Biography
Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton (born 9 January 1956) is an English actress and singer. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Staunton began her career in repertory theatre in 1976 and appeared in various theatre productions in the United Kingdom. Staunton has performed in a variety of plays and musicals in London throughout her career, winning four Laurence Olivier Awards; three for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical for her roles in the musicals Into the Wood...
Known For
Complete Filmography

National Theatre Live : Mrs. Warren's Profession
2025
as Mrs Peggy Warren
Five-time Olivier Award-winner Imelda Staunton (The Crown) joins forces with her real-life daughter Bessie Carter (Bridgerton) for the very first time...

Paddington in Peru
2024
as Aunt Lucy (voice)
Paddington travels to Peru to visit his beloved Aunt Lucy, who now resides at the Home for Retired Bears. With the Brown Family in tow, a thrilling ad...

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
2023
as Bunty (voice)
A band of fearless chickens flock together to save poultry-kind from an unsettling new threat: a nearby farm that's cooking up something suspicious.

The Canterville Ghost
2023
as Mrs Umney (voice)
An American family moves in to the Canterville Chase, a London mansion that has been haunted by ghost Sir Simon De Canterville for 300 years.

Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends
2022
as Self
On 3 May 2022, Cameron Mackintosh invited many of Stephen Sondheim’s old friends to join him in London’s West End for a thrilling, joyously staged pro...

Downton Abbey: A New Era
2022
as Maud Bagshaw
The Crawley family goes on a grand journey to the south of France to uncover the mystery of the dowager countess's newly inherited villa. Meanwhile, a...

Victorian Britain on Film
2021
as Narrator
Offers audiences a unique window into a bygone era when a thrilling new invention, the motion picture camera, first captures a nation on film.
The Gruffalo and Me: The Remarkable Julia Donaldson
2020
as reader
The programme offers unique access to Julia Donaldson, her family, her rich archives and home movies, and the remarkable cast of characters that have ...
The Magical World of Julia Donaldson
2020
as Self - Readings
This was of course a fitting look into the world of Julia Donaldson, whose books have kept the BBC in Christmas animations for the last few years, and...

Amulet
2020
as Sister Claire
Tomaz, an ex-soldier now homeless in London, is offered a place to stay at a decaying house, inhabited by a young woman and her dying mother. As he st...

The Far Traveller
2020
as Narrator
When she died around 1050 AD, a littleknown Viking explorer had become the most traveled woman of the Middle Ages. She had sailed across the Atlantic ...

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
2019
as Knotgrass
Maleficent and her goddaughter Aurora begin to question the complex family ties that bind them as they are pulled in different directions by impending...
A Confession As Told By ITV News
2019
as Imelda Staunton - Self / Karen Edwards
Reporter Robert Murphy looks at how the real story of the Halliwell murders unfolded on ITV News and inspired those behind the television drama titled...

Downton Abbey
2019
as Maud Bagshaw
The beloved Crawleys and their intrepid staff prepare for the most important moment of their lives. A royal visit from the King and Queen of England w...

Finding Your Feet
2017
as Sandra Abbott
A lady has her prim and proper life turned upside down after discovering her husband's affair.

National Theatre Live: Follies
2017
as Sally Durant Plummer
New York, 1971. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final ...

Paddington 2
2017
as Aunt Lucy (voice)
Paddington, now happily settled with the Browns, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy, but it is stolen.

Harry Potter: A History Of Magic
2017
as Narrator
A thrilling journey through legends, belief and folklore, this film goes behind the scenes with the British Library as they search to tell that story ...

National Theatre Live: Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
2017
as Martha
In the early hours of the morning on the campus of an American college, Martha, much to her husband George’s displeasure, has invited the new professo...

Little Bird
2017
as First Officer Simpkins
A young woman seeks to expand her limited horizons, set against a backdrop of wartime London.

Jim Carter: Lonnie Donegan and Me
2016
as Self
Jim Carter tells the story of Lonnie Donegan - a crucial trailblazer in the birth of pop music and modern culture who inspired Lennon and McCartney.

Gypsy
2015
as Rose
Gypsy's mother Rose dreams of a life in show business for her daughters, but Louise becomes a huge burlesque star. Stage musical loosely based on the ...

