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Celia Diana Savile Imrie (born 15 July 1952) is a British actress. She is best known for her film roles, including the Bridget Jones film series (2001, 2004, 2016, 2025), Calendar Girls (2005), Nanny McPhee (2005), St Trinian's (2007), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015), A Cure for Wellness (2016), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018), and The Thursday Murder Club (2025). She appeared in the FX series Better Things (2016–2022) and the Netflix series The Diplomat (2023–present).
Imrie is also known for her frequent collaborations with actress and comedian Victoria Wood. In 2006, she won an Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical in Acorn Antiques:The Musical!. Imrie was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to drama.
She first worked with Victoria Wood in the 1980s on , which included the popular sketch Acorn Antiques. In 1994, she reunited with Wood in the television film Pat and Margaret, and later appeared in Dinnerladies from 1998 to 1999.
Imrie's other roles include Still Game, Cloud Howe, Taggart, There's been a murder: Taggart at 25, The Independent, 7 September 2008 and Blue Black Permanent (1992). Blue Black Permanent, British Film Institute database
In 2000, she played Lady Gertrude in Gormenghast, while, in 2001, she was in Love in a Cold Climate with Alan Bates. In 2002, she played Mrs Violet Pearman to Albert Finney's Churchill in The Gathering Storm. She appeared in the BBC television drama Mr. Harvey Lights a Candle (2005), appeared opposite Nicholas Lyndhurst in the BBC British sitcom After You've Gone (2007–2008), opposite Stephen Fry in the ITV1 drama Kingdom, and with Judi Dench in Cranford. In 2013, she guest-starred in the BBC's Doctor Who, playing the villainous Miss Kizlet in "The Bells of Saint John". In May 2016, she made her US television debut in the DC action-adventure series Legends of Tomorrow. In September 2016 she began starring as Phyllis in the FX series Better Things.
In 2025, Imrie appeared as a contestant on the first series of The Celebrity Traitors. Her nervous fart, while locked in a wooden cabin with the other celebrities in episode 3, was described as the "TV moment of the year". Imrie competed the game as a faithful before eventually being "murdered" in plain sight by traitor Alan Carr in episode 8.
In 1979, Imrie played in her first revue, Performing Ceals with Celia Foxe, which first opened at The Bonne Crepe and played at various venues in London ending up in 1980 at Raymond Revuebar. Performing Ceals, Fidelis Morgan website Other plays include Seduced at the Royal Court Theatre, and Heaven and Hell at the Traverse Theatre. Imrie appeared with the company in the 1979, 1981 and 1983 seasons at the celebrated Citizens Theatre in Glasgow. In 1984 she played in Alfie with Adam Faith at the Liverpool Playhouse in a production directed by Alan Parker. In 1991 she appeared in The Sea with Dame Judi Dench at the National Theatre in London. Cast of The Sea (1991), Theatricalia website In 2005, after a successful run at the King's Head Theatre, her one woman play Unsuspecting Susan written by Stewart Permutt transferred to 59E59 Theaters in New York. In 2009 she appeared in Plague Over England in the West End, while in the same year she appeared in the world premiere of Robin Soans's Mixed Up North, directed by Max Stafford-Clark. In 2010, she appeared alongside Robin Soans in a production of Sheridan's The Rivals.
In 2005, Imrie won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in playing Miss Babs. In 1995 she played in The Hothouse at the Chichester Festival Theatre with Harold Pinter, 1995: The Hothouse, Chichester Festival Theatre website with the production after transferring to the West End. In 1990 she appeared in Hangover Square at the Lyric Hammersmith with Dudley Sutton, Hangover Square, the Fidelis Morgan website in Drama at Inish (2011) at the Finborough Theatre with Paul O'Grady, Drama at Inish, the Fidelis Morgan website and in her cabaret Laughing Matters Laughing Matters, the Fidelis Morgan website – all adapted and directed by Fidelis Morgan.
