Louise Brealey (born 27 March 1979), also credited as Loo Brealey, is an English actress, writer and journalist. She played Molly Hooper in Sherlock, Cass in Back, Scottish professor Jude McDermid in Clique and Gillian Chamberlain in A Discovery of Witches.
On stage, Brealey has received widespread critical acclaim for starring in productions at the Royal National Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, the Young Vic, and the Bristol Old Vic, directed by Sir Peter Hall and Marianne Elliott.
Early life and education Brealey was born in Bozeat, Northamptonshire. She won a scholarship for Kimbolton School and went on to read history at Girton College, Cambridge. She later trained with Philippe Gaulier at École Philippe Gaulier in London and the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City.
Career Writing Brealey has written on cinema, art and music since her teens, contributing reviews and features for magazines including Premiere UK, Empire, SKY, The Face, Neon and Total Film. She is the editor of Anarchy and Alchemy: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky (Creation Books, 2007). Until April 2009, Brealey was the deputy editor of Wonderland magazine. A freelance Associate Producer, she has written documentary pitches for BBC Arts. In 2013 her first play Pope Joan was performed by the National Youth Theatre. Her monologue Go Back To Where You Came From was performed as part of Paines Plough Theatre's Come To Where I'm From project in 2018.
Acting
Screen
Brealey made her TV debut as Nurse Roxanne Bird in two series of BBC drama Casualty before playing Judy Smallweed in Bleak House. Terry Wogan took Judy and her snaggle-toothed grandfather Smallweed (Phil Davis) to heart, regaling Radio 2 listeners with regular renditions of Davis' catchphrase "Shake me up, Judy!". Brealey followed Bleak House with a comic turn as Anorak, Alistair MacGowan's black-bobbed sidekick, in comedy drama Mayo, described by The Hollywood Reporter as "Agatha Christie does Moonlighting".
Brealey plays pathologist Molly Hooper in all four series of Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss's television drama, Sherlock.
Brealey is often asked to work in accents, playing a doughty Yorkshire doctor in Ripper Street, a Cockney ne'er-do-well in Law & Order: UK, a broken Geordie widow in Inspector George Gently and a ball-breaking Edinburgh academic in Clique.
Brealey played a leading role in the ITV drama The Widow, first broadcast in March 2019.
In 2023, Brealey starred in the BBC sitcom Such Brave Girls as a dysfunctional single mother, and co-starred alongside Annabel Scholey in the romantic musical film Chuck Chuck Baby.
Stage
Her stage debut was at London's Royal Court in 2001 as 14-year-old Sophie in Max Stafford-Clark's production of Judy Upton's Sliding With Suzanne. The Daily Telegraph called her performance "a perfect poignant study of adolescence".
Her portrayal of child prodigy Thomasina in the Bristol Old Vic production of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia in 2005 was described by The Daily Telegraph as "the evening belongs to Loo Brealey's Thomasina".
Brealey worked twice with Sir Peter Hall. First in 2007 on Simon Gray's Little Nell, in which she played the title role opposite Michael Pennington and Tim Pigott-Smith. Based on The Invisible Woman, Claire Tomalin's award-winning biography of Charles Dickens's mistress Ellen Ternan, Little Nell followed Ternan's story from 17 to 44 years of age. Critics described Brealey's work as and The following year, Hall cast her as Sonya in his critically acclaimed Uncle Vanya, the inaugural production at London's Rose Theatre. and Lloyd Evans, in his review for The Spectator, wrote:
In 2011 Brealey was the sex-mad, short-frocked daughter of Julian Barratt and Doon Mackichan at the Young Vic in Richard Jones's Government Inspector. She next played three lead roles – Cassandra, Andromache and Helen of Troy – in Caroline Bird's production of The Trojan Women at London's Gate Theatre. and Brealey talked about the roles in the Evening Standard and wrote a piece for The Times about the experience of going naked on stage, which went viral.
In February 2014 she starred as Julie in August Strindberg's Miss Julie at the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow.
For her 2015 performance as Marianne in Constellations, at The Lowry in Salford, she won the Manchester Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Visiting Production. She played the lead alongside Anne Marie Duff in Marianne Elliott's Husbands and Sons at the National Theatre.