That Day We Sang
2014
as Enid
TV Film adaptation of Victoria Wood's hit musical set in Manchester in 1929 and 1969. When middle aged loners Tubby and Enid attend a reunion of the c...
Victoria Wood - That Musical We Made
2014
That Musical We Made is an honest and funny look at the making of a musical. Victoria Wood takes us behind the scenes of That Day We Sang, the film sh...

Paddington
2014
as Aunt Lucy (voice)
A young Peruvian bear travels to London in search of a home. Finding himself lost and alone at Paddington Station, he meets the kindly Brown family, w...

Pride
2014
as Hefina
In 1984, a group of LGBT activists decide to raise money to support the National Union of Mineworkers during their lengthy strike. There is only one p...

Maleficent
2014
as Knotgrass
A beautiful, pure-hearted young woman, Maleficent has an idyllic life growing up in a peaceable forest kingdom, until one day when an invading army th...

Mouse and Mole at Christmas Time
2013
as Shrew (voice)
Animation telling of the adventures of Mouse, Mole, Rat and Owl. Before giving a Twelfth Night party, Mouse makes a snowmole for Mole. In a dream, Sno...

The Girl
2012
as Alma Reville Hitchcock
Director Alfred Hitchcock is revered as one of the greatest creative minds in the history of cinema. Known for his psychological thrillers, Hitchcock’...

London: The Modern Babylon
2012
as Spoken Quotations (voice)
London: The Modern Babylon is legendary director Julien Temple's epic time-traveling voyage to the heart of his hometown.

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
2012
as Queen Victoria (voice)
The enthusiastic Pirate Captain, along with his rag-tag crew, sets out to beat his bitter rivals. The chaotic adventure takes them from exotic shores ...

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
2012
as Mrs. Lovett
In 1846, Anthony Hope sails into London with the mysterious Sweeney Todd, a once-naive barber whose life and marriage was uprooted by a corrupt justic...

Arthur Christmas
2011
as Mrs Santa (voice)
For hundreds of years, the Claus family has delegated the title "Santa" to a chosen few of its members, which can be passed down upon retirement. Each...

The Awakening
2011
as Maud Hill
In post–War England, a writer and sometime-ghost hunter investigates a reported haunting at a boys boarding school.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
2010
as Dolores Umbridge
Harry, Ron and Hermione walk away from their last year at Hogwarts to find and destroy the remaining Horcruxes, putting an end to Voldemort's bid for ...

White Other
2010
as Lynne McDermott
In the dead of night a troubled youth from an East London estate, Ray Marsden stalks into a hospital ward demanding to see the patient. The attendant ...

Another Year
2010
as Janet
During a year, a very content couple approaching retirement are visited by friends and family less happy with their lives.

Psychoville Halloween Special
2010
as Grace Andrews
Psychoville returns with a spooktacular hour-long Halloween special. Four tales of terror unfold as location manager Phil Walker investigates the aban...

Alice in Wonderland
2010
as Talking Flowers (voice)
Alice, now 19 years old, returns to the whimsical world she first entered as a child and embarks on a journey to discover her true destiny.

Taking Woodstock
2009
as Sonia Teichberg
The story of Elliot Tiber and his family, who inadvertently played a pivotal role in making the famed Woodstock Music and Arts Festival into the happe...

A Bunch of Amateurs
2008
as Mary
Jefferson Steel, a washed-up Hollywood action star, is desperate to revive his flagging career. When his sleazy agent signs him up for what he believe...

Three and Out
2008
as Rosemary Cassidy
A London tube driver considers pursuing a third fatal accident to collect a huge payout.

Clay
2008
as Mary Doonan
Adaptation of the book by David Almond, set in 1960s Tyneside. Two 14-year-old boys team up against Mouldy, the town bully. Turning Crazy Mary s garde...

How About You...
2007
as Hazel Nightingale
A young woman, struggling with the direction of her life, spends Christmas watching over a retirement home filled with demanding residents.

Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out
2007
as Self
Stephen Fry: 50 Not Out was a one-off, one-hour documentary/biography about Stephen Fry released in 2007 by the BBC, celebrating Stephen Fry's fiftiet...

