Sarah Parish Biography

Sarah Parish (born 7 June 1968) is an English actress.

Parish is known for her work on such TV series as: Pillars of the Earth, Peak Practice, Hearts and Bones, Cutting It, Doctor Who, Mistresses, Merlin, the BBC TV series Atlantis and the ITV medical drama Monroe.

Personal life

Parish was born in Yeovil, Somerset to parents Bill and Thelma; she has a sister Julie and one brother, musician John Parish. She was educated at the local Preston School.

Formerly a resident of Islington, Parish married James Murray on 15 December 2007 in Hampshire, England where they currently reside.

It was announced she was pregnant with their first child on 18 January 2008 and due on Parish's 40th birthday, 7 June 2008. Their daughter Ella-Jayne was born with a heart defect and died at the age of eight months in January 2009. In her memory, Parish and Murray are raising funds for the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Southampton General Hospital.

Parish gave birth to a 2nd daughter, Nell, on 21 November 2009.

Career

After training at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London, her appearance in a cult advert for Manchester-based Boddingtons bitter in 1994 (as Vera, who likes nothing better than "a good rub down with chip fat") led to a series of roles as Northern women, including Dawn Rudge in Peak Practice (1993), Allie Henshall in Cutting It (2002), Annie Naylor in Trust and Natalie Holden in Blackpool (2004)

She starred alongside Debra Messing in the movie The Wedding Date, had a small role in The Holiday with Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Jack Black and Kate Winslet, and appeared as the Empress of the Racnoss in the Christmas 2006 Doctor Who episode "The Runaway Bride". Her most recent appearance was in the one-off drama Recovery. She also starred in the BBC series Shakespeare Retold in which she played Beatrice.

Parish returned as GP Katie Roden in series two of Mistresses which was first shown on BBC One in February 2009. She played Lady Catrina in the BBC television series Merlin.

In November 2009, Parish starred in a short film to promote Somerset, commissioned by inward investment agency Into Somerset.

In 2011, Parish co-starred in ITV's medical drama Monroe alongside James Nesbitt.

Co-stars

• She has frequently co-starred opposite the Scottish actor David Tennant "? in the 2004 musical serial Blackpool; the Tony Marchant drama Recovery and the 2006 Doctor Who Christmas special episode "The Runaway Bride". She has joked that "We're like George and Mildred - in 20 years' time we'll probably be doing a ropey old sitcom in a terraced house in Preston."
• She also has frequently co-starred with Amanda Holden on Hearts and Bones and Cutting It and Damian Lewis on Hearts and Bones and Much Ado About Nothing.

Credits

• Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Big Four 2013
• Atlantis (TV series) 2013
• Hatfields & McCoys (TV miniseries) (Levicy Hatfield) 2012
• Monroe (Jenny Bremner) 2011
• The Pillars of the Earth (Regan Hamleigh) 2010
• Merlin (Lady Catrina or the troll) 2009
• Mistresses (Dr. Katie Roden) 2008
• Sex, the City and Me (Jess Turner) 2007
• Baby Boom (Director) 2007
• Recovery 2007
• Agatha Christie's Marple (Evie Ballantyne) 2006
• The Holiday 2006
• Doctor Who 2006 (The Empress of the Racnoss)
• If I Had You 2006 (Sharon Myres)
• Our Hidden Lives (Maggie Joy Blunt) 2005
• Much Ado About Nothing (Beatrice) 2005
• The Wedding Date (TJ) 2005
• Blackpool (Natalie Holden) 2004
• Trust 2003
• Reversals 2003
• Cutting It (Allie Henshall) 2002
• Hearts and Bones (Amanda Thomas) 2000-2001
• The Vice (Jane) 1999
• Peak Practice (Dawn Rudge) 1993