Susannah Harker

Susannah Harker (born Susannah Owens; 26 April 1965) is an English film, television, and theatre actress. She was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award in 1990 for her role as Mattie Storin in House of Cards. She played Jane Bennet in the 1995 TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Early life and education Harker was born in London. She is the daughter of actor Richard Owens and actresss, Polly Adams. She and her younger sister, Caroline, were brought up as Catholics and educated at an independent convent boarding school run by nuns in Sussex, and at the Central School of Speech and Drama in North London. Acting career Harker has acted in both contemporary and classic works, on stage, in movies and in TV series. In 1990–91 she appeared alongside Clive Owen in Chancer, and as the journalist Mattie Storin in the original House of Cards. She later played Dinah Morris in the 1991 adaptation of Adam Bede. She starred as Jane Bennet in the 1995 TV adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. She is featured as Emma Fitzgerald, the love interest of Superintendent Tyburn (Trevor Eve) in the BBC TV series, Heat of the Sun (1998). In 2003 she played Clare Keightley in the audio version of the Doctor Who adventure Shada, alongside Paul McGann. On stage in 2005, she appeared in Simon Stephens's play On the Shore of the Wide World at the Royal National Theatre. In 2008, she played Gwendoline in Charles Wood's Jingo at the Finborough Theatre, where the London Evening Standard reviewed her performance, saying "Susannah Harker, an actress who should appear more often in our major playhouses, is in beautifully crisp form as Gwendoline."