Siân Brooke
{{short description|British actress (born 1980)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Siân Brooke
| birth_name = Siân Elizabeth Phillips
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1980}}
| birth_place = {{nowrap|Lichfield, England|}}
| death_date =
| death_place =
| spouse =
| children = 2
| education = Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (BA)
| years_active = 2002–present
}}
Siân Brooke (born Siân Elizabeth Phillips; 1980){{cite web|url=http://search.findmypast.co.uk/results/united-kingdom-records-in-birth-marriage-death-and-parish-records?firstname=siân&lastname=phillips&lastname_variants=true&yearofbirth=1979&yearofbirth_offset=2&keywordsplace=lichfield|title=Results for Birth, Marriage, Death & Parish Records |publisher=Findmypast|accessdate=22 January 2017}} is an English actress. Her television work includes Cape Wrath (2007), Sherlock (2017), Doctor Foster (2017), Good Omens (2019), Guilt (2019), Trying (2020–), House of the Dragon (2022), and Blue Lights (2023–).
Early life and education
Siân Elizabeth Phillips was born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England, in 1980 and is the youngest of three siblings. She took on a stage name to avoid confusion with Welsh actress Siân Phillips, choosing Brooke after an English Civil War general Lord Brooke who was killed at Lichfield.{{cite news|url=http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-01-15/who-plays-sherlocks-euros-holmes|title=Who plays Sherlock's Euros Holmes?|work=Radio Times|accessdate=16 January 2017|last=Fullerton|first=Huw}} She is the daughter of a police officer and a teacher. Her parents are Welsh.{{cite web |title=Revealed: Wales's top 50 single women|url= http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/tm_objectid=14180572&method=full&siteid=50082&page=2&headline=revealed--wales-s-top-50-single-women-name_page.html |author=Whitfield, Lydia |publisher=Wales on Sunday |date=25 April 2004 |accessdate=20 August 2009}} Brooke's early education was at The Friary School in Lichfield.{{cite news|url=http://www.lichfieldmercury.co.uk/sian-s-performances-praised-works-best-british/story-15041681-detail/story.html|title=Sian's performances are praised as she works with the best in British theatre|work=Lichfield Mercury|date=26 January 2012|accessdate=18 January 2017|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131193812/http://www.lichfieldmercury.co.uk/sian-s-performances-praised-works-best-british/story-15041681-detail/story.html|archivedate=31 January 2017|df=dmy-all}} She initially joined the Lichfield Youth Theatre at the age of 11 before becoming a member of the National Youth Theatre and subsequently training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), from where she graduated in 2002.{{cite web|url=https://www.rada.ac.uk/profiles?aos=acting&yr=2002&fn=sian&sn=brooke|title=Sian Brooke|publisher=Royal Academy of Dramatic Art|accessdate=17 January 2017}}
Career
Her acting debut was as Krista in television series Dinotopia in 2002.
Brooke's television credits include A Touch of Frost, Hotel Babylon, Foyle's War, and The Fixer. As a child, she was featured in Strangers in Utah with Adrian Dunbar and Phyllida Law. She also played the lead roles of Laura in All About George and Lori Marcuse in Cape Wrath.