Guilty Hearts
2007
as Naomi
Over the course of this drama's six separate stories, a variety of couples struggle with the infidelity, dishonesty and heartbreak that plagues their ...

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
2007
as Dolores Umbridge
Returning for his fifth year of study at Hogwarts, Harry is stunned to find that his warnings about the return of Lord Voldemort have been ignored. Le...

Freedom Writers
2007
as Margaret Campbell
A young teacher inspires her class of at-risk students to learn tolerance, apply themselves, and pursue education beyond high school.

The Wind in the Willows
2006
as Barge Lady
Jailed for his reckless driving, rambunctious Mr. Toad has to escape from prison when his beloved Toad Hall comes under threat from the wily weasels, ...

Shadow Man
2006
as Ambassador Cochran
An intelligence operative discovers that no one is what they seem in the shadowy world of espionage.

Bill Douglas: Intent on Getting the Image
2006
as Herself
A documentary exploring Bill Douglas' struggle from childhood poverty to acclaimed filmmaker of Comrades and the Trilogy.

My Family and Other Animals
2005
as Mother
An English family relocates to sunny Greece in the months before WWII.

Nanny McPhee
2005
as Mrs. Blatherwick
Widower Cedric Brown hires Nanny McPhee to care for his seven rambunctious children, who have chased away all previous nannies. Taunted by Simon and h...

Vera Drake
2004
as Vera Drake
Abortionist Vera Drake finds her beliefs and practices clash with the mores of 1950s Britain – a conflict that leads to tragedy for her family.

Bright Young Things
2003
as Lady Brown
During the 1930s in England, a group of young socialites dominate the national gossip with extravagant and outlandish antics. Among the group is the a...

I'll Be There
2003
as Dr. Bridget
A comedy about a has-been rock star (Craig Ferguson) that discovers he has a teenage daughter (Charlotte Church), from a long forgotten love affair.

Blackball
2003
as Bridget
Blackball follows the fortunes of Cliff Starkey, a working-class fine of lawn bowls with an exceptional talent. Wanting to take on the Aussies he mana...

The Virgin of Liverpool
2003
as Sylvia Conlon
In Liverpool, Joanne Conlon rescues a weeping statue of the Virgin Mary from her local church's replacement plans. As her family faces financial strug...

Crush
2002
as Janine
Three 40-something women in a small English town meet weekly for a ritual of gin, cigarettes, and sweets -- and swapped stories arguing which of them ...
Ready
2002
as Naomi
Naomi has known all her life that she will succumb to the same fate that has befallen her family for generations. Unlike her ancestors, who all made u...

Another Life
2001
as Ethel Graydon
A woman is wrongly accused of murdering her husband in Edwardian London. Just before the outbreak of World War I, Edith Graydon married her boyfriend ...

Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings
2000
as Mrs. Cottisloe
The comedienne stars in this festive sketch show, alongside a host of celebrity guests.

Rat
2000
as Conchita Flynn
After a night of drinking Guiness at the local watering hole, an ordinary, working-class, family man in Dublin's life is turned upside-down when he wa...

Chicken Run
2000
as Bunty (voice)
The creators of Wallace & Gromit bring you an exciting and original story about a group of chickens determined to fly the coop–even if they can’t fly!...

Jack and the Beanstalk
1999
as Dilly (voice)
In this spell-binding story brave Jack climbs the Beanstalk to the magical world of Beanland. He and his new friends Dilly (the small but fearless Bea...

Shakespeare in Love
1998
as Nurse
Young Shakespeare is forced to stage his latest comedy, "Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter," before it's even written. When a lovely noblewoman a...

The Ugly Duckling
1997
as Scruffy (voice)
The Ugly Duckling teams up with friend Scruffy, and the lovable misfits embark on a journey that helps them realize that their differences are what ma...

Remember Me?
1997
A domestic farce exposes the eccentricities of a "typical" middle class, suburban family who find their lives thrown into a crisis with the unexpected...

Twelfth Night
1996
as Maria
Shakespeare's comedy of gender confusion, in which a girl disguises herself as a man to be near the count she adores, only to be pursued by the woman ...

