Nicola Walker is an English actress, known for her starring roles in various
British television programmes from the 1990s onwards, including Ruth Evershed
in the spy drama Spooks from 2003-2011. She has also worked in theatre, radio
and film. In 2013, she won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress for
the play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. In 2014, she was
nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for the BBC
drama Last Tango in Halifax. Early life
Born in Stepney in the East End of London, she has an older brother. Walker
attended Saint Nicholas School, Old Harlow and Forest School, Walthamstow,
and undertook acting classes from age 12 to speak to boys. Interviewed in 2014 by
The Guardian, she said, "I was really encouraged by my mother. My dad thought
it was a ridiculous thing to do." Walker then attended New Hall,
Cambridge, where she started her acting career with the Cambridge Footlights.
Her contemporaries included Spooks writer David Wolstencroft and comedienne
Sue Perkins, who were all part of the 1990 national tour. Perkins, then an
older undergraduate, was assigned to be her "college mother", although Walker
later said: "She was the worst college mother I could have had .. They’re meant
to hold your hand. She asked to borrow my bike, got drunk and I never saw it
again." Walker acted on stage as Perkins's stooge and years later their
partnership was resumed when Perkins cast Walker in her sitcom Heading Out.
Career Offered a place at RADA, on graduation
from Cambridge she already had some roles and an agent, so decided to pursue
her career. Based in London, she shared a flat with Perkins, Sarah Phelps and
Emma Kennedy, acting at the Edinburgh Festival and the London Festival Fringe.
Her first major television roles were in 1997, as Gypsy Jones in Channel 4's
adaptation of A Dance To The Music Of Time, and as English teacher Suzy Travis
in two series of Steven Moffat's school-based sitcom Chalk. She has also
appeared in guest roles in episodes of series such as Dalziel and Pascoe,
Jonathan Creek, Pie in the Sky and Broken News.
She got the leading part of DI Susan Taylor in the ITV thriller serial
Touching Evil in 1997, co-starring opposite Robson Green. She also appeared
in its two sequel serials in 1998 and 1999. Also in 1999, she took the lead
role in the post-apocalyptic drama serial The Last Train, also screened on
ITV. Also in 2003, Walker played Molly in the BBC Radio adaptation of
Neuromancer by William Gibson. In 2003, with the production team of
Kudos Television looking to replace the character played by Jenny Agutter in
Series 1 of Spooks, the part of Ruth Evershed was specially written for her
from Series 2. She remained with the show until the fifth series, during the
production of which it was announced she was expecting her first child and would
be leaving. She returned in 2009, and continued until the series ended in
2011. Benji Wilson of The Daily Telegraph praised Walker's performance
stating "an actress who has squeezed every drop out of TV’s greatest ever
largely dumbstruck doormat for the best part of a decade. Her scenes with Peter
Firth, another fine player, have become self-contained little bubbles of
weltschmerz within every recent episode".
In 2007 she had a prominent supporting role as a child snatcher in the ITV1
drama serial Torn and appeared in the BBC adaptation of Oliver Twist.
In film, her roles have tended to be smaller supporting parts. Her most
prominent role has been as the irritating folk singer in Four Weddings
and a Funeral, who sings "Can't Smile Without You" at the first wedding. She
also appeared in the feature film adaptation of the classic television
series Thunderbirds. In 2009 she appeared as a maid in a new
BBC adaptation of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw, which also starred
Michelle Dockery and Sue Johnston. In 2010 she appeared as a beleaguered wife
of a murderer in an episode of the BBC1 crime thriller Luther.
In February 2011, she appeared as nervous social worker Wendy in the BBC
TV series Being Human. In February 2012, she played a major character in one off
BBC crime drama Inside Men. In 2012 and 2013 she appeared alongside
Derek Jacobi, Anne Reid and Sarah Lancashire, in two series of the BBC
original drama Last Tango in Halifax. Last Tango in Halifax was commissioned
for a third series, which was filmed in the summer of 2014.
In February and March 2013, Walker reunited with her former Cambridge
Footlights colleague Sue Perkins in the BBC comedy Heading Out. She then
appeared in the second series of Prisoners' Wives and the third series of
Scott and Bailey. Walker was nominated for and won an
Olivier Award in 2013 for Best Supporting Actress in her role as the
main character Christopher's mother, Judy, in The Curious Incident of the Dog
in the Night-Time. The play won seven Olivier Awards, equalling Matilda the
Musical's record win in 2012. In 2014, she starred alongside Mark
Strong and Phoebe Fox in the Arthur Miller play "A View from the Bridge" at
the Young Vic theatre. The play received extremely positive reviews from critics
and will transfer to Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End in 2015.
Walker was also nominated for a Television BAFTA for "Best Supporting
Actress" in 2014 for her role in Last Tango in Halifax, but the award was won
by her co-star Sarah Lancashire. In July 2011, Walker played the
significant supporting role of Medtech Liv Chenka in the Big Finish Productions
Doctor Who audio drama Robophobia opposite Sylvester McCoy as the Seventh
Doctor. The character of Chenka proved popular both with producers and
listeners, and in February 2014 Walker returned to the role, this time as a
foil for Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor in Dark Eyes 2. The character was sustained
throughout Dark Eyes 3 and Dark Eyes 4, at the end of which it was revealed that
Chenka was to continue as the Doctor's established travelling companion. In
October 2015, Walker again returned to the role for Doom Coalition.
In 2015 she starred as DCI Cassie Stuart, alongside actor Sanjeev Bhaskar
as DS Sunil "Sunny" Khan, in the ITV drama series Unforgotten whilst
simultaneously appearing as DS Jackie "Stevie" Stevenson as the colleague of
DI John River, played by Stellan Skarsgård, in the BBC drama series
River. Filmography
= Film= = Television=
= Video Games= Theatre credits
Relocated - Royal Court Theatre London Gethsemane - National Theatre London
Season's Greetings - National Theatre London
Di and Viv and Rose - Hampstead Theatre London
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - National Theatre London for
which she won the 2013 Olivier Award in the category 'Best Actress in a
Supporting Role' A View from the Bridge - Young Vic/
Wyndham's Theatre London Personal life
She is married to actor Barnaby Kay. The couple have a son Harry, who is named
after Harry Pearce, the character of her co-star Peter Firth in Spooks.
References External links
Nicola Walker at the Internet Movie Database
Nicola Walker profile on the Spooks website at bbc.co.uk.