Career: After graduating, she spent the next six years working in repertory companies across the UK, proving her versatility in a wide variety of parts. Her big break came when she gained a place with the National Theatre company in 1982. Staunton quickly landed increasingly larger roles and won numerous awards in the process. Her TV debut was in 1986's The Singing Detective, while her first film, Comrades, was made a year later. Since then, she's appeared in such acclaimed projects as Much Ado About Nothing, Sense and Sensibility, and Shakespeare in Love. She was Oscar-nominated for Vera Drake, and also appeared in period drama Fingersmith and the movie Nanny McPhee, before earning millions of new fans in the guise of Dolores Umbridge as part of the Harry Potter franchise.