Harriet Jane Morahan (born 7 October 1978), better known as Hattie Morahan, is an English actress. Her roles include Sister Clara in The Golden Compass (2007), Gale Benson in The Bank Job (2008), Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility (2008), Alice in The Bletchley Circle (2012–2014), Ann in Mr. Holmes (2015), Rose Coyne in My Mother and Other Strangers (2016), Agathe/The Enchantress in Beauty and the Beast (2017), Corinne Aldrich in Luther: The Fallen Sun, Louise in Hijack, and Caroline Burkett in Fool Me Once.
Early life Morahan was born in 1978, the younger daughter of director Christopher Morahan and actress Anna Carteret. Her older sister Rebecca is a theatre director, and her half-brother Andy is a music video and film director. As a child, she attended parties thrown by Sir Laurence Olivier, who once helped her with her mathematics homework.
Morahan was educated at Frensham Heights School. She wanted to attend Newcastle University, but her father encouraged her to follow older sister Rebecca to New Hall, Cambridge, from which she graduated with a BA degree in English in 2000.
Career Morahan made her professional debut at 17, playing the leading role of Una Gwithian in a two-part BBC television adaptation of The Peacock Spring (1996).
Morahan joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 2001, making her theatre debut at Stratford-upon-Avon in Love in a Wood and her London debut at the Barbican Theatre (that December) in Hamlet. Other credits for the company included Night of the Soul and Prisoner's Dilemma.
At the Tricycle Theatre in March 2004 she played Ruby, a 1960s hippie who becomes a disenchanted 1980s political wife, for the Oxford Stage Company revival of Peter Flannery's Singer. In the same year she first worked with Katie Mitchell at the National Theatre when she starred in the title role of Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis.
In July 2005, she appeared again at the National in Nick Dear's Power, staged in the Cottesloe Theatre and also won acclaim at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, in September 2005 playing Viola in Ian Brown's production of Twelfth Night.
In 2006, she played the leading role, of Penelope Toop, in Douglas Hodge's touring revival of Philip King's hit farce See How They Run. In the same year, for her Lyttelton Theatre performance as Nina in Katie Mitchell's staging of Chekhov's The Seagull, she was awarded second prize in the Ian Charleson Awards 2007.
TV credits include Bodies and BBC One's Outnumbered, in which she portrays recurring character Jane. She has appeared in series 1, 2 and 4 of Outnumbered, as well as the Christmas Specials in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2024.
In January 2008, she appeared in the film The Bank Job, and she played a mounted policewoman in the ITV comedy drama pilot Bike Squad.
Giving a career enhancing performance, she also played Elinor Dashwood in BBC One's three-part adaptation, by Andrew Davies, of Jane Austen's novel Sense and Sensibility, first broadcast on New Year's Day 2008. On 13 June 2008, she won Best Actress at the 14th Shanghai Television Festival for her performance.
She worked again with director Katie Mitchell, co-starring with Benedict Cumberbatch in The City, a new, darkly comic mystery play by Martin Crimp, 24 April – 7 June 2008.
In July 2008, she returned to the National to appear in ...some trace of her, Katie Mitchell's adaptation of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, co-starring Ben Whishaw at the Cottesloe Theatre, while later in the year she played Mary in T.S. Eliot's The Family Reunion at the Donmar Warehouse. She returned to the National in April 2009 to play Kay Conway in Rupert Goold's production of J. B. Priestley's Time and the Conways in the Lyttelton auditorium and also Dawn in Caryl Churchill's Three More Sleepless Nights in the same season.
On 28 February 2010, she appeared as Miss Enid in Lark Rise to Candleford, and then as Martina Twain in the BBC adaptation of Martin Amis's Money. In the theatre, she played Annie in The Real Thing by Tom Stoppard at The Old Vic theatre, directed by Anna Mackmin, from April to June 2010; a year later returning to the stage in Thea Sharrock's pared-down Sheffield Crucible revival of David Hare's 1978 Plenty: Morahan affords the heady sensation of watching an actress at the top of her game (Sunday Times, Culture, 14 February 2011).
From 29 June to 26 July 2012, she played the lead role of Nora Helmer, opposite Dominic Rowan's Torvald, in a new version of A Doll's House by Simon Stephens at London's Young Vic Theatre, in a production directed by Carrie Cracknell and designed by Ian MacNeil. Her performance saw her named Best Actress at the 2012 Evening Standard Awards and the 2012 Critics' Circle Theatre Awards / She also received a nomination for an Olivier Award for her performance.
From 8 August to 26 October 2013, Morahan reprised her role as Nora Helmer alongside Dominic Rowan, who returned as her husband Torvald, at the Duke of York's Theatre London. The production then transferred to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY, in 2014.
In July 2015, Morahan played the role of doomed mother Elizabeth Aldridge in the BBC's two-part television adaptation of Sadie Jones' debut novel The Outcast. The Guardians Julia Raeside was impressed with Morahan's portrayal, writing, "She is so perfectly cast, the lack of her is palpable on screen. We miss her too." The following year, Morahan starred in the five-part BBC series My Mother and Other Strangers.
Personal life Morahan is married to actor Blake Ritson. They have been in a relationship since they met at university in the late 1990s. Morahan gave birth to the couple's daughter in August 2016 and to their son in 2020.