Audio
Brealey is the narrator of Caitlin Moran's How to Build a Girl and its sequel How to Be Famous, Alex Michaelides’ The Silent Patient, Kate Mosse's Number One Bestseller Labyrinth and Hallie Rubenhold's The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. She voiced Josie in the audiobook of Lisa Jewel’s novel, None of This is True. She was Megan in the audiobook edition of The Girl on The Train by Paula Hawkins, which won the 2016 Audie Award for Audiobook of the Year.
Radio
Brealey voiced the part of Laura Willowes in the 2021 BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Lolly Willowes.
Personal life Brealey has been in a relationship with actor Ferdinand Kingsley, son of Ben Kingsley, since they met when he saw her playing Helen of Troy, in a 2012 production of The Trojan Women.
Filmography Film
Year Title Role Notes 2000 Boy Meets Girl Susan Short film 2003 The Tooth Faerie Short film 2007 I Want You Girl Short film 2010 Reuniting the Rubins Miri Rubins 2011 The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Hairdresser 2013 Delicious Stella 2014 Heard Ruth Short film 2015 Containment Sally 2018 In Wonderland Alice Short film 2019 Nobody's Son Susan Thompson Short film 2020 Limbo Hannah Peyton Short film 2022 Brian and Charles Hazel 2022 Deep Clean Maddie Short film 2023 Chuck Chuck Baby Helen
Television
Year Title Role Notes 2002–2004 Casualty Roxanne Bird Series regular (seasons 16–19) 2005 Bleak House Judy Serial, recurring role 2005 The English Harem Suzy TV movie 2006 Mayo Anorak Main cast 2007 Green Abi TV movie 2008 Hotel Babylon Chloe McCourt 1 episode 2010–2017 Sherlock Molly Hooper Recurring role (series 1), main cast (series 2–4, TV special) 2011 Law & Order: UK Joanne Vickery Episode: "Tick Tock" 2012 The Charles Dickens Show Various Recurring role 2013 Father Brown Eleanor Knight Episode: "The Mayor and the Magician" 2014 Ripper Street Amelia Frayn Main cast (series 3) 2015 Inspector George Gently Jo Parker Episode: "Gently Among Friends" 2015 Birthday Natasha TV movie 2016 All Good Things Joanne Episode: "Stupid" 2017 Clique Jude McDermid Main cast (series 1) 2017–2021 Back Cassandra Leslie "Cass" Nichols Main cast 2018 A Discovery of Witches Gillian Chamberlain Main cast (series 1) 2019 The Widow Beatrix Recurring role 2019 Gomorrah Leena 1 episode 2020 Death in Paradise Donna Harman Episode: "A Murder in Portrait" 2020 Exile Sarah Hargreaves Main cast 2023 Lockwood & Co. Pamela Joplin Recurring role 2023 Such Brave Girls Deb Main cast 2025 Shetland Isobel Jameson Supporting role (series 10) 2026 Madam Hooch Post-production
Theatre + List of roles in theatre Year Title Role Director Theatre 2001 Sliding with Suzanne Sophie Max Stafford-Clark Royal Court Theatre 2005 Arcadia Thomasina Rachel Kavanaugh Bristol Old Vic 2006 After the End Louise Roxana Silbert US and Russian tour, Off-Broadway 2007 Little Nell Nell Peter Hall Theatre Royal, Bath 2008 Uncle Vanya Sonya Peter Hall Rose Theatre, Kingston 2008 Pornography Actor 7 Sean Holmes Traverse Theatre 2009 Hannah Ramin Gray Royal Court Theatre 2009 Julie Ray Abbey Wright Theatre503 2010 Country Music Lynsey Lisa Blair & Eleanor While West Yorkshire Playhouse 2011 Government Inspector Mayor's daughter Richard Jones Young Vic 2012 Cassandra/Andromache/Helen of Troy Christopher Haydon Gate Theatre (London) 2013 The Herd Claire Howard Davies Bush Theatre 2014 Miss Julie Miss Julie Dominic Hill Citizens Theatre2014Letters LiveHay Festival, Wales2015Letters LiveFreemasons' Hall Husbands & Sons Minnie Gascoigne Marianne Elliott Co-production between National Theatre, London and Royal Exchange, Manchester
References
External links Louise Brealey writing, editing website Louise Brealey at Spotlight
Louise Brealey at United Agents Louise Brealey at the BBC's Casualty site