Felicity Jones

Felicity Jones
Felicity Jones at the London Film Festival 2011
Born	Felicity Rose Hadley Jones (1983-10-17) 17 October 1983 Birmingham, United Kingdom
Alma mater	Wadham College, Oxford
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1996–present

Felicity Rose Hadley Jones (born 17 October 1983) is an English actress from Birmingham. She is best known to television audiences for her role as the school bully Ethel Hallow in the first series of The Worst Witch (she was replaced by Katie Allen for series two and three) and its sequel Weirdsister College. Jones also co-starred in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's feature Cemetery Junction. She starred opposite Anton Yelchin in the 2011 drama Like Crazy.

Early life

Jones grew up in Bournville, Birmingham. Her parents met while working at the Wolverhampton Express and Star. Her father was a journalist while her mother was in advertising. They divorced when she was three, and she was brought up with her brother by her mother alone. Despite this, she says her family is "extremely close."

After Kings Norton Girls' School, Jones attended King Edward VI Handsworth School, to complete A Levels and went on to take a gap year (during which she appeared in the BBC series Servants). She then read English at Wadham College, Oxford, graduating with a 2:1 in 2006. Whilst studying English, she appeared in student plays, including Attis in which she played the title role, and, in 2005, Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors for the OUDS summer tour to Japan, starring alongside Harry Lloyd.

Career

Jones was encouraged to take up acting by her uncle, the actor Michael Hadley. Her mother was also passionate about film and theatre. She began acting at 11 at an after-school workshop funded by Central Television. Jones appeared in the first series of The Worst Witch, after which she was replaced by Katie Allen. She left the series because she missed home. When Weirdsister College began in 2001, Jones returned as Hallow. During the shooting of Weirdsister College she was just seventeen, lived in a flat in Richmond and had a private tutor to get her through her 'A' levels. Her longest and probably best known role overall was on the BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers, where she played Emma Carter (who is now played by Emerald O'Hanrahan).

She took the leading role in the 2007 ITV adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, starred as Grace May in the BBC drama 'Servants' and made her stage debut in Polly Stenham's That Face at the Royal Court Theatre in April 2007.

In 2008, she appeared in the films Brideshead Revisited and Flashbacks of a Fool, the Doctor Who episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp" and a revival of Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden at the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London between 5 June and 2 August 2008.

In January 2009, the 5-part TV serial The Diary of Anne Frank, in which Jones played the role of Margot Frank alongside Tamsin Greig (as Edith Frank-Holländer) and Iain Glen (as Otto Frank), was broadcast on BBC One. Later that year in May, she performed in a rehearsed reading of Anthony Minghella's Hang Up at the High Tide Festival.

Jones plays the role of Julie in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's Cemetery Junction (2010). She also appeared in Soulboy and in Julie Taymor's big screen adaptation of The Tempest as Miranda. She will star in the noir science-fiction thriller The Scribbler, directed by Jake West.

On 29 January 2011, Jones won a Special Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the Sundance Film Festival for her performance as Anna in Drake Doremus's Like Crazy. She had to do her own hair and make-up in the film, while the dialogue was entirely improvised. Her performance earned comparisons to Carey Mulligan's Academy Award-nominated role in An Education. She also received the Best new Hollywood Award for this film at the 2011 Hollywood Film Awards. She appeared alongside Ed Westwick in Chalet Girl, a romantic comedy released in March 2011, for which she had to undergo two months of snowboarding training and work undercover in a chalet at St Anton, scrubbing toilets and partying at the Krazy Kanguruh bar in preparation for the role. Jones said the role was "something of a relief" after a string of costume roles. She was also keen to take on a comic role.

Jones performed in Luise Miller, a new translation of Schiller's Kabale und Liebe by Mike Poulton at the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London, in June and July 2011. She turned down the title role in Mirror Mirror to appear in the play, to the amazement of director Michael Grandage. Grandage acknowledged: "Everything else has had to be moved to accommodate [the play]… at a time when her career has gone sky-high." Jones lived with a Catholic family and attended Mass to prepare for the role.

In 2011, Jones was announced as the new face of Burberry.

Personal life

Jones currently lives in Bethnal Green, in London's East End, with her long-term boyfriend, Ed Fornieles, who is a sculptor and internet artist. She and Fornieles met at Oxford when he was at the Ruskin School of Art.

Filmography

Felicity Jones at the Toronto Film Festival 2011

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1996	The Treasure Seekers	Alice Bastable
2007	Northanger Abbey	Catherine Morland	ITV drama
2008	Flashbacks of a Fool	Young Ruth
	Brideshead Revisited	Lady Cordelia Flyte
2009	Chéri	Edmée
2010	Cemetery Junction	Julie
	Soulboy	Mandy
2011
	The Tempest	Miranda
	Albatross	Beth
	Chalet Girl	Kim
	Like Crazy	Anna	Empire Award for Best Female Newcomer Gotham Award for Best Breakthrough Actor National Board of Review Award for Breakthrough Performance Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize for Breakout Performance Nominated - Detroit Film Critics Society Award for Breakthrough Performance
	Hysteria	Emily Dalrymple
	Page Eight	Julianne Worricker	BBC drama
2012	Cheerful Weather for the Wedding	Dolly Thatchem

Television series

Year	Series	Role	Notes
1998	The Worst Witch	Ethel Hallow	Series one
2001	Weirdsister College	Ethel Hallow
2003	Servants	Grace May
2007	Cape Wrath	Zoe Brogan
2008	Doctor Who	Robina Redmond	Episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp"
2009	The Diary of Anne Frank	Margot Frank	5-part serial

Other works

• The Archers (1999–2009), Emma Grundy – BBC Radio 4 soap opera
• The Snow Queen, Creation Theatre Company (2005–2006), Gerda
• That Face, Royal Court Theatre (2007), Mia
• The Chalk Garden, Donmar Warehouse (2008), Laurel
• Luise Miller, Donmar Warehouse (2011)

External links

• Felicity Jones at the Internet Movie Database