Katherine Parkinson

Early life

Parkinson was born in Hounslow, London, England, to an English mother, Janet Parkinson, a teacher, and Northern Irish father, the historian Alan Parkinson. She grew up in Tolworth and Surbiton, and attended Tiffin Girls' School before reading classics at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She then attended the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, although she left before graduating in order to star in the play The Age of Consent, which premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2001.

Career

From 2005 until 2009, Parkinson played Pauline Lamb, a doctor's receptionist and later phlebotomist, in series two to four of the long-running ITV comedy-drama series Doc Martin.

While working on Doc Martin, she was asked by a friend from London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, comic actor Chris O'Dowd, to audition for the comedy series The IT Crowd as the show was having trouble casting a female lead. In an interview with The Independent, Parkinson said the show's creator Graham Linehan originally wanted Jen to be "likeable", but she added: "I know what he wanted now – he wanted her to be the more normal person people could relate to." The IT Crowd premiered in 2006 and ran for four series, ending in 2014. While the character served as a comedic foil to the two main male characters, Parkinson's performance was well received by critics and audiences, prompting her 2011 nomination for, and winning in 2014, the British Academy Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance.

In 2007 she appeared in a new production of Chekhov's The Seagull at London's Royal Court Theatre, alongside Kristin Scott Thomas and Mackenzie Crook, for which she received positive reviews.

She also contributed sketch characters to Katy Brand's ITV2 show Katy Brand's Big Ass Show (2007-2009), having been friends with Brand since their time at university. At the end of 2009, she appeared in the Olivier award winning play Cock at the Royal Court Theatre with Ben Whishaw and Andrew Scott.

She has performed several times on BBC Radio 4, including on Laura Solon: Talking and Not Talking; Mouth Trap, which she also co-wrote with Brand; and The Odd Half Hour. She also featured in television advertisements for Maltesers alongside fellow actress and comedian Amanda Abbington.

Parkinson played Sophie, one of the lead roles along with Mark Heap in BBC Four's three-part comedy series The Great Outdoors (2010). In 2010 and 2011, she appeared in two plays: Season's Greetings at the National Theatre; and as Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal at the Barbican Centre. That same year, she appeared in The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff, which premiered on BBC Two in 2011; and in 2012 she made a guest appearance as Kitty Riley in "The Reichenbach Fall", the second series finale of the series Sherlock.

In 2012 and 2013, she played the roles of Diana in Absent Friends at the Harold Pinter Theatre, and Laura in Before the Party at the Almeida Theatre, respectively. In 2014, Parkinson appeared in "Sardines", the first episode of the anthology series Inside No. 9, alongside Ben Willbond, as well as the miniseries The Honourable Woman, which aired in the UK on BBC Two and in the USA on SundanceTV.

In 2015, she starred in the BBC One comedy series The Kennedys, written by Emma Kennedy about growing up on a Stevenage estate in the 1970s. She also played one of the lead roles in all three series of the British-American science fiction series Humans, which aired on Channel 4 and AMC between 2015 and 2018.

In 2016, Parkinson performed in the stage play Dead Funny at the Vaudeville Theatre. In 2018 and 2019, she performed in Home, I'm Darling, for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award, as well as in Defending the Guilty, a legal sitcom which aired for one series on BBC Two and was subsequently renewed for a second, before being cancelled due to coronavirus.

She played Emma Jeanne Desfosses in Marjane Satrapi's film adaptation of Lauren Redniss's Radioactive in 2019, detailing the life of Marie Curie.

In 2019, Parkinson's debut work as a playwright, Sitting, had its London premiere, following a month-long run at the Edinburgh Fringe. The play was well reviewed, with The Guardian writing "Parkinson delicately reveals connections that, by the end, give the play a wistful emotional weight." Parkinson adapted the play for BBC Four in early 2021.

Parkinson appeared in series 10 of Taskmaster in 2020. Parkinson won the second episode but was behind in total points for the majority of the series, and ended up in last place.

In 2022, Parkinson played Nell Taylor in the film The Nan Movie and, in 2024, she portrayed Lizzie Vereker in Disney+'s period drama Rivals, an adaptation of Jilly Cooper's novel of the same title. For her role in the series, Parkinson was nominated at the 2025 British Academy Television Awards for the Best Supporting Actress category.

In June 2025, it was announced that Parkinson would portray Molly Weasley in the upcoming Harry Potter TV series.

Personal life

Parkinson married actor Harry Peacock in 2009, and they have two daughters. Parkinson and Peacock first met in 2003, Parkinson relating, "I met my husband doing a workshop based on the book Heart of A Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov. He was the dog." Both starred in the TV series The Kennedys. Peacock has lupus. Parkinson is the daughter-in-law of the late Trevor Peacock.

