Emma Williams (actress)

Emma Williams (born 20 May 1983 in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England) is a British actress of stage, screen, TV and radio. She has received four Olivier nominations for Best Actress/Best Supporting Actress in a musical and was a recipient of the Arts Correspondent Group Best Newcomer Award.

Williams was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire on 20 May 1983. Her mother, Joan is English and her father, Gordon is Welsh. She has one older brother, called John. Williams attended North Halifax Grammar School and left in 2001 with 5 A-levels. Her first film came out shortly before she received her A-level results, so she deferred university for a year in order to pursue a career as an actress. Only a few months later in November, she was announced as the leading lady of multimillion-pound musical Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, playing opposite household favourite, Michael Ball.

Williams speaks several languages including French, German and Spanish. She has been a member of Mensa, the society for people of a high-IQ.

Williams also attended evening classes at Stage '84, school of performing arts in Idle, Bradford where she was the Student of the Year in 2001 and is now a patron of the school. She trained as a singer to Grade 8 (with Distinction) with Michael Hampshire and regularly competed in nationwide music competitions and festivals. In her teens, Williams was a prolific winner in classes for Unaccompanied Folk Music, Musical Theatre and Opera on this circuit until she turned professional.

Williams is also a songwriter, musician and writer. She has written theatre programme articles for Delfont Mackintosh Theatres and is currently writing her first novel. She also regularly reviews books for online literary magazine and website, www.welovethisbook.com, under the name Emma Henaughan.

In 2012 Williams graduated from the Open University with a BA Honours degree in English Literature, which she studied part-time whilst simultaneously working as an actress.

Williams began her professional acting career as a teenager, appearing in various ITV dramas including Heartbeat, Where the Heart Is and the 4-part drama premiere Four Fathers.

Her first big break came at the age of 17 when she was chosen, after a nationwide search, to play the role of Kirsty in Steve Coogan's first feature film The Parole Officer. It was this role that lead to her postponing university in the hopes of becoming an actress.

Further television credits include leading roles in Agatha Christie's Marple (Ruby Keene in The Body in the Library), Doctors (Jenny Jones/Tamara and Sally Winters) and playing Rosa Cartwright in BBC's Bafta Award winning TV adaptation of Bleak House with Gillian Anderson.

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