Maria Friedman
| Maria Friedman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Maria Friedman 19 March 1961 Birmingham, England |
| Residence | Benidorm, Spain |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1980–present |
| Spouse(s) | Adrian Der Gregorian (2006–present) Jeremy Sams Roland Brine Oleg Poupko |
Maria Friedman (born 19 March 1961) is an English actress and director of stage and screen, best known for her work in musical theatre. She is a seven-time Olivier Award nominee, winning three. Her first win was for her 1994 one-woman show, By Special Arrangement. She has also twice won Best Actress in a Musical for the original London productions of Passion and Ragtime. She is more recently known for her role as Elaine Peacock in EastEnders.
Friedman was born in Birmingham in the West Midlands, the daughter of Clair Llewelyn Friedman (née Sims), a concert pianist, and Leonard Friedman, a violinist for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Her father is from a Russian Jewish immigrant family and her mother is English. She began her education in Germany, and by the age of five returned with her family to England after the divorce of her parents.
She first gained fame when she won an Olivier Award for her one-woman cabaret, Maria Friedman By Special Arrangement and another Olivier Award starring in Stephen Sondheim's Passion in 1996, and later became one of the main leading ladies on the London Stage. She would later star in Chicago and Ragtime, both on the West End.
In 2004 she originated the role of Marian Halcombe in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Woman in White in the West End and on Broadway in 2005. In the 1999 film of Lloyd Webber's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, she played the narrator.
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