Multi award-winning theatre, movie and TV actress, Lesley Manville is an English actress, known for her frequent appearances in Mike Leigh movies. Although she made her big-screen debut in 1985 with Mike Newell`s Dance with a Stranger, Manville started acting on TV shows as early as 1974 in the British comedy-drama, Village Hall. In a career spanning more than four decades, Manville has starred in movies like Sammy and Rosie Get Laid (1987), High Hopes (1988), Secrets & Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999), Vera Drake (2004), A Christmas Carol (2009), Womb (2010), A Five Star Life (2013), Romeo & Juliet (2013), Mr. Turner (2014), Maleficent (2014) and Hampstead (2017). On Television, she has acted in shows like Tears Before Bedtime (1995), Holding On (1997), Real Women (1998-1999), The Cazalets (2001), Cranford (2007-2010), Fleming (2014), River (2015), Mum (2016- ) and Harlots (2017- ). Manville has also made stage appearances in plays like As You Like It (1985), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (1986), His Dark Materials (2005), The Alchemist (2006), All About My Mother (2007), Six Degrees of Separation (2010), Ghosts (2013) and Long Day`s Journey into Night (2016).

In 2018 Manville starred alongside Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, Camilla Rutherford and Brian Gleeson in Paul Thomas Anderson`s Phantom Thread. Her first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress came with the 2018 movie. Manville`s has won the London Film Critics Circle Award for British Actress of the Year twice, in 2002 for All or Nothing and in 2010 for Another Year. She was also nominated at the BAFTA Awards for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her performance in Another Year (2010) and Phantom Thread (2018). In July 2020, Manville portrayed Princess Margaret in seasons five and six of the Netflix series The Crown. She then featured in Ordinary Love (2020). Manville was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to drama and charity.