Judi Dench

Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA (born 9 December 1934) is an English film, stage and television actress. Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. She branched into film work, and won a BAFTA Award as Most Promising Newcomer. During the next two decades, she established herself as one of the most significant British theatre performers, working for the National Theatre Company and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her many television appearances include lead roles in the series A Fine Romance, As Time Goes By and Cranford. Dench's recent film career has garnered six Academy Award nominations in nine years for Mrs. Brown; her Oscar-winning turn as Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love; for Chocolat; for the lead role of writer Iris Murdoch in Iris (with Kate Winslet playing her as a younger woman); for Mrs Henderson Presents; and for Notes on a Scandal, a film for which she received critical acclaim, including Golden Globe, Academy Award, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild nominations. She returned to the West End in March 2009 in Yukio Mishima's Madame De Sade, directed by Michael Grandage as part of the Donmar season at Wyndham's Theatre. A year later, Dench renewed her collaboration with Sir Peter Hall at the Rose Theatre in Kingston upon Thames in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In July 2010, Dame Judi performed Send in the Clowns at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the proms season, in honour of composer Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday. In March 2013, she returns to the West End in the world premiere of John Logan's new play, Peter and Alice (alongside Ben Whishaw) as part of the Michael Grandage Season at the Noel Coward Theatre.