Maxine Peake
July 14, 1974 (51 years old) in Westhoughton, Lancashire, England, UK
Maxine Peake (born 14 July 1974) is an English stage, radio, film and television actress, playwright, producer, director and political activist, who made her name as Twinkle in Victoria Wood's sitcom Dinnerladies. She has since played Veronica in Channel 4's Manchester-based drama series Shameless, barrister Martha Costello in the BBC legal drama Silk and Grace Middleton in The Village. She is also an accomplished stage actress, having played the title role in Hamlet, and had a role in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything. In 2018 she played the lead in the film Funny Cow and had a starring role in Mike Leigh's epic Peterloo, a film very close to her heart.
Known For
Credits
- 2025 · Irvine Welsh: Reality Is Not Enough as Narrator
- 2025 · I Swear as Dottie Achenbach
- 2025 · Words of War as Anna Politkovskaya
- 2024 · Say Nothing as Older Dolours Price
- 2024 · Art Matters as Self
- 2024 · Woken as Helen
- 2023 · Dance First as Barbara
- 2023 · Choked Up as Fiona Lacey
- 2021 · Star Wars: Visions as Kalina Kalfus (voice)
- 2020 · Mandy as Susan Blower
- 2019 · Fanny Lye Deliver'd as Fanny Lye
- 2019 · Be Still My Beating Heart as
- 2019 · Judy as Judy
- 2018 · Peterloo as Nellie
- 2018 · The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer as Self - Guest
- 2017 · Unseen as Emma
- 2017 · Three Girls as Sara Rowbotham
- 2016 · A Midsummer Night's Dream as Titania
- 2016 · Red Top as Rebekah Brooks
- 2015 · The Falling as Eileen Lamont
- 2015 · Hamlet as Hamlet
- 2015 · The Shuttleworths as Helen Bach
- 2014 · The Theory of Everything as Elaine Mason
- 2014 · Inside No. 9 as Nadia
- 2014 · Run & Jump as Vanetia
- 2013 · Svengali as Angie
- 2013 · The Village as Grace Middleton
- 2012 · Private Peaceful as Hazel Peaceful
- 2012 · The Hollow Crown as Doll Tearsheet
- 2012 · Best Laid Plans as Isabel
- 2011 · Black Mirror as Bella
- 2011 · Silk as Martha Costello
- 2010 · Imaginary Friend as Pauline
- 2009 · Red Riding as
- 2008 · The Devil's Whore as Elizabeth Lilburne
- 2008 · Little Dorrit as Miss Wade
- 2008 · Clubbed as Angela
- 2008 · Criminal Justice as Juliet Miller
- 2008 · Hancock & Joan as Joan Le Mesurier
- 2008 · Bike Squad as WPC Kate McFay
- 2007 · The Alan Titchmarsh Show as Self
- 2007 · The Graham Norton Show as Self
- 2006 · The One Show as Self - Guest
- 2006 · The Street as
- 2005 · Frozen as Ticket Attendant
- 2005 · Faith as Linda
- 2004 · Christmas Lights as Pauline
- 2004 · Shameless as Veronica Fisher
- 2003 · Early Doors as Janice
- 2002 · All or Nothing as Party girl
- 2002 · Timeshift as Self - Narrator
- 2002 · Hamilton Mattress as Lulu (voice)
- 2001 · Messiah as DS Vickie Clarke
- 2000 · Clocking Off as Marie Leach
- 1997 · Jonathan Creek as Marion Cretiss
- 1996 · Dalziel & Pascoe as
- 1996 · Hetty Wainthropp Investigates as Photocopy Assistant
- 1987 · ChuckleVision as
- Future · Twisting My Melon as Linda Ryder
- 2026 · Becoming Victoria Wood as Self
- 2025 · The Occupant of the Room as
- 2025 · Quiet on Set: The Class Division in the Film Industry? as Self
- 2024 · Secret Life of the Safari Park as Narrator
- 2023 · Tish as Tish Murtha (voice)
- 2022 · Wendell & Wild as Irmgard Klaxon (voice)
- 2022 · Inner Polar Bear as Narrator (voice)
- 2022 · Lapushka! as Scoot Piccolo
- 2022 · Something Out of Nothing as
- 2022 · Art That Made Us as Self - Actrice (Rules of the Game, Anne)
- 2022 · Rules of the Game as Sam Thompson
- 2022 · The Real Anne: Unfinished Business as Self- Presenter
- 2022 · Anne as Anne Williams
- 2021 · Where We Used to Meet as
- 2020 · Alan Bennett's Talking Heads as Miss Fozzard
- 2020 · Surfaces as Alix
- 2020 · The Great Mountain Sheep Gather as Self - Narrator
- 2020 · It's Me as Miriam
- 2018 · The Bisexual as Sadie
- 2018 · The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca as Herself
- 2018 · Gwen as Elen
- 2018 · Ceremony: The Return of Friedrich Engels as Friedrich Engels (voice)
- 2018 · Funny Cow as Funny Cow
- 2018 · Dinnerladies Diaries as Self
- 2018 · Wonders of the Moon as Narrator (voice)
- 2017 · The Priest as
- 2017 · Men Who Sleep in Cars as Sarah
- 2017 · Cake as
- 2017 · Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle as Narrator
- 2017 · Bunch of Kunst - A Film About Sleaford Mods as Self (archive footage)
- 2017 · We Have Been Watching as Self
- 2016 · Generation '66 as Narrator
- 2016 · I Wish For You as Grown Up Mia
- 2015 · Artsnight as Self - Presenter
- 2015 · Strange Weather as Jane
- 2014 · Keeping Rosy as Charlotte
- 2013 · Keeping Up with the Joneses as Celia
- 2013 · The Heart Fails Without Warning as Mother
- 2012 · Room at the Top as Alice Aisgill
- 2011 · DeafBlind as Maggie
- 2010 · Edge as Elly
- 2010 · The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister as Anne Lister
- 2009 · Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980 as Helen Marshall
- 2008 · Fairy Tales as Cindy Mellor
- 2007 · Would Like To Meet as George's Mum
- 2007 · I Am Bob as Marilyn Monroe Lookalike/Compere's Assistant
- 2007 · Confessions of a Diary Secretary as Tracey Temple
- 2007 · The 50 Greatest Television Dramas as Self
- 2006 · See No Evil: The Moors Murders as Myra Hindley
- 2006 · The Madness of the Dance as
- 2006 · The Fear of Trilogy as
- 2003 · Comedy Connections as
- 2001 · Linda Green as Receptionist
- 2000 · Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings as Self
- 1999 · Sunburn as Sue
- 1998 · dinnerladies as Twinkle
- 1998 · Girls' Night as Sharon
- Future · The Dispatcher as