Sally Hawkins

Born: April 27 1976
Where: London, UK

The actress received international attention when she landed the Berlin Silver Bear for best actress for Happy-Go-Lucky.

She played the eternally optimistic primary schoolteacher Poppy in British director Mike Leigh's most upbeat movie in years.

The daughter of well known authors and illustrators of children's books, Jacqui and Colin Hawkins, she was raised in Dulwich, south-east London.

She attended James Allen's Girls' School, leaving in 1994 and going on to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, graduating in 1998.

Early theatre appearances include Much Ado About Nothing, Country Music and as Adela in David Hare's version of Federico García Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba in 2005.

Hawkins made her first notable big screen performance as Samantha in another Mike Leigh film, All or Nothing in 2002 and also played Zena Blake in the controversial lesbian romp Tipping The Velvet.

Staying with the small screen, she was Mary Shelley to Jonny Lee Miller's Byron and also appeared in the TV movies Promoted To Glory and the family fantasy The Young Visiters with Jim Broadbent.

In 2004, director Mike Leigh cast her as Susan in the abortion drama Vera Drake and she also played Slasher in Matthew Vaughn's gangster outing Layer Cake.

The following year she landed her first major TV role - Victorian thief Susan Trinder in the BAFTA-nominated BBC drama Fingersmith, an adaptation of Sarah Waters' novel.

Other projects included Matt Lucas and David Walliams' Little Britain and a supporting role in the romantic drama The Painted Veil.

In 2007, she played Anne Eliot in the TV adaptation of Persuasian and also appeared in the grim big screen horror yarn Waz alongside Stellan Skarsgård.

Recent work includes the Leigh comedy Happy-Go-Lucky.