Julie Hesmondhalgh

Julie Claire Hesmondhalgh (born 25 February 1970) is an English actress and narrator.

She applied to drama school aged 18, and studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art from 1988 to 1991 (one of her classmates was Benito Martinez).

On finishing her training, Hesmondhalgh was a part of Arts Threshold, a small independent theatre in London, for several years, and worked with Rufus Norris in his directorial debut.

In the 1990s, she appeared in such television dramas as The Bill, Catherine Cookson's The Dwelling Place, and in the Victoria Wood comedic television movie Pat and Margaret.

Hesmondhalgh is best known for playing Hayley Cropper in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.

She is known for her role as Hayley Cropper in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street between 1998 and 2014.

Making her debut appearance on the show in January 1998, she played the first transgender character in a British soap opera.

She took maternity leave from the soap between 2000 and 2001 after the birth of her first daughter.

After nearly ten years on the show, Hesmondhalgh decided to take another break for a year in order to spend more time with her family.

She left on 22 October 2007 and returned on 17 November 2008.

On 24 December 2011, Hesmondhalgh appeared on ITV's The Cube, winning £20,000 for her Accrington-based anti-poverty charity, Maundy Relief.

Hesmondhalgh's character Hayley was involved in high-profile storylines, including one concerning a gender transition, and a hostage storyline in the Underworld factory in which Hayley and Carla Connor (Alison King) were kidnapped, bound and gagged by rogue businessman Tony Gordon, who intended to murder them.

They escaped unharmed, although Tony was killed in the ensuing explosion.

On 11 January 2013, ITV announced that Hesmondhalgh would be leaving Coronation Street in January 2014 after 15 years on the show, and that her character Hayley was to leave in a controversial right-to-die storyline, following a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Hesmondhalgh filmed her final scenes on 18 November 2013; they were broadcast on 22 January 2014, the night she won a National Television Award for Best Performance in a Serial Drama, which she shared with her longtime co-star, David Neilson.

Over 10 million viewers tuned in to Hayley's final episode, where she ended her life.

For this role, she won "Best Serial Drama Performance" at the 2014 National Television Awards and "Best Actress" at the 2014 British Soap Awards.

Her stage credits include God Bless the Child at the Royal Court Theatre in London (2014), and Wit at the Royal Exchange, Manchester (2016).

Hesmondhalgh was born in Accrington, Lancashire.

She worked with pancreatic cancer charities to raise awareness of the disease, and was involved in a petition and attended a parliamentary debate on the subject in 2014.

Hesmondhalgh's other regular television roles include Cucumber (2015), Happy Valley (2016), Broadchurch (2017) and The Pact (2021).

From 22 January 2015, Hesmondhalgh played the role of Cleo Whitaker in the Channel 4 drama series Cucumber, written by Russell T Davies.

She also appeared in the BBC Four film Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster, a television film about the Murder of Sophie Lancaster.

Hesmondhalgh played the role of Sophie's mother, Sylvia Lancaster, a role which she previously portrayed on stage.

Hesmondhalgh is friends with Sylvia Lancaster and patron of the Sophie Lancaster Foundation.

In 2015, Hesmondhalgh won a Royal Television Society Award for Best Female Actor in a Drama for her role as Sylvia.

In 2015, Hesmondhalgh appeared in an episode of the BBC drama Moving On, with Shane Richie and John Thomson, as well as the one episode of Inside No 9, written by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith.

In 2016, Hesmondhalgh joined the cast of acclaimed drama thriller Happy Valley for its second series on BBC One.

She was offered the role by creator, writer and executive producer Sally Wainwright.

Hesmondhalgh's character Amanda Wadsworth, is a midwife and working mother from Yorkshire who has a fraught relationship with her husband, John (Kevin Doyle).

In 2017, Hesmondhalgh played the role of rape victim Trish in the third and final series of Broadchurch on ITV.

In 2018, Hesmondhalgh was announced as a guest star in the Doctor Who episode "Kerblam!".

In 2019, Hesmondhalgh played Amanda in the first episode of the final season of Channel 4's Catastrophe with Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan.

In March 2019, it was announced that Hesmondhalgh would be appearing in a new six part ITV comedy drama, The Trouble with Maggie Cole, with Dawn French.

In 2019 Methuen Drama published her Working Diary as part of their Theatre Makers series.

She is, with writer Becx Harrison and visual artist Grant Archer, co-founder of Take Back, a Manchester-based theatre collective dedicated to making script in hand rapid responses to social and political events.

In 2020, Hesmondhalgh played Heather in the third series of The A Word.

In May 2021, Hesmondhalgh played Nancy in the BBC1 series The Pact, alongside Laura Fraser, Rakie Ayola, Eiry Thomas, Aneurin Barnard and Jason Hughes.

The series, set in Wales, was written by Pete McTighe.

In 2021, Hesmondhalgh started narrating the revival of The Weakest Link, taking over from Jon Briggs.