Brooke has lent her voice to the radio dramas Murder on the Homefront, A Pin to See the Peepshow, and Dreaming in Africa.{{cite web|url=http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/45819/company-members/sian-brooke.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110817103333/http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/45819/company-members/sian-brooke.html|title=National Theatre: Company Members: Sian Brooke|archivedate=17 August 2011|publisher=National Theatre}}
Brooke's theatre work includes Harvest, Dying City, Dido Queen of Carthage, In The Club, The Birthday Party, “I’m Not Running” and Absolutely Perhaps. She has also appeared in productions of Poor Beck, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear and Romeo and Juliet, with the Royal Shakespeare Company. From July to August 2008, Brooke played Dorothy Gale in the musical The Wizard of Oz at the Southbank Centre. The production was directed by Jude Kelly. During 2011 at the Almeida Theatre, London, she appeared in Stephen Poliakoff's My City and Neil LaBute's Reasons to be Pretty. From August to October 2015, Brooke played Ophelia alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in the Barbican's production of Hamlet.{{cite news |url=https://www.thestage.co.uk/features/2011/sian-brooke-the-beauty-of-changing-places/ |title=Sian Brooke: The beauty of changing places |last=Trueman |first=Matt |date=18 November 2011|work=The Stage|access-date=12 January 2012}}{{cite news|url=http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/34271/reasons-to-be-pretty|title=Reviews: Reasons To Be Pretty|last=Sierz|first=Aleks|date=18 November 2011|work=The Stage|access-date=12 January 2012}}
In 2017, Brooke starred in the fourth series of the television crime drama Sherlock as Sherlock Holmes' secret sister, Eurus. She initially auditioned for several characters in the show before the showrunners told Brooke that all the characters were one, Eurus, who would be a master of disguise.{{cite news|url=http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-01-15/sian-brooke-auditioned-several-times-for-sherlock-after-being-told-that-each-of-euruss-disguises-were-separate-roles|title=Sian Brooke auditioned several times for Sherlock after being told that each of Eurus's disguises were separate roles|work=Radio Times|access-date=17 January 2017|last=Jones|first=Paul}} Michael Hogan writing for The Daily Telegraph in his review of the third episode of the series commented that the role was "a star-making turn from Siân Brooke".{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/sherlock-episode-3-final-problem-review-exhilarating-thrill/|title=Sherlock episode 3: The Final Problem, review: 'an exhilarating thrill-ride'|work=The Daily Telegraph|date=17 January 2017|access-date=17 January 2017|last=Hogan|first=Michael}} Later in the year, she appeared with Sheridan Smith and Gemma Whelan in the BBC miniseries The Moorside, based on the kidnapping of Shannon Matthews.{{cite news|url=http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2017-02-08/meet-the-cast-of-the-moorside-2|title=Meet the cast of The Moorside|work=Radio Times|access-date=8 February 2017}} She starred as Karen in the first two series of Apple TV series Trying, which has been renewed for a third series{{cite news |title=Apple Renews British Comedy 'Trying' Ahead Of Season 2 Premiere On May 14 |last=Kanter |first=Jake |date=March 24, 2021 |work=Deadline Hollywood |url=https://deadline.com/2021/03/apple-renews-trying-season-2-rafe-spall-esther-smith-1234720767/ |access-date=February 13, 2022}}
Her lead role performance in the 2023-24 BBC series Blue Lights as Grace Ellis, a mother of a teenager who made the decision in her 40s to leave her job as a social worker to join the Police Service of Northern Ireland, has been critically acclaimed.{{Cite news |last=Ryan |first=Aine |date=13 May 2024 |title=The Guide-Critic's View-Blue Lights |work=The Sydney Morning Herald |pages=}}
Personal life
Brooke is married and has two children.{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118225110/https://www.rada.ac.uk/rada_files/alumni_enewsletter/sian_brooke.pdf|archive-date=18 January 2017|url=https://www.rada.ac.uk/rada_files/alumni_enewsletter/siân_brooke.pdf|title=Sian Brooke on Hamlet, Parenthood and her studies at RADA|publisher=Royal Academy of Dramatic Art|accessdate=17 January 2017|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/tv/sherlock/46505/sherlock-series-4-sian-brooke-on-keeping-her-role-secret|title=Sherlock series 4: Sian Brooke on keeping her role secret|publisher=Den of Geek|date=13 January 2017|last=Mellor|first=Louisa}} She is an ambassador for the climate change adaptation charity The Glacier Trust.{{Cite web|url=http://theglaciertrust.org/blog/sianbrooke|title=Siân Brooke joins The Glacier Trust|website=The Glacier Trust|date=3 November 2017 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-26}}
Filmography
= Television =
= Film =
class="wikitable plainrowheaders"
! scope="col" | Year(s) ! scope="col" | Title ! scope="col" | Role ! scope="col" | {{abbr|Ref(s)|Reference(s)}} |
2019
!scope="row"|Radioactive |
2020
|Body of water |Stephanie |
= Stage =
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brooke, Siân}}
Category:Actors from Lichfield
Category:Actresses from Staffordshire
Category:English people of Welsh descent
Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Category:British television actresses
Category:British stage actresses
Category:British musical theatre actresses
Category:British radio actresses
Category:British Shakespearean actresses
Category:Royal Shakespeare Company members
Category:21st-century English actresses