Lara Pulver

Lara Pulver (born 1 September 1980) is an English actress. She has played Erin Watts in the BBC spy drama Spooks and Irene Adler on BBC's TV adaptation Sherlock. She won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical in the West End's revival of the Broadway musical Gypsy.

Lara Pulver
Born	1 September 1980 (1980-09) (age 44) Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England
Alma mater	Bird College
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2000–present
Spouses	Josh Dallas ​ ​ (m. 2007; div. 2011)​ Raza Jaffrey ​ (m. 2014)​
Children	2

Early life and education

Pulver was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England on 1 September 1980 and grew up in the village of Longfield in Kent.^[1][2] Her father is from a Jewish family; her mother converted to Judaism when they married.^[3][4] She has a sister, Erika, who is four years older and works as a teacher.^[3]

Pulver attended the National Youth Music Theatre between 1994 and 1998, as well as The Liz Burville Dance Centre, Bexley.^[5] In 1997, she began studying at the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts, and graduated in 2000.^[6][7]

Career

Pulver was nominated for the 2008 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the role of Lucille Frank in the first West End production of the musical Parade at the Donmar Warehouse. She reprised the role in the Los Angeles production at the Mark Taper Forum opposite T.R. Knight.

In 2008, Pulver recorded a song for the CD Act One – Songs from the Musicals of Alexander S. Bermange. Pulver joined the cast of the BBC's Robin Hood in 2009 as Isabella, the sister of Guy of Gisbourne.^[8]

In 2010, Pulver joined the cast of the third series of HBO's True Blood as Sookie Stackhouse's fairy godmother, Claudine Crane.^[9]

Pulver played Erin Watts, the new chief of Section D, in the tenth and final series of BBC spy drama Spooks, a role she reprised in the 2015 feature film Spooks: The Greater Good

Pulver played Irene Adler in "A Scandal in Belgravia", the first episode of the second series of Sherlock.^[10] Her appearance caused an "enormous" response,^[11] with the Evening Standard calling the scene where she greets Sherlock Holmes nude "infamous".^[12] To The Telegraph, Pulver called the scene "empowering".^[13] The BBC received over 100 complaints about the footage.^[14]

In 2012 she joined the cast of Da Vinci's Demons as the "seductive and politically-minded" Clarice Orsini, a series regular and wife of Elliot Cowan's character Lorenzo Medici.^[15]

In 2014, she played Louise in a revival of Gypsy at the Chichester Festival Theatre.^[16] The production transferred to the West End in April 2015.^[17] Pulver won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for the same role in the Savoy Theatre production of Gypsy. Louise is actually the title role, as "Louise" becomes the real-life early-20th-century American strip-tease sensation Gypsy Rose Lee, on whose memoirs the musical is based. Pulver's co-star in the Savoy production, Imelda Staunton, won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as the larger-than-life Mama Rose.

Personal life

In 2003, Pulver met American actor Josh Dallas while he was in the UK studying at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. They married in December 2007 in Devon.^[18][19] Dallas confirmed their divorce in an interview on Bob Rivers's radio show on 2 December 2011.^[7]

Pulver began dating fellow Spooks actor Raza Jaffrey in 2012 and the two married on 27 December 2014. They lived in Los Angeles for ten years and have two children.^[20]

Filmography

Film

List of Lara Pulver film credits

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2010	Legacy	Diane Shaw
2011	Language of a Broken Heart	Violet
2014	Edge of Tomorrow	Karen Lord	Non-speaking cameo
2015	A Patch of Fog	Lucy
2015	Spooks: The Greater Good	Erin Watts
2016	Underworld: Blood Wars	Semira
2021	The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf	Tetra	Voice role

Television

List of Lara Pulver television credits

Year	Show	Role	Notes
2009	Robin Hood	Isabella	TV series (8 episodes in Series 3)
2010	The Special Relationship	Intern	TV movie
2010	True Blood	Claudine Crane	TV series (5 episodes)
2011	Spooks	Erin Watts	TV series (main cast in Series 10)
2012, 2014	Sherlock	Irene Adler	"A Scandal in Belgravia" and "The Sign of Three"
2012	Coming Up	Annette	"Camouflage"
2013–2015	Da Vinci's Demons	Clarice Orsini	TV series; main role
2013	Skins: Fire	Victoria	TV series; minor role
2014	Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond	Ann O'Neill	TV series (4 episodes); Main role
2015	Spooks: The Greater Good	Erin Watts	Reprising her role from the series
2016–2017	Quantico	Charlotte Bishop	Episodes: "ODENVY" and "EPICSHELTER"
2017	Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams	Paula	Episode: "Real Life"
2018	The City and the City	Katrynia	TV series
2020	The Alienist: Angel of Darkness	Karen Stratton	TV series
2021	Dota: Dragon's Blood	Princess Mirana	TV series; main voice role
2022	The Split	Kate Pencastle	Main role (series 3)
2022	Pantheon	News Anchor, Olivia	Guest voice role; Episodes: "The Gods Will Not Be Slain", "Olivia & Farhad"
2023	Maternal	Catherine MacDiarmid	TV series; main role[21]

