Jessica Hynes
British actress and writer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
British actress and writer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jessica Hynes (née Stevenson; a British actress, director and writer. Known professionally as Jessica Stevenson until 2007, she was one of the creators, writers and stars of the British sitcom Spaced.
Hynes has been nominated for a Tony, a Laurence Olivier Award, five BAFTAs (winning two) and three British Comedy Awards (winning two).
Hynes was born in Lewisham, London, and grew up in Brighton, where she attended St Luke's Infant and Junior Schools and Dorothy Stringer High School.[1] After her parents split up, she was raised by her mother. She moved back to London as a young adult.[2] Her maternal grandmother came from the village of Llanelian, north Wales, where her uncle also ran a farm. Her mother is a fluent Welsh speaker who later moved back to north Wales. In 2023, Hynes took part in the S4C series Iaith ar Daith where she began to learn the Welsh language; she cited being able to speak Welsh to her mother as a reason why she wanted to take part in the programme.[3]
As a teenager, Hynes was a member of the National Youth Theatre company, and made her stage début with the company in Lionel Bart's Blitz! in 1990.[4] In 1992–1993, she played a season at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds. In the same year, she appeared in Peter Greenaway's 1993 film The Baby of Mâcon, playing the first midwife. In 1994, Hynes appeared as an uncredited extra in the first episode of The Day Today in the Attitudes Night segment, a parody of the UK's changing attitudes.
Early in her career, Hynes teamed up with future Spaced co-star Katy Carmichael in a comedy double-act called the Liz Hurleys, appeared in two productions at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre, and acted for television shows including Staying Alive, Six Pairs of Pants, (Un)natural Acts, and Asylum (on which the Spaced team of Stevenson, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright first assembled). She guest starred in the first episode of Midsomer Murders in 1997. From 1998 to 2000, she played the supporting role of Cheryl in the hit sitcom The Royle Family; she reprised the role for special episodes in 2006, 2009 and 2010. In 1999, she co-wrote and starred in Spaced.
Hynes' London theatre début was in April 2002, playing the tough ex-prisoner "Bolla" in Jez Butterworth's The Night Heron at the Royal Court.[5] In 2004, she played a minor part as Yvonne in horror comedy Shaun of the Dead, again working with Pegg and Wright. In the same year, she was also cast as Magda, friend of the titular character, in the Hollywood sequel Bridget Jones' Diary 2, also called Bridget Jones' Diary: The Edge of Reason. In 2005, Hynes took the lead role in the BBC One sitcom According to Bex (which she would later come to regret),[6] and had a starring role in British comedy Confetti alongside Jimmy Carr, Martin Freeman and Mark Heap.
In early 2007, Hynes took a lead role in the film Magicians, starring alongside comic duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb. She provided the voice of Mafalda Hopkirk in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. She played Joan Redfern in the 2007 Doctor Who episodes "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood". She then appeared in part two of the story "The End of Time", playing a character named Verity Newman, who is Joan's great-granddaughter.[7] Hynes appeared in Big Finish's Eighth Doctor audio adventure "Invaders from Mars", with her Spaced colleague Simon Pegg. She starred in Son of Rambow (credited as Jessica Stevenson), playing Mary Proudfoot opposite the star of the film, Bill Milner. In November 2007, BBC One released Learners, a comedy drama television movie which Hynes starred in and wrote.[8]
Hynes co-wrote the pilot Phoo Action, based on the cartoons of Jamie Hewlett, which was transmitted on BBC Three in early 2008.[9] In the same year, she appeared in the film Faintheart and in a revival of Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests at the Old Vic. In 2009 she made her Broadway début in the play's transfer[10] and was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance. Hynes stated that she planned to pursue a solo career as a stand-up comedian[11] and was working on a children's book, Ants in the Marmalade.[12] Later that year, she returned to the Royal Court in The Priory, a new play by Michael Wynne.[13]
Hynes appeared as a "right-on" PR person, Siobhan Sharpe, in the London Olympics centred satire Twenty Twelve, of which the first series screened on BBC Four in 2011, moving to BBC Two in spring 2012. A further series was screened in July 2012. She reprised the role in the 2014 series W1A for which she won a BAFTA. In October 2012, she released a duet with singer Anthony Strong of Slim Gaillard's "Laughing in Rhythm". The following month, she appeared in the film Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger, in which she plays competition host Angel Matthews.[14] In December 2012 she appeared with co-star Hugh Bonneville in World's Most Dangerous Roads, travelling through Georgia.
In 2017, Hynes played the role of a medieval knight in the revival series of The Crystal Maze and Emmeline Pankhurst in the UK take of Drunk History. In the same year, she directed her first feature film, The Fight, produced by Noel Clarke and Jason Maza. In 2018, she played the role of a mother in the BBC Four programme There She Goes. She stars alongside David Tennant, raising a daughter with a severe learning disability. It is based on the real life of writer Shaun Pye, whose daughter was born with a chromosomal disorder.[15] Also in 2018, she played the character of ‘Marv’ in the online series Jack and Dean of All Trades which ran for two seasons on Fullscreen and later the Jack and Dean YouTube channel following the closure of Fullscreen's video on-demand service. The following year in 2019, she starred in the BBC and HBO production Years and Years.
