Jo Hartley

Joanne Victoria Hartley (born 12 March 1972) is an English actress born in Oldham, Lancashire who has appeared in the films This Is England, The Young Victoria, Eddie the Eagle, Slaughterhouse Rulez and Torvill & Dean and in British television series This Is England '86, Not Safe For Work, After Life, Bliss, In My Skin, Sweetheart (2021), and Bank of Dave (2023). Early life Hartley was brought up in a working-class family, attending North Chadderton School in Chadderton, in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. She started acting at the age of 11 in her school production of The Sound of Music as Gretel Von Trappe. She then joined Oldham Theatre Workshop, developing her acting skills until the age of 17, when she stopped acting to work at British Aerospace (BAe) on a Youth Training Scheme where she worked as a secretary in the office for two years until leaving BAe to join Japan Airlines as a flight attendant. In her mid-twenties, Hartley left the aviation industry to pursue a career as an actor. Hartley returned to England, in London studying at the Questors Theatre in Ealing, where she studied method acting and Stanislavski's system until landing her first film role in the 2004. Career Hartley had her debut film role in the 2004 Shane Meadows directed Crime Drama Thriller film Dead Man's Shoes as 'Marie'. She went on to appear in many British productions, including films such as Northern Soul and Me and Her both in 2004; Terra Firma and Flushed in 2008; and The Crossing, Janet and Bernard and I Don't Care in 2014. Hartley has been a character actor in many TV films and TV series since 2004, with her most notable roles in This Is England '86, This Is England '88 and This Is England '90, the follow-on TV mini-series to the film. In movies Hartley has appeared in This Is England (2006) as Cynthia, and the feature film The Young Victoria in 2009, with Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend.