Best Known For:
Playing Jane Cobden in Ripper Street.
Early-life:
Born in Liverpool in 1980. Leanne studied at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts before moving to London. Here, she worked as a waitress and a shop assistant before making her TV debut in Casualty in 2004.
Career:
Best has appeared in such TV series as Doctors, Shetland, New Tricks, Line of Duty, Fortitude, Ripper Street and Cold Feet. She played the titular role in The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death (2014), as well as Min Sakul in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) and Rose Deeks in TV film Babs (2017). She has made a number of stage appearances, particularly in Liverpool, in such plays as Macbeth, A Streetcar Named Desire and Educating Rita.
Quote:
'It was never a novel idea to me that women were strong, capable and grounded. You know, sometimes the goddess strews flowers and sometimes she has a flaming torch.'
Trivia:
She trained as an athlete during her teen years and ran competitively for England at 16.