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Julie Hesmondhalgh
English actress and narrator (born 1970) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Julie Claire Hesmondhalgh (/ˈhɛzməndhælʃ/ HEZ-mənd-halsh;[1][2]) is an English actress and narrator. She is known for her role as Hayley Cropper in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street between 1998 and 2014. For this role she won "Best Serial Drama Performance" at the 2014 National Television Awards and "Best Actress" at the 2014 British Soap Awards.
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Hesmondhalgh's other regular television roles include Cucumber (2015), Happy Valley (2016), Broadchurch (2017) and The Pact (2021). Her stage credits include God Bless the Child at the Royal Court Theatre in London (2014), and Wit at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (2016).
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Early life and education
Julie Claire Hesmondhalgh[3] was born in Accrington, Lancashire. She applied to drama school aged 18, and studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art from 1988[4] to 1991.[citation needed]
Upon finishing her training, Hesmondhalgh was a part of Arts Threshold, a small independent theatre in London, for several years, and worked with Rufus Norris in his directorial debut.[citation needed]
In the 1990s she appeared in such television dramas as The Bill,[5][better source needed] Catherine Cookson's The Dwelling Place,[6][better source needed] and in the Victoria Wood comedic television movie Pat and Margaret.[7]
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Career
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Television
In the 1990s, Hesmondhalgh appeared in such television dramas as The Bill,[8][better source needed] Catherine Cookson's The Dwelling Place,[9][better source needed] and in the Victoria Wood comedic television movie Pat and Margaret.[10]
She is best known for playing Hayley Cropper in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.[11] Making her debut appearance on the show in January 1998, she played the first transgender character in a British soap opera.[12] She took maternity leave from the soap between 2000 and 2001 and later decided to take another break for a year in order to spend more time with her family, leaving in October 2007 and returning in 17 November 2008.[citation needed]
Hesmondhalgh's character Hayley was involved in high-profile storylines, including one concerning a gender transition, and a hostage storyline in the Underworld factory in which Hayley and Carla Connor (Alison King) were kidnapped, bound and gagged by rogue businessman Tony Gordon, who intended to murder them. They escaped unharmed, although Tony was killed in the ensuing explosion.[citation needed] On 11 January 2013, ITV announced that Hesmondhalgh would be leaving Coronation Street in January 2014 after 15 years on the show, and that her character Hayley was to leave in a controversial right-to-die storyline, following a battle with pancreatic cancer.[13] Hesmondhalgh filmed her final scenes on 18 November 2013; they were broadcast on 22 January 2014, the night she won a National Television Award for Best Performance in a Serial Drama, which she shared with her longtime co-star, David Neilson.[citation needed] Over 10 million viewers tuned in to Hayley's final episode, in which she ended her life. She worked with pancreatic cancer charities to raise awareness of the disease, and was involved in a petition and attended a parliamentary debate on the subject in 2014.[citation needed]
On 24 December 2011, Hesmondhalgh appeared on ITV's The Cube, winning £20,000 for her Accrington-based anti-poverty charity, Maundy Relief.[citation needed]
From 22 January 2015, she played the role of Cleo Whitaker in the Channel 4 drama series Cucumber, written by Russell T Davies.[14] She also appeared in the BBC Four film Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster, a television film about the murder of Sophie Lancaster. Hesmondhalgh played the role of Sophie's mother, Sylvia Lancaster, a role which she previously portrayed on stage. Hesmondhalgh was friends with Sylvia Lancaster is a former patron of the Sophie Lancaster Foundation. In 2015, Hesmondhalgh won a Royal Television Society Award for Best Female Actor in a Drama for her role as Sylvia.[citation needed]
Also in 2015, Hesmondhalgh appeared in an episode of the BBC drama Moving On, with Shane Richie and John Thomson, as well as one episode of Inside No. 9, written by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith.[citation needed]
In 2016, Hesmondhalgh joined the cast of acclaimed drama thriller Happy Valley for its second series on BBC One. She was offered the role by creator, writer and executive producer Sally Wainwright. Hesmondhalgh's character Amanda Wadsworth is a midwife and working mother from Yorkshire who has a fraught relationship with her husband, John (Kevin Doyle).[15]
In 2017, Hesmondhalgh played the role of rape victim Trish in the third and final series of Broadchurch on ITV.[16]
She appeared as a guest star in the Doctor Who episode "Kerblam!".[17]
