Gemma Christina Arterton is an English actress.
She is best known for her roles in St Trinian's, Quantum of Solace, Clash of the Titans, and
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.
In 2013, she starred in financially successful films Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters and
Byzantium.
Early life Arterton was born in Gravesend at North Kent
Hospital to Sally-Anne, a cleaner, and Barry Arterton, a welder.
Arterton was born with polydactyly, and at her birth a doctor tied off the boneless sixth
digits to remove them.
She attended Gravesend Grammar School for Girls, in Kent, and made her stage debut there
in an amateur production of Alan Ayckbourn's The Boy Who Fell into a Book; it was entered
into a competition at a local festival, where she won the best actress prize.
At age 16, Arterton left school to attend the Miskin Theatre School in Dartford.
She then received a full government grant to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic
Art, although, she said in 2008, she "got up to my eyes in debt with a student loan".
She graduated from RADA in 2008.
She has a sister, Hannah, who is also an actress who, in 2013, featured in British drama Atlantis.
Career Arterton won her first professional role in
Stephen Poliakoff's Capturing Mary, while she was still at drama school.
Similarly, she made her stage debut as Rosaline in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost at the
Globe Theatre, London in July 2007 before graduating later that year.
She made her film debut in St Trinian's as Head Girl Kelly.
In 2008, she appeared in the James Bond film, Quantum of Solace.
Chosen from around 1,500 candidates, Arterton plays Bond Girl Strawberry Fields, in what
is described as a "nice-sized role".
On her character, Arterton describes Strawberry Fields as "the thinking man's crumpet".
The same year, she played the eponymous protagonist in the BBC adaptation of Thomas Hardy's Tess
of the D'Urbervilles.
Also in 2008, she played the role of Elizabeth Bennet in the ITV serial, Lost in Austen.
Her most controversial role to date was in the 2009 film, The Disappearance of Alice
Creed, in which her character is kidnapped and abused in several graphic nude scenes.
She is the face of Avon's Bond Girl 007 fragrance, which launched in October 2008.
Having already started in a series of advertisements for Avon, Arterton in May 2008 requested a
role opposite model Kate Moss for Rimmel, but was blocked on contractual terms under
her Avon contract.
In 2010, she made her West End debut in the UK premiere of The Little Dog Laughed.
She was originally attached to star in a new adaptation of Wuthering Heights as Catherine
Earnshaw, however, she later left the project.
She is set to star in Burden of Desire.
Arterton was seen in the 2010 films Clash of the Titans and Prince of Persia: The Sands
of Time, and played the lead in Tamara Drewe.
In 2011, Arterton was nominated twice by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts
for her performances in Tamara Drewe and The Disappearance of Alice Creed.
In November 2012 she was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2012 International
Film Festival of Marrakech.
Arterton starred in the action horror film Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters as Gretel
opposite actor Jeremy Renner who played Hansel.
The 3-D film was set 15 years after Hansel and Gretel killed the witch who kidnapped
them.
It was released on 25 January 2013.
In January 2014 she took the title role in John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi, the inaugural
production at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the new indoor theatre at Shakespeare's Globe.
She is due to star in Made in Dagenham, a stage musical about the Ford sewing machinists
strike of 1968 concerning equal pay for women.
It will premier on 5 November 2014 at the Adelphi Theatre in London.
Personal life On 5 June 2010, Arterton married Stefano Catelli,
a fashion consultant, at a private ceremony in Zuheros, Andalucia, Spain.
By early 2013, she had separated from her husband.
Filmography
Awards and nominations References
External links Gemma Arterton at the Internet Movie Database
Gemma Arterton on Twitter