Sarah Deen noting, "Friel excellently plays Christina's frantic desperation ... all wild eyes, flapping shoes and dry humour ('I went to Mass and I got the sack. What am I gonna get tomorrow? Cystitis?'). You couldn't tell if her wit was genuine or hastily developed as a defence mechanism to stop her from bursting into tears".

Friel's next project was the ITV drama series Butterfly, in which she played Vicky, the parent of a transgender child. In their review of the show, which aired across three weeks in October 2018, the New Statesman felt that Friel's portrayal of a mother "racked by guilt" was "sterling". Friel said that she and the show's creators felt a great responsibility to make it as realistic as possible: "We met all these wonderful families, who were saying, 'please tell our story and tell it properly'". The following year, she headlined the six-part miniseries Deep Water, which Metro described as a "dark soap opera", adding, "The performances elevate to a must-binge drama ... Friel excels when it comes to playing harassed women, usually ones with a secret to keep, and the actress completely disappears into her".

Friel performed every song that her character sings—a mixture of covers and originals—herself. It was announced in December 2022 that the series had been cancelled after one season.

In the period drama film Charming the Hearts of Men (2021), Friel played Grace Gordon, a woman fighting for civil rights in 1960s Southern America. Her work drew acclaim, with Film Threat commenting that her "lived-in" performance was key to Hearts success. She then appeared as Nicky, a Liverpool nurse helping one of her patients unravel a dark secret, in the Netflix feature Locked In (2023). The psychological thriller was poorly reviewed, though Benjamin Lee of The Guardian felt that Friel was "excellent" in an "underwritten role".

Friel's work in the one-off television drama Unforgivable was particularly well received, with The Guardian referring to her portrayal of Anna McKinney—a mother trying desperately to hold her family together after her son is sexually abused by her own brother—as "absolutely wonderful", and The Telegraph calling it "the best performance of her career". The project marked her third collaboration with writer Jimmy McGovern, about whom she said, "His work is so hard-hitting and real and true. I don't think any actor would ever say no to a Jimmy McGovern script".

In 2010, she co-starred with Michael Sheen in the music video for the Manic Street Preachers' single "(It's Not War) Just the End of Love", in which their characters were absorbed in a game of chess.

Friel works as an ambassador for the WWF wildlife charity.

On 18 September 2025, Phil Appleton, 71, was handed a 15 year restraining order by His Honour Alan Blake, presiding judge at Reading Crown Court, when he pleaded guilty to stalking Friel over a period of almost three years, regularly turning up at her home and leaving unwanted gifts.