Jessica Hynes - Life and Career

Life and Career

Hynes was born in Lewisham, London, on 15 November 1972, but grew up in Brighton, where she attended Dorothy Stringer High School. As a teenager Hynes was part of the National Youth Theatre company, and she made her stage début with the company in Lionel Bart's Blitz in 1990. In 1992–3 she played a season at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds. In the same year she appeared in Peter Greenaway's 1993 film The Baby of Mâcon, playing the first midwife. For the first fourteen years of her career, she used her maiden name as a stage name. Early in her career she teamed up with future Spaced co-star Katy Carmichael in a comedy double-act called the Liz Hurleys, appeared in two productions at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre, and played parts on television in the nursing drama Staying Alive (1995–97) and short-lived sketch shows Six Pairs of Pants, (Un)natural Acts and Asylum - where the Spaced team (Stevenson, Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright) first assembled. She also guest starred in the first ever episode of Midsomer Murders in 1997.

From 1998-2000 she played the supporting role of Cheryl in the hit sitcom The Royle Family and reprised the role for special episodes in 2006, 2009 and 2010. Also in 1999, she co-wrote and starred in Spaced. Her London theatre début was in April 2002, playing the tough ex-prisoner "Bolla" in Jez Butterworth's The Night Heron at the Royal Court. In 2004 she played a minor part as Yvonne in horror comedy Shaun of the Dead, again working with Pegg and Wright. In the same year she was also cast as Magda, friend of the titular character, in the Hollywood sequel Bridget Jones' Diary 2 also called Bridget Jones' Diary: The Edge of Reason. In 2005 Hynes took the lead role in the BBC One sitcom According to Bex (which she thought was so bad that she sacked her agent for putting her up for it), and had a starring role in British comedy Confetti alongside Jimmy Carr, Martin Freeman and Mark Heap.

In early 2007 she took a lead role in the film Magicians, starring alongside comic duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb. Later that year she starred in Learners, a comedy drama television movie which she also wrote, on BBC One in November 2007. She also provided the voice of Mafalda Hopkirk in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

She played Joan Redfern in the 2007 Doctor Who episodes "Human Nature" and "The Family of Blood". She then appeared in part two of the story The End of Time, playing a character named Verity Newman, who is descended from Joan. Hynes has appeared in Big Finish's Eighth Doctor audio adventure "Invaders from Mars", with her Spaced colleague Simon Pegg.

In 2007 she starred in Son of Rambow (credited as Jessica Stevenson), playing Mary Proudfoot opposite the star of the film, Bill Milner.

Hynes co-wrote the pilot Phoo Action, based on the cartoons of Jamie Hewlett, which was transmitted on BBC Three in early 2008.

In the same year Hynes appeared in the film Faintheart and in a revival of Alan Ayckbourne's The Norman Conquests at the Old Vic. In 2009 she made her Broadway début in the play's transfer and was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance.

In 2009 she returned to the Royal Court in The Priory, a new play by Michael Wynne.

She plans to pursue a solo career as a standup comedian as well as publishing a children's book Ants in the Marmalade.

Jessica Hynes appeared as a "right-on" PR person Siobhan Sharpe in the London Olympic centred satire Twenty Twelve, of which the first series screened on BBC4 in 2011, moving to BBC2 in spring 2012. A further series was screened in July 2012.

Jessica has finished filming for the film Nativity 2: The Second Coming, in which she plays competition host Angel Matthews. The film is due to be released in November 2012.

In October 2012 she released a duet with singer Anthony Strong of Slim Gaillard's "Laughing in Rhythm".