Hynes is married to Adam Hynes, a sculptor. The couple have been together since they were 18 years old, but only married in 2002, when she officially changed her surname – including for screen credits from her birth surname of Stevenson.[6][2] They have three children together, and live in Folkestone, Kent.[2][16] Until 2012, Hynes lived between London and San Francisco.[2]
She has one sibling, sister Zoe, who works in fashion.[2]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | The House of Eliott | Charlotte Parker | Guest role, series 3, episode 1 |
| 1995 | Six Pairs of Pants | Various characters | |
| Tears Before Bedtime | Maggie | ||
| Crown Prosecutor | Jackie South | ||
| 1996 | Mash and Peas | Various roles | |
| Asylum | Martha & Nurse McFadden | ||
| 1996–1997 | Staying Alive | Alice Timpson | |
| 1997 | Midsomer Murders | Judith Lessiter | Episode: "The Killings at Badger's Drift" |
| Armstrong and Miller | Various roles | Series 2, episode 1 | |
| Harry Enfield and Chums | Episode: "Harry Enfield and His Yule Log Chums" | ||
| 1998 | Unnatural Acts | Various roles | Main cast |
| Alexei Sayle’s Merry-Go-Round | Alice, the Ayatollah's Assistant | Episode 1 | |
| 1998–2010 | The Royle Family | Cheryl Carroll | Recurring role |
| 1999 | People Like Us | Sarah | Episode: "The Estate Agent" |
| 1999–2001 | Spaced | Daisy Steiner | Also co-wrote with Simon Pegg |
| 2001 | Randall & Hopkirk | Felia Siderova | Episodes: "Mental Apparition Disorder", "Drop Dead" |
| Bob & Rose | Holly Vance | ||
| Comedy Lab | Wife | Episode: "Knife & Wife" | |
| 2002 | Dick Whittington | The Good Fairy | Television film |
| Black Books | Eva | Episode: "Hello Sun" | |
| 2005 | According to Bex | Rebecca 'Bex' Atwell | |
| 2006 | Pinochet in Suburbia | Police Guard | Television film |
| The Secret Policeman's Ball | Mrs. Peacock | Recording of staged show | |
| QI | Herself | Episode: "Domesticity" | |
| Agatha Christie's Marple | Aimee Griffith | Episode: "The Moving Finger" | |
| 2007 | Doctor Who | Nurse Joan Redfern | Episodes: "Human Nature", "The Family of Blood" |
| Learners | Beverly | Television film | |
| Never Mind the Buzzcocks | Herself | Series 21, episode 1 | |
| 2010 | Doctor Who | Verity Newman | Episode: "The End of Time, Part Two" |
| Lizzie and Sarah | Various roles | Television pilot | |
| 2011–2012 | Twenty Twelve | Siobhan Sharpe | Main cast, won RTS Best Comedy Performance award |
| 2011 | Skins | Crystal | Episode: "Everyone" |
| The Hour | Jane Kish | Episode 4 | |
| 2012 | One Night | Carol | |
| World's Most Dangerous Roads | Herself | Episode 2 | |
| 2013 | Blandings | Daphne Littlewood | |
| Up the Women | Margaret | Also writer | |
| Crackanory | Storyteller | Read "My Former Self" by Holly Walsh | |
| 2014 | Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled | Herself | Episode 2 |
| 2014–2017 | W1A | Siobhan Sharpe | |
| 2015 | Celebrity Squares | Herself | Series 2, episode 2 |
| 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown | Herself | ||
| 2016 | The Keith Lemon Sketch Show | Manager | Series 2: "The Cartoon Job Centre" sketch |
| Jack and Dean of All Trades | Marv | Web series | |
| Hooten & the Lady | Ella Bond | ||
| 2017 | The Crystal Maze | The Knight | |
| 2018–2020, 2023 | There She Goes | Emily Yates | Main cast |
| 2019 | Years and Years | Edith Lyons | |
| 2022 | Mood | Laura | |
| The Witchfinder[17] | Old Myers | ||
| Inside No. 9 | Helen | Episode: “A Random Act of Kindness” | |
| Life After Life | Mrs. Glover | [18] | |
| Am I Being Unreasonable? | Becca | ||
| Outsiders | Herself | Main cast (Series 2) | |
| 2023 | The Great Stand Up to Cancer Bake Off | Herself / Contestant | Star Baker[19] |
| 2024 | The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin | The Reddlehag | |
| The Franchise | Steph | Main cast, pilot episode completed | |
| TBA | Miss Austen | Mary | In-production[20] |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Swing Kids | Helga | Credited as Jessica Stevenson |
| The Baby of Mâcon | The First Midwife | Credited as Jessica Stevenson | |
| 2000 | Born Romantic | Libby | Credited as Jessica Stevenson |
| 2002 | Tomorrow La Scala! | Victoria | Credited as Jessica Stevenson |
| Pure | Paramedic | Credited as Jessica Stevenson | |
| 2004 | Shaun of the Dead | Yvonne | Credited as Jessica Stevenson |
| Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason | Magda | Credited as Jessica Stevenson | |
| 2006 | Confetti | Sam | Credited as Jessica Stevenson |
| 2007 | Four Last Songs | Miranda | Credited as Jessica Stevenson |
| Son of Rambow | Mary | Credited as Jessica Stevenson | |
| Magicians | Linda | Credited as Jessica Stevenson | |
| Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | Mafalda Hopkirk | Voice only Credited as Jessica Stevenson | |
| 2008 | Faintheart | Cathy | |
| 2010 | Burke and Hare | Lucky | |
| 2012 | Nativity 2: Danger in the Manger | Angel Matthews | |
| 2014 | Pudsey: The Movie | Gail | |
| 2016 | Swallows and Amazons | Mrs Jackson | |
| Bridget Jones's Baby | Magda | ||
| 2017 | The Fight | Tina | Also writer/director |
| Paddington 2 | Miss Kitts | ||
| 2018 | Alright Now | Sara | |
| Nativity Rocks! | Angel Matthews | ||
| 2020 | Roald & Beatrix: The Tail of the Curious Mouse | Sofie Dahl | TV film |
| 2024 | Seize Them! | Leofwine | [21] |
| TBA | Death of a Unicorn | Post-production[22] |
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