Maxine Peake
Biography
Maxine Peake is an English actress and narrator. Born in Westhoughton in 1974, she began acting with youth theaters in Bolton and later trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She became known as Twinkle in the BBC One sitcom dinnerladies from 1998 to 2000 and as Veronica Ball in Channel 4's Shameless from 2004 to 2007. She led the BBC legal drama Silk as Martha Costello and played Grace Middleton in The Village. Her first major feature film role was in Clubbed (2008), and she later starred in Mike Leigh's Peterloo (2018) and as the title character in Funny Cow (2018). She played Myra Hindley in See No Evil: The Moors Murders and starred in the Black Mirror episode Metalhead in 2017. On stage, she has played Hamlet at the Royal Exchange and won awards for Miss Julie and The Children's Hour. She also wrote and starred in Beryl and wrote Queens of the Coal Age.
52years old
Turns 53 on July 14in 274 days
- Born Westhoughton
- Star sign: CancerThe sign runs June 21 to July 22
Movie Career
- Films
- 17
- Career span
- 21 years2004 to 2025
Genres
First and latest
Share
Did you know?!
Behind the camera
Peake wrote, directed and starred in Beryl: A Love Story On Two Wheels, a radio play about the Leeds-born cyclist Beryl Burton that aired on BBC Radio 4 in November 2012. Two years later she turned it into a stage play, Beryl, commissioned by the West Yorkshire Playhouse.
Early training
At 13, Peake became a member of Bolton's Octagon Youth Theatre. A spell with the Royal Exchange youth theater in Manchester came next, followed by a two-year performing arts course at Salford College of Technology.
A first
Peake played the title role in a 2014 Royal Exchange Hamlet directed by Sarah Frankcom; demand was so great the production was extended a week, making it the theater's fastest-selling show in a decade.
Maxine Peake movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
Most often with
James Marsh directed three of these films. Six 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
Peter Mullan's page
Paddy Considine's page
Peter McDonald's page
Robert Aramayo's page
Tony Pitts's page
Christine Bottomley's page
All films by James Marsh
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.