Katy Carmichael

Katy Carmichael
Born	Katy Jane Carmichael (1970-03-05) 5 March 1970 Liverpool, England
Nationality	British
Occupation	Actress • director
Years active	1991–present
Spouse	Tristan Sturrock ​ (m. 2005)​
Children	3

Katy Jane Carmichael (born 5 March 1970) is an English actress, director and producer. She is most known for her roles as Twist Morgan in the Channel 4 sitcom Spaced, Lucy Barlow in the ITV soap Coronation Street, and Melissa Ryan in Waterloo Road. As a director-producer, her work includes the award-winning Mayday Mayday (Bristol Old Vic and St Ann's Warehouse New York).

Early life

Born and brought up in Liverpool as the daughter of two architects, Carmichael attended Gateacre Community Comprehensive School. She did her A-levels at Liverpool College, Mossley Hill, Liverpool.

After six seasons with the National Youth Theatre, she studied for a drama, film and television degree, at the University of Bristol with peers Simon Pegg, Jessica Hynes and Myfanwy Moore, and had a five-year relationship with the then-unknown drama student David Walliams.

Career

Her first professional acting role at the age of 18 was Connie in the Liverpool sitcom Bread which she filmed during her university studies. Early in her career, she teamed up with lifelong friend, future Spaced star and writer Jessica Hynes in a comedy double-act called The Liz Hurleys. After leaving university, she began a TV career with the 1950s Liverpool drama And The Beat Goes On (1994), the Galton and Simpson series with Paul Merton, Wing and a Prayer, Death Of A Salesman, and Dennis Potter's Karaoke / Cold Lazarus. She played DC Jo McMullen in Liverpool 1.

Carmichael reunited with Hynes and Pegg to play Twist Morgan in the BAFTA nominated Channel 4 sitcom Spaced. The sitcom lasted for two series. The three also previously appeared together in the short-lived sketch show Six Pairs of Pants (1995).

In 2001, Carmichael starred in her first film, Dead Babies, based on the novel by Martin Amis. She also appeared in Kenneth Branagh's comedy film In the Bleak Midwinter as mad puppetwoman and played the female lead Jane Wells in the period fantasy drama The Infinite Worlds of H. G. Wells. A variety of roles in comedy and drama followed, including Hex, Scarlett, One Foot in the Grave, Clocking Off and Cutting It. In 2002, she landed the role of florist Lucy Richards in Coronation Street and was involved in the award-winning Peter Barlow bigamy storyline for two years. She went on to play Melissa Ryan (sister of headteacher Rachel Mason) in school drama Waterloo Road in 2009. Carmichael played the mother in Danny Stack's short supernatural thriller Origin (2010). In 2014, she played Helen the down-trodden housewife in Jimmy McGovern's series Moving On for the BBC and was Hayley Blake, Connie Beauchamp's nemesis, in Casualty (2014–15). She plays Clarity Winlove in The Living and The Dead (2015).

On stage, she played opposite Steven Berkoff in his 3-hander Sturm and Drang and Brighton Beach Scumbags at the Riverside Studios (1995), Yseult -Whitehands with Kneehigh Theatres's international hit Tristan and Yseult (2005–06) (Sydney Festival, US). Work at other theatres includes seasons at the Royal Exchange Theatre, the Liverpool Everyman, The Gate, and The Bristol Old Vic, where she met her future husband actor Tristan Sturrock in a production of The Beaux Stratagem.

In 2010, they set up Bristol based Theatre Damfino together. She has directed the company's projects to date including Mayday Mayday (Bristol Old Vic 2012) winner of the International Fringe Review award (Edinburgh 2012) and selected to play at St Ann's Warehouse New York and Spoleto Festival USA (2013). Mayday Mayday is a drama documentary (afternoon play Radio 4 TX 1 May 2015). The Radio play won the International Third Coast award (US) was nominated for two BBC Drama awards 2016 – best sound design and finalist for best drama production.

Carmichael collaborated with Bib Gourmand winning chef Matt Williamson and Guardian food writer Claire Thomson to create the food-theatre show The Table Of Delights, which began as a gourmet tasting and performance experience for adults (Bristol Old Vic, 2013-2014). The children's version of the show premiered at The Print Room at The Old Coronet winning the Off West End award for best production for families category (2016). Carmichael is creative director of The Table of Delights online a new food entertainment website sponsored by Yeo Valley and Pukka Tea.

She directed singer and songwriter Kate Dimbleby's solo show Songbirds (Tobacco Factory, Bath Ustinov, UK Tour 2017) based on her acclaimed a cappella album.

Personal life

Carmichael has been married to actor Tristan Sturrock since 2005. They have three children together: a son born in 2004, a daughter born in 2006, and a second daughter born in 2010. One of their daughters, Bronte Carmichael, is also an actress, who is known for her role as Madeline Robin in the 2018 Disney film Christopher Robin.

Filmography

Year	Title	Roles	Notes	Refs
1991	Bread	Connie	S7 E1, 6, 8, 9, 10
1994	Revelations	Caroline Thomas	Episode: "Team Table"
1994	Sunnyside Farm		BBC
1995	Six Pairs of Pants	Various Characters	S1 E1, 2, 3
1995	Joking Apart	Waitress	S2 E3
1995	In the Bleak Midwinter	Mad Puppet Woman
1996	And the Beat Goes On	Cathy Williams	S1 E1-8
1996	Karaoke	2nd Hostess	Episodes: "Tuesday" and "Friday"
1996	Cold Lazarus		C4
1997	Paul Merton in Galton and Simpson's...	Penny / Sandra Evans	Episodes: "The Suit" and "The Clerical Error"
1998-1999	Liverpool 1	DC Jo McMullen	S1 E1-6, S2 E1-6
1999–2001	Spaced	Twist Morgan
2000	Dead Babies	Lucy Littlejohn
2000	One Foot in the Grave	Katy	Episode: "The Futility of the Fly"
2001	The Infinite Worlds of H. G. Wells	Jane Robins
2002	Bookcruncher	Elsa
2002	Casualty	Samantha Griffin
2002	Clocking Off	Miranda Clarkson	Episode: "Mack's Story"
2002–2003	Coronation Street	Lucy Richards
2004	Hex	Peggy	Episode: "The Release" and "Possession"
2005	Cutting It	Justine Jenson	S4 E4-6
2006	Coming Up	Harris	Episode: "A Paradise Adventure"
2009	Mistresses	Elaine Thompson	S2 E2, 3, 4
2009	Waterloo Road	Melissa Ryan	S4 E1-10, 20
2009	Origin	Claire Holmes
2014–2015	Casualty	Hailey Blake
2014	Moving On	Helen	Episode: "The Beneficiary"
2016	The Living and The Dead	Clarity Winlove	BBC
2016	Three Girls	Miss Landale	BBC
2017	Safe	Rachel Delaney	Netflix / Red Productions
2017	The Miniaturist	Ana Oortman	BBC
2018	Christopher Robin	Christopher Robin's Mother (Daphne de Sélincourt)	Disney
2019	The Dumping Ground	Sarah Reeves	BBC

External links

• Katy Carmichael at IMDb
• Origin Official Site
• Theatre Damfino website
• Table of Delights online