Keeley Hawes

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Keeley Clare Julia Hawes (born 10 February 1976) is an English actress. She is best known for playing Alex Drake on the British television series Ashes to Ashes and for voicing Lara Croft in several Tomb Raider video games.

Hawes is also known for her roles as Kitty Butler in Tipping the Velvet, Zoe Reynolds in Spooks (2002-2004), Lady Agnes in the 2010 reboot of Upstairs, Downstairs, Detective Inspector Lindsay Denton in the second and third series of Line of Duty (2014-2016), as a mother in search of her abducted child in the BBC series The Missing, and as Louisa Durrell in the ITV series The Durrells.

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Early life

Hawes was born in Marylebone, London, the daughter of a cab driver. She was trained at the Sylvia Young Theatre School, which included speech and drama training. She left home at the age of 17, and while doing work experience at Cosmopolitan she was approached on the street by a modelling scout and signed up by Select Model Management.

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Career

1990s-2001: Early roles

Early in her career, Hawes featured in at least four music videos, for the singles "Saturday Night" by Suede, "Marvellous" by The Lightning Seeds, "Come Around" by The Mutton Birds, and "She's a Star" by James. She first came into the public eye in the 1990s, having supporting roles in Troublemakers, Dennis Potter's Karaoke (1995), Heartbeat (1995), The Beggar Bride (1997), and as the young Diana Dors in the biopic The Blonde Bombshell (1999).

Hawes appeared in several BBC adaptations of classic and modern literature, including Our Mutual Friend (1998), Wives and Daughters (1999), Tipping the Velvet (2002).

2002-2014: Television breakthrough

From 2002 to 2004, she appeared as Zoe Reynolds in the spy drama series Spooks. Among the co-stars was her future husband Matthew Macfadyen. In 2003, she appeared in the BBC's re-telling of The Canterbury Tales. From 2006 to 2007, she appeared as Rosie in the British comedy The Vicar of Dibley. She was also cast as Jane in the 2007 comedy Death at a Funeral. In February 2006, it was revealed that Hawes had replaced Jonell Elliott as the voice of Lara Croft. She voiced the role in Tomb Raider: Legend, reprising her role in the 2007 remake of the original Tomb Raider game, Tomb Raider: Anniversary, and again in 2008's Tomb Raider: Underworld. She has also recorded her lines for the arcade-style Tomb Raider game Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, released in 2010. She returned to voice Lara again in Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light sequel Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris, released in 2014.

In 2007, Hawes was cast as Alex Drake in Ashes to Ashes, the spin-off from the hit BBC series Life on Mars. It told the story of a female police officer in service with London's Metropolitan Police, who, after being shot in 2008, inexplicably regains consciousness in 1981, having assimilated Sam Tyler's fantasies after being imprisoned in a coma. The series, broadcast in 2008, follows her fighting to wake up from the world of 1981 so she can get back to the present day and save her daughter. She was awarded the Best UK Television Actress Award in 2008 by the Glamour Awards for her role. In September 2009, Hawes filmed the final series. The finale aired in May and gained over seven million viewers.

In April 2008, Hawes began filming the BBC drama Mutual Friends, which aired later that year. She appeared in the BAFTA award winning That Mitchell and Webb Look, and in 2010, was a guest on the comedy panel show Would I Lie to You?. In 2009, she portrayed Det Supt Martha Lawson in a six-episode ITV series, Identity. In December 2010, she starred as Lady Agnes Holland in the three-episode relaunch of Upstairs, Downstairs.

On 25 April 2011, Hawes narrated the documentary Kate and William: A Royal Love Story on BBC One, prior to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. On 20 June 2011, she narrated the ITV1 documentary Four of a Kind as part of ITV's Extraordinary Families season. She appeared as Catherine Mundi in the fantasy adventure film Mariah Mundi and the Midas Box.

In July 2017, Hawes appeared in a television advert promoting the 'All new Ford Fiesta'.

Critical recognition

In 2014, she starred as Detective Inspector Lindsay Denton in the second series of the BBC Two drama Line of Duty, giving what The Daily Telegraph described as "the performance of 2014". In the autumn of 2014, she guest-starred as Ms. Delphox in the eighth series of Doctor Who.

Five Keeley Hawes Roles You Can Watch Before She's on 'Doctor Who ...

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Personal life

Hawes married the DJ and cartoonist Spencer McCallum in December 2001, when their son was almost two years old. They divorced in 2004. In November 2004, Hawes married Matthew Macfadyen, her Spooks co-star. Their first child, a daughter, was born in December of that year. Their second child, a son, was born in September 2006.

In 2002, after working on the television adaptation of Tipping the Velvet, Hawes was quoted in interviews with Diva magazine and Radio Times as saying that she is bisexual. Later, in a Daily Mail article, she explained that "what I actually said was that everybody is probably perfectly capable of finding somebody of the same sex attractive, but I certainly haven't had any lesbian relationships", and in Radio Times, she said "maybe what I meant is that everyone is a little bit bisexual ... I've been married twice, both times to men".

Keeley Hawes isn't worried about joining The Missing after ...

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Philanthropy

Hawes began working with UNICEF in 2012; in 2017 she became a UNICEF ambassador. Her main focus has been visiting children and families living in the Za'atari refugee camp and host communities in Amman. Many of these children and families had fled their homes in Syria due to the ongoing conflict.

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Filmography

Film

Television

Stage

Video games