Hermione Norris
Born: February
1967, Paddington, London, UK
Nationality: British Height: 5' 7" (1.70 m) Spouse(s): Simon Wheeler (2002-present) Children: 1 son; Wilf & 1 daughter; Hero Character in Spooks: Ros Myers Hermione Norris was born in February 1967; the second of four children (she has two sisters and a brother). She was named after Helen of Troy’s daughter. Her parents, Michael and Helen Norris (née Latham), a businessman and health visitor respectively, divorced when she was four years old. She moved with her mother and siblings to live with her grandmother in Derbyshire, but moved to Berkshire a few years later, where she attended a local Church of England school; her mother being keen to instil Christian values into her children. We all went to Sunday school and to a Church of England junior school and some of it stuck. My brother, for example, became a minister. I’m a believer myself, although I’m not particularly religious. But I do think that Christian values are good to grow up with and they do inform the way I feel about the world. |
She failed her eleven plus exam but won a scholarship to Elmhurst Ballet School in Surrey. While there, she took up drama at an after-school club, performing alongside her dance studies until she left aged 17.
At age 19 she enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). On an exchange to the Moscow Art Theatre School she played Nina in a production of The Seagull. After leaving college at the age of 21, she lived in a house in Brixton with four other actors. At the same time, she had to deal with the sudden death of her father.
Hermione made her professional stage debut in a 1989 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which earned her her Equity card.
At age 19 she enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). On an exchange to the Moscow Art Theatre School she played Nina in a production of The Seagull. After leaving college at the age of 21, she lived in a house in Brixton with four other actors. At the same time, she had to deal with the sudden death of her father.
Hermione made her professional stage debut in a 1989 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which earned her her Equity card.
When I left LAMDA in 1989, you still had to do rep [theatre] to get one, but you couldn't get work without the card: a real catch-22. So I wrote to every rep theatre in the country, and got offered Helena in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Mercury theatre in Colchester. It's an amazing feeling to actually be allowed to do what you want to do.
She made her television debut in the 1991 BBC serial The Men's Room, playing the daughter of Bill Nighy's character. Other early television roles include appearances in Agatha Christie's Poirot, the television serial Clarissa, and a 1991 episode of Drop the Dead Donkey. She continued to make guest appearances in series such as Between the Lines and Casualty. When out of work, she supported herself by working on Sainsbury's supermarket checkouts, and selling double glazing in a shopping centre.
After being out of work for four months in 1996, Hermione considered quitting acting and reading for a degree in law, intending to become a solicitor. However, she got her big break playing Karen Marsden in ITV’s Cold Feet. She appeared in every episode and was nominated for a British Comedy Award for Best Actress in 2001.
During the six years Cold Feet ran, Hermione also appeared in a leading role in the BBC drama Berkeley Square, starring opposite Christopher Eccleston, and the 2002 television film Falling Apart, playing a woman in a violent relationship. In 2002, she co-starred with Robson Green in Wire in the Blood, playing Detective Inspector Carol Jordan. She stayed with the series until 2005 when she was replaced by Simone Lahbib. Further film roles include an appearance in an adaptation of Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim, and in David Kane's Born Romantic.
At the end of 2005 she was cast in Spooks, playing Ros Myers. She appeared throughout the 2006 series, then in eight of the ten episodes in the 2007 series before taking time off filming for maternity leave. She returned to the show for the 2008 series. For her part, she won the Best Actress award at the inaugural ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards. She left the series in 2009 after four years.
From 2007 to 2009, she appeared in three series of Kingdom playing Beatrice Kingdom, the half-sister of Stephen Fry's character. She took the role as a change of pace from the "ice maiden" characters she often portrays. In 2010, she starred opposite Trevor Eve in the remake of Bouquet of Barbed Wire. Also in 2010, she was cast in the television science fiction drama Outcasts as Stella Isen, the head of security on an extra-terrestrial human colony.[ Filming occurred on location in South Africa. From November 2010, Hermione played Ruth Condomine in a national tour of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit. opposite her Cold Feet co-star Robert Bathurst .
