Best Known For:
Bleak House.
Early-life:
Born Anna Charlotte Martin in Beverley, East Yorkshire, on May 10, 1977. She has an older brother called Adam, and their mother gave up her job as a research scientist to raise them. Their father was the managing director of a pharmaceutical company; he died after a battle with cancer when Anna was 24. After leaving school, she studied history at Liverpool University, then enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
Career:
Martin's TV debut came in an episode of Midsomer Murders, but she first made a mark on the acting world on stage, thanks to an acclaimed performance in the National Theatre's epic, six-hour adaptation of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials during the winter of 2003 and 2004. A year later she won a Bafta for her performance in the BBC's Bleak House; she picked up her second Bafta for Poppy Shakespeare in 2008. In fact, everything Martin touches seems to turn to gold - she's suffered very few flops or misfires in her career so far. On stage she's impressed in the likes of The Entertainer, Cabaret and Measure for Measure, while other TV projects include Freefall, Moonshot, South Riding, The Bletchley Circle and Death Comes to Pemberley (which was partly shot in her home town). Martin has been less active on film, with Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013) and Philomena (2013) the highlights.
Quote:
On period dramas: "I just don't like it: the hair, the make-up, the corsets, the hours in costume. I'd rather have no make-up on and wear an anorak."
Trivia:
When she was a child, Martin wanted to be Whitney Houston.