Filmography

Film

Television

Radio

Stage

Video games

Awards and nominations

References

References

1. "Katherine Parkinson Movies & TV Shows List {{!}} Rotten Tomatoes {{!}} Rotten Tomatoes".
2. (16 February 2024). "BBC Here We Go: Katherine Parkinson's famous husband whose dad was a comedy icon". [[Media Wales#WalesOnline.
3. (17 October 2016). "Katherine Parkinson: 'I'm scared of the brutality of Hollywood'". [[The Guardian]].
4. (8 June 2015). "Katherine Parkinson interview: Sherlock actress on likeability and".
5. (29 March 2013). "Katherine Parkinson: interview". [[The Daily Telegraph.
6. Bruce Dessau. (28 December 2007). "Big in 2008: Comedy". [[Evening Standard]].
7. "Katherine Parkinson – Classics, 1996". University of Oxford.
8. (18 December 2008). "Katherine Parkinson Interview".
9. "Meet our LAMDA Acting Alumni".
10. (2001-08-08). "Controversy of consent".
11. Harries, Rhiannon. (20 December 2009). "How We Met: Katherine Parkinson & Katy Brand". [[The Independent]].
12. (7 October 2011). "The Royal Court's Olivier award-winning play Cock by Mike Bartlett to open off-Broadway Spring 2012".
13. (20 May 2008). "Mouth trap". [[BBC Radio 4]].
14. "The Odd Half Hour". [[BBC Radio 4]].
15. "The Great Outdoors". [[BBC Four]].
16. (6 March 2015). "BBC One announces the cast for brand new family comedy The Kennedys". BBC.
17. Haynes, Natalie. (4 July 2018). "Home, I'm Darling review – cupcakes, cocktails and fetishising wifeliness".
18. "BBC Two commissions Defending the Guilty for a second series".
19. (30 March 2021). "Defending the Guilty's second series cancelled because of coronavirus - News".
20. Paskett, Zoe. (14 March 2019). "Katherine Parkinson's debut play Sitting will have London premiere at the Arcola Theatre". [[Evening Standard]].
21. Fisher, Mark. (8 August 2018). "Sitting review – art models reveal all in Katherine Parkinson's smart debut". The Guardian.
22. (21 February 2021). "Katherine Parkinson creates BBC Four comedy drama Sitting".
23. Griffin, Louise. (2020-10-29). "Taskmaster's Katherine Parkinson descends into madness in bizarre shoe task".
24. (17 December 2020). "Dog Meat Trifle".
25. (27 March 2025). "Bafta TV Awards 2025: The list of nominations".
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27. Joe Otterson. "Harry Potter HBO Series Finds Molly Weasley, Draco and Lucius Malfoy and More Hogwarts Students". variety.com.
28. Belotti, Alex. (14 March 2013). "Hollywood's lure doesn't work on laughter-loving Katherine Parkinson". [[Archant.
29. (27 June 2018). "IT Crowd star Katherine Parkinson on the 'responsibility' to be a working mum". BBC News.
30. (22 December 2024). "Katherine Parkinson's life away from the cameras – from famous husband to private daughters". [[Hello! (magazine).
31. (16 September 2015). "Interview with Harry Peacock". [[BBC]].
32. Skinner, Dan. (1 November 2021). "Brian and Roger: How a podcast about two sad, divorced men turned into a ‘Highly Offensive’ play". [[The Independent]].
33. Flood, Alex. (14 May 2021). "Soundtrack Of My Life: Katherine Parkinson".
34. "The Winners – 2009". [[British Comedy Awards]].
35. "Female Performance in a Comedy Programme 2010". [[British Academy of Film and Television Arts]].
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37. "Whites". [[BBC Two]].
38. "Sherlock". [[BBC One]].
39. "Pandemonium". radiotimes.com.
40. "Travel Man".
41. "Here We Go: Meet the cast of the new BBC comedy series".
42. (March 21, 2023). "Victoria Smurfit and Aidan Turner star in adaptation of racy Jilly Cooper novel".
43. "‘Harry Potter’ HBO Series Finds Molly Weasley, Draco and Lucius Malfoy and More Hogwarts Students".
44. "BBC announces casting for The Dream Lands, the brand-new drama from BAFTA-winner Kayleigh Llewellyn".
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51. (1 November 2004). "The Unthinkable".
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53. (26 April 2004). "Flush".
54. (20 February 2006). "Other Hands, Soho Theatre, London". The Guardian.
55. "The Lightning Play".
56. (26 January 2007). "The Seagull, Royal Court, London".
57. "Cock at the Royal Court".
58. (13 December 2010). "Season's Greetings, National Theatre (Lyttelton), London". FT.com.
59. "The School for Scandal".
60. "66 – Sixty Six Books".
61. (10 February 2012). "Absent Friends, Harold Pinter Theatre, Review".
62. "Before the Party – cast".
63. (29 March 2013). "Before the Party, Almeida Theatre, review". The Telegraph.
64. (11 April 2018). "Home Im Darling | National Theatre".
65. (31 July 2019). "Uncle Vanya review – Rupert Everett is flamboyant in Hare's comic Chekhov". The Guardian.
66. "Shoe Lady".
67. "Katherine Parkinson Awards".
68. (2014). "British Comedy Awards Nominees and Winners 2014". britishcomedyawards.com.
69. (25 March 2025). "RTS announces winners of the RTS Programme Awards 2025".