The Adventures of Toad
1996
as Voice
Toad's life is just one big adventure! His latest and greatest hobby is racing around the countryside in his new motor car getting into all sorts of t...

The Snow Queen's Revenge
1996
as Elspeth / Rowena (voice)
The Snow Queen holds Ellie responsible for ruining her plans to freeze the world and sets out to seek revenge. She kidnaps Dimly the flying reindeer a...

The Wind in the Willows
1995
as Mother Squirrel
Follow Mr. Toad as he purchases a motor car, and his pals Ratty, Badger, and Mole are forced to come to his rescue after a series of misadventures, as...

The Adventures of Mole
1995
as Voice
Mole decides it's time for an adventure! It isn't long before he discovers all the fun and thrills of the riverbank in the company of his new found fr...

Sense and Sensibility
1995
as Charlotte Jennings Palmer
The Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, whose chances at marriage seem doomed by their family's sudden loss of fortune. When H...
The Pen
1995
A man frantically searches for a pen while stuck on a train journey somewhere in Scotland.

Citizen X
1995
as Mrs. Burakov
Based on the true story of a Russian serial killer who, over many years, claimed victim to over 50 people. His victims were mostly under the age of 17...

The Snow Queen
1995
as Ivy / Angorra
Far away, in her vast ice palace, the Snow Queen plots to rule the world by deflecting all the sun's warmth away from Earth so that it freezes over. B...

Mole's Christmas
1994
as (voices)
Rat and Mole must get to Mole's home through a snowy Christmas Eve while eluding weasel pickpockets.

Deadly Advice
1994
as Beth Greenwood
Mother rules the house with an iron hand and has such power over her daughters that they see themselves as becoming old unmarried, maids. Jodie has fe...

Don't Leave Me This Way
1993
as Bridget Bennet
British academics Loretta and Bridget run into Sandra, an old school friend at a book launch. Although Sandra appears to be gay and carefree, Loretta ...

Much Ado About Nothing
1993
as Margaret
In this Shakespearean farce, Hero and her groom-to-be, Claudio, team up with Claudio's commanding officer, Don Pedro, the week before their wedding to...

Roots
1992
as Jenny Beales
Presentation of Arnold Wesker's play of the 1950s. A young girl returns to her family home in Norfolk, having been educated in cultural and political ...

Peter's Friends
1992
as Mary Charleston
After inheriting a large country estate from his late father, Peter invites his friends from college: married couple Roger and Mary, the lonely Maggie...

A Masculine Ending
1992
as Bridget Bennet
While English professor Loretta Lawson is attending a conference in Paris, she stays the night in the flat of a friend's acquaintance. She discovers a...

They Never Slept
1991
as The Producer
When plucky Corporal Pru Merriman reports to her superiors Monk and Bob for driving duty, she finds herself catapulted into the murky world of the Fre...

Yellowbacks
1990
as Cheryl Newman
Britain in the very near future. In an abandoned hotel, a young female doctor and a middle-aged scientist are interrogated separately. The question th...

The Englishman's Wife
1990
as Stephanie
A woman and her daughter are stranded in a rambling old house deep in the countryside of County Tyrone. Their economic circumstances are hopeless, but...

Antonia and Jane
1990
as Jane Hartman
Plain Jane Hartman hates her life. She's goofy, boring and only has sex if she reads Iris Murdoch novels out loud to her loopy boyfriend. Her oldest f...

The Heat of the Day
1989
as Louie
In World War II England, a woman is approached by a man claiming to work as an intelligence agent who has found out her lover is a spy. He promises to...

Comrades
1987
as Betsy Loveless
The story of "The Tolpuddle Martyrs". A group of 19th century English farm labourers who formed one of the first trade unions and started a campaign t...
Easy Money
1982
as Mary Price
At a concert Marcia picked Terry out of the crowd. So he no longer feels alone. Until he learns about her secret life and dare not tell his friends.
& Sons
N/A
Andrew is a novelist best known to the world as A.N. Dyer. He wrote his first book when he was 27, and it became an instant classic, selling 45 millio...