Michelle Dockery Biography

Michelle Suzanne Dockery (born 15 December 1981) is a Golden Globe- and Emmy-nominated English actress and singer. She is best known for her role as Lady Mary Crawley in the ITV drama series Downton Abbey. For her role in a play Burnt by the Sun she earned an Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Some of her other notable stage credits are Pygmalion, The Pillars of Society and Hamlet as Ophelia.

Early life

Michelle Suzanne Dockery was born on 15 December 1981 in Rush Green Hospital, Dagenham, Essex. She has two elder sisters, Louise and Joanne. Her father, Michael Francis Dockery, was born at Athlone, Ireland, and worked his way up from driving a van to becoming a surveyor; her mother, Lorraine (née Witton) is from Stepney, East London. Dockery's maternal great-grandmother, Maud Malyon, was born in 1910 in Newham, East London, and was a domestic servant. Malyon was 17 when she married Dockery's great-grandfather, grocer's assistant William Henry Oakman, 18, at West Ham Register Office.

Dockery was educated first at the Chadwell Heath Foundation School (now the Chadwell Heath Academy) in Chadwell Heath, Essex. She was then trained at the Finch Stage School. After her A Levels she enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, graduating in 2004.

Acting career

Theatre

Dockery was a member of the National Youth Theatre, studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where she won the Gold Medal for drama and made her professional debut in His Dark Materials at the Royal National Theatre in 2004. In 2006, she was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award for her performance as Dina Dorf in Pillars of the Community at the National Theatre.

Dockery appeared in Burnt by the Sun at the National Theatre for which she received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She won second prize at the Ian Charleson Awards for her performance as Eliza Doolittle in Peter Hall's production of Pygmalion at the Theatre Royal, Bath, which toured the UK and transferred to The Old Vic in 2008, and for the same production was nominated Best Newcomer at the Evening Standard Awards 2008. In 2010, she played Ophelia in Hamlet at the Crucible Theatre alongside John Simm.

Television

Dockery made her television debut as Betty in Fingersmith in 2005. In 2006, she starred as Susan Sto Helit in a two-part adaptation of Terry Pratchett's novel Hogfather. In 2008, Dockery played Kathryn in Channel 4's The Red Riding Trilogy and played the guest lead of tormented rape victim Gemma Morrison in BBC`s Waking the Dead. In 2009, she appeared in the two-part Cranford Christmas special for the BBC, and starred as the lead character in a modernised BBC adaptation of The Turn of the Screw.

Dockery came to public prominence in 2010 when she played Lady Mary Crawley in Julian Fellowes' series Downton Abbey, the first season of which was screened on ITV between September and November 2010. She was nominated for a Southbank Award in January for Best Breakthrough Performance in a TV drama. A second series of Downton Abbey was shown in 2011, followed by a special Christmas Day episode, with Dockery nominated for an Emmy Award in the category of Best Actress. The show's third series premiered on 16 September 2012 in the UK, and on 6 January 2013 in the US A fourth series has been commissioned for broadcast and began filming in February 2013.

She starred with Charlotte Rampling in a two-part dramatisation of William Boyd's spy thriller Restless on BBC One in December 2012.

Music

Dockery is a jazz singer. She sang at the 50th Anniversary of Ronnie Scott's Jazz club in London and has occasionally sung with Sadie and the Hotheads, a band formed by Elizabeth McGovern, who plays her mother in Downton Abbey. Dockery cites her musical influences as Peggy Lee, Melody Gardot and Billie Holiday in her more melancholy moods.

Filmography

Film and television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2005	Fingersmith	Betty	TV series
2006	Hogfather	Susan/Death of Rats	TV movie
2007	Consent		TV film
	Dalziel and Pascoe	Aimee Hobbs	TV series (2 episodes)
2008	Poppy Shakespeare	Dawn	TV film
	Heartbeat	Sue Padgett	TV series (1 episode: "Take Three Girls")
2009	Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974	Kathryn Taylor	TV film
	Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1983	Kathryn Taylor	TV film
	The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler	Ewa Rozenfeld	TV film
	Waking the Dead	Gemma Morrison	TV series (2 episodes)
	Return to Cranford	Erminia Whyte	TV mini-series (2 episodes)
	The Turn of the Screw	Ann	TV film
2010	Spoiler	Goth Girl	Short
	Shades of Beige	Jodie	Short
	Downton Abbey	Lady Mary Crawley	TV series (25 episodes: 2010"present)
2011	Hanna	False Marissa
2012	Out of Time	Woman	Short
	Henry IV, Parts I and II	Lady Percy	TV film
	Anna Karenina	Princess Myagkaya
	Restless	Ruth Gilmartin	TV miniseries
	American Dad!	Margaret Watkins	TV series (voice)
2013	Non-Stop	Nancy	Post-production

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Venue
2004	His Dark Materials	Jessie	National Theatre
2005	Henry IV, Parts I & II	Carrier	National Theatre
	The UN Inspector	Female activist	National Theatre
	Pillars of the Community	Dina	National Theatre
2007	Dying for It	Kleopatra	Almeida Theatre
	Pygmalion	Eliza Doolittle	UK tour
2008	Uncle Vanya	Yelena	UK tour
	Pygmalion	Eliza Doolittle	Old Vic Theatre
2009	Burnt by the Sun	Maroussia	National Theatre
2010	Hamlet	Ophelia	Crucible Theatre, Sheffield

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result
2005	Ian Charleson Awards	Best Actress	Pillars of Community
2007	Ian Charleson Awards	Best Actress	Pygmalion
2008	Evening Standard Award	Outstanding Newcomer	Pygmalion
2010	Laurence Olivier Award	Best Actress in a Supporting Role	Burnt by the Sun
2011	Southbank Awards	Best Breakthrough Performance in a TV drama	Downton Abbey
	Monte-Carlo Television Festival	Outstanding Actress	Downton Abbey
2012	Critics' Choice Television Award	Best Drama Actress	Downton Abbey
	Glamour Awards	Editor's Special Award
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	Downton Abbey
	Satellite Awards	Satellite Award for Best Actress " Television Series Drama	Downton Abbey
2013	Golden Globe Award	Best Actress " Television Series Drama	Downton Abbey
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series	Downton Abbey
	Screen Actors Guild Award	Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series	Downton Abbey
	Primetime Emmy Awards	Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series	Downton Abbey