In 2010, Imrie played in Hay Fever,Gardner, Lyn. Review of Hay Fever, The Guardian, 30 September 2010 and during the 2011–2012 season she appeared in Noises Off at The Old Vic and the West End, for which performance she was nominated for an Olivier Award. Olivier Awards: full list of nominations, The Daily Telegraph, 15 March 2012 In 2016 Imrie re-united with Glenda Jackson after 41 years since their RSC world tour, playing a "grimly determined Goneril" in King Lear at The Old Vic.Billington, Michael. Review of King Lear, The Guardian, 5 November 2016
Imrie narrated during the ceremonial event held to mark the 75th anniversary of D-day at Portsmouth in 2019.
She appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity in October 2019. Her hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was "A half-burnt candle".
For Big Finish Productions, Imrie has played numerous roles, including Dr Kessika Miles, in the Doctor Who epic Hooklight in 2025, opposite Peter Davison. Before that, she had voiced Madame Tissot in 2016 Doctor Who story Gallery of Ghouls opposite Tom Baker. In the same year, she played Livia in the Gallifrey spin-off series story Enemy Lines. Earlier, in 2013, in another Doctor Who spin-off series entitled Counter Measures, a spin-off of the 1988 television episode Remembrance of the Daleks, she played Dr Elizabeth Bradley in the episode The Fifth Axis. Celia Imrie - IMDb
Her non- Doctor Who Big Finish roles include being co-lead in the Big Finish Original murder mystery series Shilling and Sixpence. Shilling and Sixpence Series 1 She played Clementina Quentinbloom in their production of Jeremiah Bourne in Time. Jeremiah Bourne in Time She was also one of the actors to play Number Two in the Big Finish adaptation of The Prisoner. The Prisoner Volume One
When she was 14, she was admitted to the Royal Waterloo Hospital suffering from anorexia nervosa. Under the care of controversial psychiatrist William Sargant, she was given electroshock and large doses of the anti-psychotic drug Chlorpromazine.
In July 2005, she suffered a pulmonary embolism and was hospitalised for two weeks.
Imrie was featured in the BBC genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are? in October 2012 and discovered that an ancestor on her mother's side was William, Lord Russell, a Whig parliamentarian executed for treason in 1683, after being found guilty of conspiring against Charles II. Imrie's great-great uncle, William Imrie, was a founder of the White Star Line. Imrie is the ten-times-great granddaughter of the infamous Frances Carr, Countess of Somerset.BBC programme Who Do You Think You Are?
In 2013, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Winchester.
Theatre
After appearing as a chorus girl in many a pantomime, Imrie got a job, in 1975, as an Assistant Stage Manager and understudy in the Royal Shakespeare Company with Glenda Jackson playing Hedda Gabler, directed by Trevor Nunn, on a world tour. The art of showing off, The Guardian, 19 March 2005 Also in the company at that time were Patrick Stewart, Timothy West, Peter Eyre, Pam St Clement, Jennie Linden and Fidelis Morgan.
Radio
Imrie's radio work includes parts in BBC Radio 4's No Commitments and Bleak Expectations. In early 2007, she narrated the book Arabella, broadcast over two weeks as the Book at Bedtime. She was the guest on Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 on 13 February 2011. Celia Imrie: Desert Island Discs, BBC Desert Island Discs webpage
Books
Imrie's debut novel Not Quite Nice was published by Bloomsbury in 2015, had six weeks in the Sunday Times Top Ten, was cited by The Times as a 'delicious piece of entertainment', and also reached number 5 in the Apple ibook chart and 8 in Amazon's book chart. Her second novel, Nice Work (If You Can Get It), was published in 2016; and her third, Sail Away, was published in February 2018. Her next work, A Nice Cup of Tea, was published in 2019. Her fifth novel, Orphans of the Storm, was published in 2021.
