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Lara Pulver (born 1 September 1980) is an English actress. She has played Erin Watts in the British BBC spy drama Spooks, and Irene Adler on BBC's TV adaptation Sherlock. She won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical in the West End's revival of the hit Broadway musical Gypsy.

Early life

Pulver was born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Her father is from a Jewish family and her mother converted to Judaism. Her parents separated when she was eleven. Pulver attended the National Youth Music Theatre between 1994 and 1998, as well as The Liz Burville Dance Centre, Bexley. In 1997, she began studying at the Doreen Bird College of Performing Arts, and graduated in 2000. She has since worked as an actress, singer and dancer in West End musicals.

Career

Pulver was nominated for the 2008 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the role of Lucille Frank in the first West End production of the musical Parade at the Donmar Warehouse. She reprised the role in the Los Angeles production at the Mark Taper Forum opposite T.R. Knight.

In 2008, Pulver recorded a song for the CD Act One – Songs from the Musicals of Alexander S. Bermange. Pulver joined the cast of the BBC's Robin Hood in 2009 as Isabella, the sister of Guy of Gisbourne.

In 2010, Pulver joined the cast of the third series of HBO's True Blood as Sookie Stackhouse's fairy godmother, Claudine Crane.

Pulver played Erin Watts, the new chief of Section D, in the tenth and final series of BBC spy drama Spooks, a role she reprised in the 2015 feature film Spooks: The Greater Good

Pulver played Irene Adler in "A Scandal in Belgravia", the first episode of the second series of Sherlock.

In 2012 she joined the cast of Da Vinci's Demons as the "seductive and politically-minded" Clarice Orsini, a series regular and wife of Lorenzo Medici.

In 2014, she played Louise in a revival of Gypsy at the Chichester Festival Theatre. The production transferred to the West End in April 2015. Miss Pulver won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for the same role in the Savoy Theatre production of Gypsy. Louise is actually the title role, as "Louise" becomes the real-life early-20th-century American strip-tease sensation Gypsy Rose Lee, on whose memoirs the musical is based. Pulver's co-star in the Savoy production, Imelda Staunton, won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as the larger-than-life Mama Rose.

Personal life

In 2003, Pulver met American actor Josh Dallas while he was in the UK studying at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. They married over Christmas 2007 in a 16th-century barn in Devon. The couple honeymooned in the Maldives. Dallas confirmed their divorce in an interview on Bob Rivers' radio show on 2 December 2011.

Pulver began dating actor Raza Jaffrey in 2012 and the two were married on 27 December 2014. The couple had a child in 2017.

Filmography

Stage credits

• Parade (Lucille Frank), Donmar Warehouse, nominated for Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical and Whatsonstage.com Awards
• Into the Woods (Lucinda), Royal Opera House
• The Last Five Years (Cathy), Menier Chocolate Factory
• Honk! (Henrietta), Royal National Theatre (Best New Musical, Laurence Olivier Awards 2000) and national tour
• Miss Saigon (Ellen)
• High Society
• A Chorus Line
• The Darling Buds of May
• The Boy Friend
• Gypsy (Louise)
• Chicago
• Grease
• 42nd Street
• The Wizard of Oz
• (Adverts) Smirnoff Vodka Range – Hatter's Summer Night Dream with Smirnoff
• Uncle Vanya

Awards and nominations

References

1. ^ "The 'shiksa goddess' who acts kosher". The Jewish Chronicle.
2. Totally Plc. "TotallyJewish.com – Entertainment – Features And Reviews". totallyjewish.com. Archived from the original on 29 September 2015.
3. "NYMT | Whispers". nymt.org.uk. 2012. Archived from the original on 25 June 2012. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
4. "Bits and Bobs (Vol. 5 1/2): Exclusive 'Robin Hood' scoop from Richard Armitage! | PopWatch". Entertainment Weekly. 2012. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
5. Conlan, Tara (4 January 2012). "Sherlock: BBC will not remove nude scenes for 7pm repeat". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 January 2012.
6. Eames, Tom (4 June 2012). "Sherlock's Lara Pulver, Southland's Clifton Collins Jr join new shows". Digital Spy. Retrieved 4 June 2012.
7. Theo Bosanquet & Rosie Bannister (6 March 2014). "Chichester reopens Festival Theatre with Rupert Everett in Amadeus, plus Gypsy and Guys and Dolls". WhatsOnStage.com.
8. "Full West End Gypsy cast announced". WhatsOnStage.com. 2 March 2015.
9. Anderson, Joel. "Lara Pulver's Fabulous Life". 8 November 2011. Fabulous.
10. "Lara Pulver". British Airways. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
11. Adam Jacques (29 March 2015). "Camilla Schneideman & Lara Pulver: 'I realised the flapjacks I gave". The Independent.
12. ^ "Article about Pulver's casting in Parade". Broadway.com 12 June 2007.
13. "Nominations announcement, 2008 Laurence Olivier Awards". Official London Theatre Guide. Archived from the original on 8 February 2008.
14. "Article about Pulver's casting in The Last 5 Years". Broadway.com 21 June 2006.

External links

• Lara Pulver at IMDb

• 1980 births
• Living people
• English Jews
• English people of Jewish descent
• English stage actresses
• English television actresses
• Jewish English actresses
• People from Southend-on-Sea
• Alumni of Bird College
• Actresses from Essex
• 21st-century English actresses