In 2012 she was reunited with Spooks co-star Nicola Walker, in ITV’s A Mother’s Son. She played the role of a mother who suspected her son was involved in the murder of a local girl. The two were reunited again in 2013 on radio drama Kokomo.
She met her husband Simon Wheeler in 2002; he was a writer on Wire in the Blood. The couple married in December 2002 in a ceremony at the Tower of London. Their first child, Wilf, was born in June 2004, and their daughter, Hero (named after a character in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing) followed in August 2007.
One of her chief annoyances used to be that people never knew how to pronounce her first name. She expressed relief when the first Harry Potter film was released as she hoped people might start getting her name right as the female child lead is also called Hermione.
She does suffer from bouts of depression (ever since the death of her father) and has spoken openly about these saying:
After being out of work for four months in 1996, Hermione considered quitting acting and reading for a degree in law, intending to become a solicitor. However, she got her big break playing Karen Marsden in ITV’s Cold Feet. She appeared in every episode and was nominated for a British Comedy Award for Best Actress in 2001.
During the six years Cold Feet ran, Hermione also appeared in a leading role in the BBC drama Berkeley Square, starring opposite Christopher Eccleston, and the 2002 television film Falling Apart, playing a woman in a violent relationship. In 2002, she co-starred with Robson Green in Wire in the Blood, playing Detective Inspector Carol Jordan. She stayed with the series until 2005 when she was replaced by Simone Lahbib. Further film roles include an appearance in an adaptation of Kingsley Amis's Lucky Jim, and in David Kane's Born Romantic.
At the end of 2005 she was cast in Spooks, playing Ros Myers. She appeared throughout the 2006 series, then in eight of the ten episodes in the 2007 series before taking time off filming for maternity leave. She returned to the show for the 2008 series. For her part, she won the Best Actress award at the inaugural ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards. She left the series in 2009 after four years.
From 2007 to 2009, she appeared in three series of Kingdom playing Beatrice Kingdom, the half-sister of Stephen Fry's character. She took the role as a change of pace from the "ice maiden" characters she often portrays. In 2010, she starred opposite Trevor Eve in the remake of Bouquet of Barbed Wire. Also in 2010, she was cast in the television science fiction drama Outcasts as Stella Isen, the head of security on an extra-terrestrial human colony.[ Filming occurred on location in South Africa. From November 2010, Hermione played Ruth Condomine in a national tour of Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit. opposite her Cold Feet co-star Robert Bathurst .
In 2012 she was reunited with Spooks co-star Nicola Walker, in ITV’s A Mother’s Son. She played the role of a mother who suspected her son was involved in the murder of a local girl. The two were reunited again in 2013 on radio drama Kokomo.
She met her husband Simon Wheeler in 2002; he was a writer on Wire in the Blood. The couple married in December 2002 in a ceremony at the Tower of London. Their first child, Wilf, was born in June 2004, and their daughter, Hero (named after a character in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing) followed in August 2007.
One of her chief annoyances used to be that people never knew how to pronounce her first name. She expressed relief when the first Harry Potter film was released as she hoped people might start getting her name right as the female child lead is also called Hermione.
She does suffer from bouts of depression (ever since the death of her father) and has spoken openly about these saying:
Fortunately, these days the periods when I suffer from it get further apart, and when it strikes it’s for less and less time. Maybe it’s simply due to the fact that I’ve arrived at a point in my life where I do feel contented on quite a deep level. I feel blessed to have the career that I have. I’ve chosen my husband and I have two wonderful children. I also feel strongly that I don’t want to infect my children with my depression, if I ever have it. So the incentive to deal with it is very strong and I’ve become quite good at managing it. In this country we’re emotionally retarded and think there’s something weird about therapy. But for me it’s very much part of being a good wife, a good mother, a good member of society and the best person that I can possibly be.
You can find a full filmography for Hermione Norris at IMDb.