In 2019, Hesmondhalgh played Amanda in the first episode of the final season of Channel 4's Catastrophe with Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan.[18] She appeared in the six-part ITV comedy drama The Trouble with Maggie Cole, with Dawn French, in 2020.[19] Also in 2020, Hesmondhalgh played Heather in the third series of The A Word.[citation needed]
In May 2021, Hesmondhalgh played Nancy in the BBC1 series The Pact, alongside Laura Fraser, Rakie Ayola, Eiry Thomas, Aneurin Barnard and Jason Hughes. The series, set in Wales, was written by Pete McTighe.[20][21]
In 2021, Hesmondhalgh began narrating the revival of The Weakest Link, taking over from Jon Briggs.[22]
In January 2024, she starred as Suzanne Sercombe, wife of subpostmaster Alan Bates, the main character in the ITV1 drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office, which was based on true events surrounding the British Post Office scandal.[23][24]
Stage
On finishing her training in the 1990s, Hesmondhalgh was a part of Arts Threshold, a small independent theatre in London, for several years, and worked with Rufus Norris in his directorial debut.[citation needed]
From 19–29 September 2012, Hesmondhalgh appeared at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, portraying Sylvia Lancaster in Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster opposite Rachel Austin. The play was based on the real-life story of Sylvia's late daughter, Sophie Lancaster. Hesmondhalgh won a Manchester Theatre Award for Best Studio Performance in 2013.[25]
On 23 January 2014, she returned to the Royal Exchange Theatre for her first role since leaving Coronation Street, in the Simon Stephens play Blindsided, which ran until 15 February that year. From 12 November to 20 December 2014, she appeared in God Bless The Child at the Royal Court Theatre in London, directed by Vicky Featherstone, playing Mrs Bradley, with Amanda Abbington.[citation needed]
In January 2016, she played Vivian Bearing, an American Professor of Poetry dying of ovarian cancer, in Margaret Edson's Wit at The Royal Exchange main stage, directed by Raz Shaw, for which she was nominated for a TMA and won a Manchester Theatre Award for Best Actress.[26]
On 30 April 2017, Hesmondhalgh starred in a one-off performance at the Royal Court Theatre, of Lemn Sissay's The Report, directed by John E. McGrath.[27]
In February 2018, she starred as Renee in The Almighty Sometimes by Kendall Feaver. It was directed by Katy Rudd at the Royal Exchange.[28]
In February 2019, she performed the title role in Mother Courage and Her Children by Bertolt Brecht, adapted by Anna Jordan. It was directed by Amy Hodge at the Royal Exchange, Manchester.[29]
Writing and other activities
In June 2015, Hesmondhalgh performed a script-in-hand scratch performance of her first one-woman play, These I Love, at Gulliver's in Manchester.[citation needed]
In 2019 Methuen Drama published her Working Diary as part of their Theatre Makers series.[30]
She is a founder member of a Manchester-based grassroots theatre collective creating work about social issues, Take Back, which she runs with Rebekah Harrison and Grant Archer, and to which she has contributed as a writer and actor.[26]
She is also a member of The Gap collective, a writing company in Manchester. She is a supporter of Arts Emergency and a mentor with the National Youth Theatre.[citation needed]
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Activism and fundraising
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Hesmondhalgh is a Labour Party member.[31] In August 2015, she endorsed Jeremy Corbyn's campaign in the Labour Party leadership election. She tweeted: "Proudly supporting Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour leadership contest."[32] She campaigned for Corbyn as party leader in the 2017 UK general election.[31] In May 2017, speaking at Labour's general election campaign launch in Manchester, she said: "I realised the Labour party and its core values would finally be in line with my own deeply held socialist beliefs about equality, justice and peace."[33]
On 1 May 2013, Hesmondhalgh appeared on ITV game show All Star Mr & Mrs with husband Ian, and won £20,000 for Maundy Relief.[34]
Hesmondhalgh was awarded the Freedom of Hyndburn in 2015.[35] She was also made an honorary life member of Bolton Socialist Club for her "outstanding contribution to socialism in 2015.[36][37]
Hesmondhalgh is a patron of the following organisations: Trans Media Watch,[38] Maundy Relief, Marple Drama, WAST, Manchester People's Assembly, Reuben's Retreat, The Alex Williams Believe and Achieve Trust, and The Sophie Lancaster Foundation (for whom she and Ian held a creative writing competition in schools across the North West in 2011). The latter organisation was set up following the murder of Sophie Lancaster.[citation needed]
In 2019, she set up the group 500 Acts of Kindness,[39] a fundraising community in which 500 members donate a pound a week to give to an individual, group, family or organisation in need.[citation needed]
In 2025, she was granted honorary lifetime membership to Equity following her efforts to save Oldham Coliseum from being demolished.[40][41]
Filmography
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Awards and nominations
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References
External links
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