Who Is Ten Percent Actress Lydia Leonard?

She will also star as Cherie Blair in the new series of The Crown

Lydia Leonard

by Grazia Contributor |
Updated on

2022 will be the year that actress Lydia Leonard graduates from I-know-her-face roles in Whitechapel and Gentleman Jack, to being a household name in two of this year's most anticipated new TV series.

First up, she stars as Rebecca in Ten Percent, Amazon Prime's new English-language remake of French sitcom Call My Agent! (which is actually called Dix Pour Cent in France). Rebecca is the British version of Andrea, the lead female character played by Camille Cottin in the original.

The 40-year-old actress was actually born in France, and lived in Paris until she was five. Then she moved to the UK and attended the fancy Bedales School in Hampshire, where alumni includes Lily Allen and Sophie Dahl. She went to drama school at the Bristol Old Vic and then had a successful stage career, portraying Anne Boleyn in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. When the play transferred from the West End to Broadway in New York, she was nominated for a Tony Award.

In Ten Percent, Lydia will star alongside Jack Davenport, Maggie Steed, Prasanna Puwanarajah and Fola Evans-Akingbola as agents in a fictional talent agency. Like the French original, the series will have cameos from various stars, including Helena Bonham Carter, Phoebe Dynevor and David Oyelowo.

Ten Percent
Prasanna Puwanarajah, Maggie Steed, Jack Davenport and Lydia Leonard in Ten Percent ©Amazon

Then, later in the autumn, she will portray Cherie Blair in the new series of The Crown on Netflix, opposite Bertie Carvel as Tony Blair. Series five of The Crown will be set in the 1990s, with Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana and Dominic West as Prince Charles.

The cast also includes Imelda Staunton as Queen Elizabeth, Jonathan Pryce as Prince Philip, Lesley Manville as Princess Margaret, Olivia Williams as Camilla Parker Bowles and - hilariously - Jonny Lee Miller (yes, Angelina Jolie's 1990s husband) as John Major.

Next up for Lydia? After previous big screen roles included playing Emilia Clarke's sister in Last Christmas, and Tom Hiddleston's sister in the brilliant Archipelago, Lydia's next film role is in dark comedy Northern Comfort with Timothy Spall and Rob Delaney.

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