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
As part of the cast of the 2018 film Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, Imrie achieved her first UK Top 40 single alongside Lily James with a cover of the ABBA song "When I Kissed the Teacher", which reached number 40 in August 2018.
Personal life
Imrie lives in London and in Nice, France. She has a son, Angus Imrie, born in 1994, with the actor Benjamin Whitrow. Angus appears as her on-screen son in Kingdom (2007–2009) and has acted in other productions, having studied drama and performance at the University of Warwick.
Honours and awards
Imrie was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2023 Birthday Honours for services to drama.
Filmography
Film
Television
Jenny "If You Were the Only Girl in the World", "Missing Believed Killed" To the Manor Born Polly "A Touch of Class" Shoestring "The Dangerous Game" Surgery Receptionist "Vive Le Sport" Fiona Patterson TV film Else Queen Marianne Bellshade Various characters Helen Lomax "Root of Evil" Hilary "Alan B'Stard Closes Down the BBC", "May the Best Man Win" Patsy Diehl TV film Carol "We'd Quite Like to Apologise" Jackie "Val De Ree (Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha)" Julia / Spoof TV Ad actress "Staying In" Miss Jewsbury Birdie TV film Davina Wright / Hopjoy Mme Massis Lady Felicity Carey-Holden "The Italian Venus" Corinne Perigo "When the Green Woods Laugh (Parts 1 & 2)" Rachel Bromley Julie Vernon "The Food of Love" Various characters Marijke Dekker "Still Waters" Mrs Botney "Red Card" Joanna Tundish Sissy Malton TV film Vera Hillyard TV film Claire Susan Nunsuch TV film Claudia Bing "Jealous", "Menopause" Elizabeth Clayton "Learning Curve" Duchess of Battersea Kirsty TV film Sister Muriel TV film June Bonney Nadine Cunningham Mrs Miller Lucy Otis TV film Victoria Madison TV film Mrs Calloway "River Rage" Philippa Moorcroft Nightclub owner TV Short Surgeon Sally Voice role Mrs Bennett TV film Lady Gertrude Christina Chance "Above the Law" Various characters Aunt Sadie Ruth Proudhon "Inventions Now" Miss Frazier TV film Louise August "Dark Autumn" Randall & Hopkirk Professor McKern "Revenge of the Bog People" Sylvia Langley "The Shoot" Violet Pearman TV film Kate Lawton Rose Henderson TV film Mrs Meyrick Anna Gromyko Gail Forrester TV film Mrs Begg "Wummin'" Thelma Bailey "Gorgons Wood" Susan Brading "Going Bodmin" Madame Joilet "4.50 From Paddington" Miss Davies TV film 'Aunt' Kathy Cloade "Taken at the Flood" Mary Wilson TV film Gaynor Whiteside "Walk of Faith" Diana Main role; 25 episodes Gloria Millington 18 episodes Lady Glenmire "Christmas Special" Doris Speed TV film Miss Christmasham 1 episode Tabby TV film Grace Rushton 4 episodes Lewis Michelle Marber "The Soul of Genius" Miss Kizlet "The Bells of Saint John" Rowan Holdaway 6 episodes Charlotte 1 episode Lady Daphne Goodwin 1 episode Lillian Haverfield-Wickham 1 episode Mary Xavier 1 episode Main role; 50 episodes Kettle 2 episodes Maggie Pitt 4 episodes Series 3; Main role Recurring role Episode 18: "Woman of Stone" Contestant; 7th Place series one Filming
Theatre
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External links
Categories: 1952 Births, Living People, 20th-century British Actresses, 21st-century British Actresses, Actresses From Guildford, Alumni Of The Guildford School Of Acting, British Film Actresses, British Musical Theatre Actresses, British People Of Scottish Descent, British Television Actresses, British Women Comedians, Clarence Derwent Award Winners, Commanders Of The Order Of The British Empire, Laurence Olivier Award Winners, People Educated At Guildford High School, Wftv Award Winners
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