Other

• Game of Thrones (2014; Video Game), as Lady Elissa Forrester
• Sherlock Series By Intouch Games And Slot Factory, as Irene Adler
• Dota 2, as the "Mirana of Nightsilver" persona item, reprising her role from Dragon's Blood

Stage credits

• Parade (Lucille Frank), Donmar Warehouse,^[22] nominated for Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical^[23] and Whatsonstage.com Awards
• Into the Woods (Lucinda), Royal Opera House^[22]
• The Last Five Years (Cathy), Menier Chocolate Factory^[24]
• Honk! (Henrietta), Royal National Theatre (Best New Musical, Laurence Olivier Awards 2000) and national tour
• Miss Saigon (Ellen)
• High Society
• A Chorus Line (Bebe)
• The Darling Buds of May
• The Boy Friend
• Gypsy (Louise)
• Chicago
• Grease
• 42nd Street
• The Wizard of Oz
• (Adverts) Smirnoff Vodka Range – Hatter's Summer Night Dream with Smirnoff
• Uncle Vanya
• Guys and Dolls (Sarah Brown), Royal Albert Hall
• Fiddler on the Roof (Golde), Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

Awards and nominations

Television

List of television awards and nominations received by Lara Pulver

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2012	Critics' Choice Television Award	Best Actress in a Movie/Miniseries	Sherlock	Nominated	[25][26]

Theatre

List of theatre awards and nominations received by Lara Pulver

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2008	Laurence Olivier Award	Best Actress in a Musical	Parade	Nominated	[27]
2016	Laurence Olivier Award	Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical	Gypsy	Won	[28]

References

1. Nicols, Georgia (1 September 2023). "Daily horoscope for September 1, 2023". The Denver Post.
2. de Bertodano, Helena (24 September 2017). "Sherlock's Lara Pulver on her role in Electric Dreams and saying no to going nude". The Sunday Times.
3. "The 'shiksa goddess' who acts kosher". The Jewish Chronicle.
4. Totally Plc. "TotallyJewish.com – Entertainment – Features And Reviews". totallyjewish.com. Archived from the original on 29 September 2015.
5. "NYMT | Whispers". nymt.org.uk. 2012. Archived from the original on 25 June 2012. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
6. "Lara Pulver | Bird College". birdcollege.co.uk. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
7. Jones, Alice (20 April 2013). "The naked truth about Lara Pulver". The Independent. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 20 November 2013.
8. "Bits and Bobs (Vol. 5 1/2): Exclusive 'Robin Hood' scoop from Richard Armitage! | PopWatch". Entertainment Weekly. 2012. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
9. "BBC Radio 1 - Gemma Cairney, True Blood's Lara Pulver In The Place!!!". BBC. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
10. Conlan, Tara (4 January 2012). "Sherlock: BBC will not remove nude scenes for 7pm repeat". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
11. "Pulver: I'd love to return to Sherlock". METRO. 22 January 2013.
12. "Lara Pulver: The infamous 111-second scene with Sherlock that made my". Evening Standard. 15 June 2012.
13. "Nude scenes were empowering, says Sherlock actress Lara Pulver". The Telegraph. 10 January 2012.
14. "Sherlock Star Lara Pulver 'Completely Naked And Empowered', She Reveals". HuffPost. 1 October 2012.
15. Eames, Tom (4 June 2012). "Sherlock's Lara Pulver, Southland's Clifton Collins Jr join new shows". Digital Spy. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
16. Theo Bosanquet & Rosie Bannister (6 March 2014). "Chichester reopens Festival Theatre with Rupert Everett in Amadeus, plus Gypsy and Guys and Dolls". WhatsOnStage.com.
17. "Full West End Gypsy cast announced". WhatsOnStage.com. 2 March 2015.
18. Anderson, Joel. "Lara Pulver's Fabulous Life". 8 November 2011. Fabulous.
19. "Lara Pulver". British Airways. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
20. Lampert, Nicole (29 December 2022). "Lara's next big role? A juggling act she knows only too well". The Jewish Chronicle.
21. "ITV commissions six part medical drama, Maternal". itv.com/presscentre. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
22. "Article about Pulver's casting in Parade". Broadway.com 12 June 2007.
23. "Nominations announcement, 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards". Official London Theatre Guide. Archived from the original on 8 February 2008.
24. "Article about Pulver's casting in The Last 5 Years". Broadway.com 21 June 2006.
25. "2012 // Critics' Choice Television Awards Announces Nominations | Critics Choice Awards". Retrieved 19 February 2021.
26. "2012 // Winners of the 2nd Annual Critics' Choice Television Awards | Critics Choice Awards". Retrieved 19 February 2021.
27. "Olivier Winners 2008". Olivier Awards. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
28. "Olivier Winners 2016". Olivier Awards. Retrieved 19 February 2021.

External links

• Lara Pulver at IMDb