In 2025, Morahan guest starred as Lady Sarah Vere in multiple episodes of season three of The Gilded Age. Her husband has appeared as a main character in the show since season 1.
Credits
Film and television Year Title Role Notes 1996The Peacock SpringUna GwithianBBC 2002Too Close To The BoneShort 2004Out of TimeReceptionistShortNew TricksTottyTV series, 1 Episode 2005BodiesBeth Lucas-HallTV series, 7 episodes 2007–2011, 2024OutnumberedJane 2007The Golden CompassNurse Clara2008Agatha Christie's Miss MarpleElaine FortescueTV series, Episode: “A Pocket Full of Rye”Sense and SensibilityElinor DashwoodBBC, TV Mini-Series, 3 episodesBike SquadWPC Julie CardiganTrial & RetributionSally LawsonTV series, “Kill the King: Part 1 & 2”The Bank JobGale Benson 2010Lark Rise to CandlefordEnid FairleyTV series (1 episode) 2011Lewis: Old, Unhappy, Far Off ThingsRuth BrooksITV1 2012Eternal Law Hannah EnglishTV series (6 episodes) 2013Midsomer Murders Hayley BrantnerTV series, Episode: "Schooled in Murder"Having You Lucy Feature filmSummer in FebruaryLaura KnightFeature film 2014The Bletchley CircleAlice Merren“Blood on Their Hands: Part 1 & 2”, “Uncustomed Goods: Part 1 & 2” 2015 Mr. Holmes Ann Kelmot Ballot Monkeys Siobhan Hope The Outcast Elizabeth AldridgeTV series (1 episode) Arthur and George Miss Jean Leckie TV series2016 My Mother and Other Strangers Rose Coyne Alice Through the Looking Glass Queen Elsemere Feature film 2017 Beauty and the Beast Agathe/Enchantress, Narrator 2018 Inside No. 9 Amber Series 4, episode 1: "Zanzibar" 2019 The Sleepers (Bez vědomí) Susanne Clayton Official Secrets Yvonne Ridley 2020 Enola Holmes Lady Tewkesbury Netflix Feature Film 2022 Operation Mincemeat Iris MontaguFeature Film 2023 Luther: The Fallen Sun Corinne Aldrich Netflix Feature Film Hijack British Foreign Minister Apple TV+ Original 2024 Fool Me Once Caroline Burkett Netflix miniseries 2025 The Gilded Age Lady Sarah Vere Season 3 2026 Enola Holmes 3 Lady Tewkesbury Netflix Feature Film
Theatre Year Title Role Notes 2001Love in a WoodLucyRSC Swan TheatreHamletGentlewoman playerRSC Stratford and BarbicanThe Prisoner's DilemmaEmiliaRSC The Other Place and The Pit, Barbican 2002Night of the SoulTracyRSC The Pit, BarbicanThe CircleElizabethUK tour 2003Arsenic and Old LaceElaineStrand Theatre, 25 February – 31 MayPowerLouise de la ValliereCottesloe Theatre, 3 July – 29 October 2004SingerRubyOxford Stage Company, UK tourEuripides' Iphigenia at AulisIphigeniaLyttelton Theatre, 22 June – 7 September 2005Twelfth NightViolaWest Yorkshire Playhouse, 21 September – 22 October 2006See How They RunPenelope ToopUK tourThe SeagullNinaOlivier Theatre, 27 June – 23 September 2008The City by Martin CrimpClairRoyal Court Theatre, 24 April – 7 June...some trace of herNastasyaCottesloe (National) Theatre; 23 July – 21 October 2008–2009The Family ReunionMaryDonmar Warehouse, 25 November 2008 – 10 January 2009 2009Time and the ConwaysKate ConwayNational Theatre Lyttelton; 28 April – 27 July 2010The Real ThingAnnieOld Vic; 10 April – 5 June 2011PlentySusan TraherneCrucible Theatre Studio, Sheffield; 8–26 February 2012A Doll's HouseNora HelmerYoung Vic; 29 June – 26 July 2012The Dark Earth and the Night SkyHelen ThomasAlmeida Theatre; November - January2017Anatomy of a SuicideCarolRoyal Court Theatre, 3 June – 8 July2019Grief Is The Thing With FeathersMotherBarbican Centre; 25 March - 13 April2019Orpheus DescendingLady TorranceMenier Chocolate Factory; May - July2023GhostsHelene AlvingSam Wanamaker Playhouse; November - January
Radio Year Title Role Notes 2006Trevor's World of SportCarrieGuest star 2010–2011I, ClaudiusAgrippina the ElderBBC Radio 4; 28 November 2010 – 2 January 2011 2010The Art of Deception Jessica BrownBBC Radio 4; 20–24 December 2010 2012Miss MacKenzieMiss MacKenzieBBC Radio 4 ExtraA Month in the CountryAlice Keachadapted by Dave Sheasby from JL Carr's novella: BBC Radio 4 Saturday Drama series 2013Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully Katrina LyonsBBC Radio 2 2015–2017Doctor Who: Doom Coalition Helen SinclairBig Finish Productions 2018Tracks – Chimera Dr. Helen AshBBC Radio 4 2018–2019Doctor Who: Ravenous Helen SinclairBig Finish Productions 2020–2022Doctor Who: Stranded 2022Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Adventures: What lies inside?Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor Adventures: Connections 2023Enduring Love ClarissaBBC Radio 4
References
External links Hattie Morahan at United Agents