Lesley Manville
Personal details
  • Born:
    • Birthday: 1956-03-12
    • Born Place: Brighton, England, UK
  • Also Known As:

    Lesley Ann Manville, Леслі Менвілл, 莱丝利·曼维尔 饰, لزلی منویل

Lesley Manville

Lesley Ann Manville CBE is an acclaimed and highly versatile English actress, born on March 12, 1956, in Brighton, Sussex. Known for her deeply committed and often searing performances across stage, television, and film, Manville began her career as a teenager after training at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. She is particularly celebrated for her decades-long creative partnership with director Mike Leigh, starring in seven of his films, including Oscar-nominated works like Secrets & Lies (1996), Vera Drake (2004), and her BAFTA-nominated lead role as the deeply lonely Mary in Another Year (2010). Her career reached new critical heights with her performance as Cyril Woodcock in Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread (2017), which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. On television, Manville is widely recognized for her BAFTA-winning and BAFTA-nominated performances as Cathy in the sitcom Mum (2016–2019) and for her portrayal of the witty and complex Princess Margaret in the final two seasons of the Netflix historical drama The Crown, a role for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination. Other notable screen roles include Flittle in the Maleficent films, the titular character in Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022), and Mrs. Wilson in the murder-mystery series Magpie Murders. A prodigious theatre actress, she is a two-time winner of the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress for her roles in Ghosts and Oedipus. Appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2015, she was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2021 for her services to drama and charity. She is set to appear in the upcoming film Cold Storage (2026), alongside Liam Neeson.

Person History