Julia Sawalha
Biography
Julia Sawalha is an English actress, educated at the Theatre Arts School that formed part of the Italia Conti Academy, which she left at fifteen. Her earliest screen work came in the BBC miniseries Fame Is the Spur, in 1982, followed by a small part in Inspector Morse. Attention came with the teenage comedy drama Press Gang on ITV, a BAFTA winner that ran from 1989 to 1993, and she went on to star in Second Thoughts and its follow-up Faith in the Future. Her best-known role is the strait-laced Saffron, known as Saffy, in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous, played from 1992 to 2012 and reprised for Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie (2016). She was Lydia Bennet in the 1995 Pride and Prejudice, voiced Ginger in Chicken Run (2000), and appeared in Jonathan Creek, Cranford and Lark Rise to Candleford.
58years old
Turns 59 on September 9in 331 days
- Born London
- Star sign: VirgoThe sign runs August 23 to September 22
Movie Career
- Films
- 5
- Career span
- 21 years1995 to 2016
Every film, newest first
- 2016Absolutely Fabulous: The MovieIMDb rating 5.4
- 2000Chicken RunIMDb rating 7.1
- 1999Comic Relief: Doctor Who - The Curse of Fatal DeathIMDb rating 7.9
- 1996Mr. Toad's Wild RideIMDb rating 6.3
- 1995In the Bleak MidwinterIMDb rating 7.2
Genres
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Early training
Sawalha was educated at the Theatre Arts School, an independent school that charged fees and was part of the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. It was then based in Clapham, south London, and she left at fifteen.
Big break
Sawalha came to notice through her lead part in Press Gang, an ITV teenage comedy-drama that ran from 1989 to 1993 and won a BAFTA award.
A role that slipped away
Sawalha voiced lead character Ginger in Chicken Run, then said in 2020 that Aardman Animations meant to recast the part in the sequel because she sounded too old.
Julia Sawalha movies on Netflix
Most often with
Five actors appear in two of them each. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Celia Imrie's page
Joan Collins's page
Joanna Lumley's page
Jane Horrocks's page
Jennifer Saunders's page
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.