Amanda Root

Amanda Root (born 1963) is an English actress. She is perhaps best known for her starring role as Anne Elliot in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Persuasion. A familiar face on both stage and screen, she worked regularly with the Royal Shakespeare Company during her early career, performing as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, among other roles. In 2009, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance as Sarah in Alan Ayckbourn's The Norman Conquests. Her film roles include The Iron Lady (2011), Their Finest (2016), The Black Prince (2017) and Summerland (2020). Root is also known for her television roles, including Dolly in Anna Karenina (2000), Mrs Davilow in Daniel Deronda (2002), and Winifred Dartie in The Forsyte Saga (2002−2003). In 2018, she played Carol Finch in ITV crime drama Unforgotten (2018), and in 2023, she portrayed Sue Farquhar in BBC drama The Sixth Commandment (2023). Life and career Root was born in Chelmsford, Essex, to Ken and Maureen Root. Her father was an accountant, whilst her mother had performed in amateur dramatic productions as a child. Both were supportive of her ambitions to become an actor. She attended Philip Morant School in Colchester, studying drama at O Level; she joined the Essex Youth Theatre as a teenager. After graduating from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, she began her career at the Leeds Playhouse in 1983 when she played Essie in George Bernard Shaw's The Devil's Disciple. She worked regularly with the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon and London from 1983 to 1991, including playing the role of Juliet to Daniel Day-Lewis's Romeo; a very young Lady Macbeth; Cressida to Ralph Fiennes's Troilus, and Rosaline to his Berowne. She also appeared as Jessica opposite Ian McDiarmid’s Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. She was a remarkably complete actress even in her early twenties, when physically she looked little more than a child. With her dark soulful eyes she could command a stage, and the Royal Shakespeare Company saw her talent very early on. She worked regularly with the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon and London from 1983 to 1991, including playing the role of Juliet to Daniel Day-Lewis's Romeo; a very young Lady Macbeth; Cressida to Ralph Fiennes's Troilus, and Rosaline to his Berowne. In 1985, Root made her television debut in the pilot episode of Ladies in Charge, as one of a trio of women setting up an agency to help others in postwar London.