Miriam Margolyes

Born: 18th May 1941
Where: Oxford, England

Miriam has performed primarily on the stage and radio, generally in eccentric comedy roles, only in recent years has she made the transformation to feature films.

After studying at Cambridge University where she majored in English, she began acting in radio with the BBC.

In 1969, she made her feature film debut in a small role in A Nice Girl Like Me.

Over the next decade Miriam could be heard everywhere in radio spots and TV advert voiceovers, including a stint as a seductive rabbit plugging Cadbury's Carmel Bunny candy and as a charwoman chimp for a tea ad.

Miriam also appeared in a long-running series of adverts in the UK for British Telecom.

Miriam received great acclaim as the elderly, sharp-tongued Mrs. Mingott, the primary source of comic relief in 1993's The Age of Innocence.

That year she also had her first starring role on stage in a major play, as Mrs. Hardcastle in Sir Peter Hall's staging of Oliver Goldsmith's classic 18th century Restoration farce, She Stoops to Conquer.

Miriam also discovered another career path, recording books on tape.

Voiceover work kept her busy as well, her most popular effort in this vein being Fly, sheepdog who serves as surrogate mother to the title piglet in the 1995 Oscar-nominated Babe.

Recently she has appeared in the London staging of The Vagina Monologues, alongside model Sophie Dahl.

She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

2002 sees Miriam playing Professor Sprout in the second instalment of wizard Harry Potter's adventures in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.