Louise Brealey

Education

Brealey was born in Bozeat, Northamptonshire. She won a scholarship for Kimbolton School and went on to read history at Girton College, Cambridge. She later trained with Philippe Gaulier at École Philippe Gaulier in London and the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City.

Writing

Brealey has written on cinema, art and music since her teens, contributing reviews and features for magazines including Premiere UK, Empire, SKY, The Face, Neon and Total Film. She is the editor of Anarchy and Alchemy: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky (Creation Books, 2007). Until April 2009, Brealey was the deputy editor of Wonderland magazine. A freelance Associate Producer, she has written documentary pitches for BBC Arts. In 2013 her first play Pope Joan was performed by the National Youth Theatre. Her monologue Go Back To Where You Came From was performed as part of Paines Plough Theatre's Come To Where I'm From project in 2018.

Acting

Screen

Brealey made her TV debut as Nurse Roxanne Bird in two series of BBC drama Casualty before playing Judy Smallweed in Bleak House. Terry Wogan took Judy and her snaggle-toothed grandfather Smallweed (Phil Davis) to heart, regaling Radio 2 listeners with regular renditions of Davis' catchphrase "Shake me up, Judy!". Brealey followed Bleak House with a comic turn as Anorak, Alistair MacGowan's black-bobbed sidekick, in comedy drama Mayo, described by The Hollywood Reporter as "Agatha Christie does Moonlighting".

Brealey plays pathologist Molly Hooper in all four series of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss's television drama, Sherlock.

Brealey is often asked to work in accents, playing a doughty Yorkshire doctor in Ripper Street, a Cockney ne'er-do-well in Law & Order: UK, a broken Geordie widow in Inspector George Gently and a ball-breaking Edinburgh academic in Clique.

Brealey played a leading role in the ITV drama The Widow, first broadcast in March 2019.

In 2023, Brealey starred in the BBC sitcom Such Brave Girls as a dysfunctional single mother, and co-starred alongside Annabel Scholey in the romantic musical film Chuck Chuck Baby.

Stage

Her stage debut was at London's Royal Court in 2001 as 14-year-old Sophie in Max Stafford-Clark's production of Judy Upton's Sliding With Suzanne. The Daily Telegraph called her performance "a perfect poignant study of adolescence".

Her portrayal of child prodigy Thomasina in the Bristol Old Vic production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia in 2005 was described by The Daily Telegraph as "the evening belongs to Loo Brealey's Thomasina".

Brealey worked twice with Sir Peter Hall. First in 2007 on Simon Gray's Little Nell, in which she played the title role opposite Michael Pennington and Tim Pigott-Smith. Based on The Invisible Woman, Claire Tomalin's award-winning biography of Charles Dickens's mistress Ellen Ternan, Little Nell followed Ternan's story from 17 to 44 years of age. Critics described Brealey's work as "impressive" (The Stage), "highly compelling" (The Independent) and "astounding" (British Theatre Guide). The following year, Hall cast her as Sonya in his critically acclaimed Uncle Vanya, the inaugural production at London's Rose Theatre. The Telegraph called hers "a name to watch" and The Independent compared her to Joan Fontaine in Rebecca. The Spectator said: "Brealey uncovers the pathetic poetry beneath the indolent superficialities. Her big disadvantage is that she’s too attractive for ‘plain’ Sonya, but she disguises this by suggesting a lack of sexual allure with awkward giggles, squirrelly movements and a stupefied beaming naivety. All brilliantly done..."

In 2011 Brealey was the sex-mad, short-frocked daughter of Julian Barratt and Doon Mackichan at the Young Vic in Richard Jones's Government Inspector. She next played three lead roles – Cassandra, Andromache and Helen of Troy – in Caroline Bird's production of The Trojan Women at London's Gate Theatre. and wrote a piece for The Times about the experience of going naked on stage, which went viral.

In February 2014 she starred as Julie in August Strindberg's Miss Julie at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow.

More recently she won Best Actress at the Manchester Theatre Awards for her role as Marianne in Constellations, directed by Michael Longhurst and played the lead alongside Anne Marie Duff in Marianne Elliott's Husbands and Sons at the National Theatre.

Audio

Brealey is the narrator of Caitlin Moran's How to Build a Girl and its sequel How to Be Famous, Alex Michaelides’ The Silent Patient, Kate Mosse's Number One Bestseller Labyrinth and Hallie Rubenhold's The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. She voiced Josie in the audiobook of Lisa Jewel’s novel, None of This is True. She was Megan in the audiobook edition of The Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins, which won the 2016 Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year.

Radio

Brealey voiced the part of Laura Willowes in the 2021 BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Lolly Willowes.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre credits

References

References

1. Day, Elizabeth. (22 January 2012). "Louise Brealey: 'I don't think Molly is really Sherlock's type'". The Observer.
2. "Loo Brealey". Holby.tv.
3. "Louise Brealey". The Guardian.
4. "LivTyler". Louisebrealey.com.
5. Andrew Dickson. (3 September 2013). "From Sherlock to Pope Joan: actor Louise Brealey on writing her first play | Stage". The Guardian.
6. "COME TO WHERE I'M FROM: NORTHAMPTON {{!}} Paines Plough".
7. "BBC One – Sherlock – Molly Hooper". BBC.
8. Urwin, Rosamund. (7 November 2012). "Sherlock's Molly: the original Cumberbitch". London Evening Standard.
9. (7 November 2012). "Sherlock's Molly: the original Cumberbitch – London Life – Life & Style". London Evening Standard.
10. Louise Brealey. (11 December 2012). "Louise Brealey: how it feels to be naked on stage". The Times.
11. (11 December 2012). "On Yellow Paper – What Molly Did Next". Onyellowpaper.tumblr.com.
12. "Meet the Cast: The girls from Paula Hawkins' THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (Exclusive Audio Clips) {{!}} Books on Tape".
13. (11 May 2016). "The Year's Best Audiobooks: 2016 Audie Award Winners".
14. (31 October 2021). "Lolly Willowes".
15. Dowell, Ben. (18 November 2023). "Such Brave Girls: my big BBC comedy about anxiety and dysfunction".
16. "BBC One - Shetland, Series 10, Episode 1".
17. (4 April 2015). "Letters Live: Epistolary Joy At Freemasons' Hall".
18. (11 December 2013). "BBC Sherlock star, X Files actor and a host of other celebrities perform at charity event for the Reading Agency".
19. (30 May 2014). "Letters Live at Hay Festival".