Olivia Colman is riding high following her success at the BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for her role as Queen Anne in The Favourite. Her much deserved recognition during awards season so far is all leading up to the Oscars, which will take place in LA on Sunday night. The Norfolk-born star has won a place in the British public's affections with her down-to-earth and open manner, which she has certainly brought to the awards circuit with her brilliant speeches. In the past decade, Olivia has also taken on a variety of supporting comedic roles which endeared her to millions including Sophie in Peep Show, Alex, Tom Hollander's wife in Rev, and PA Sally in Twenty Twelve.
Olivia has won a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for her role in The Favourite
Of course, our perception of Olivia also changed after she took on a number of decidedly grittier roles — most noticeably in Tyrannasaur playing Hannah, dubbed "the most humiliated women in the history of cinema" by one critic, Accused and Broadchurch. Olivia is forging a new path as one of best and brightest of Hollywood, but who is the woman behind the buzz? Here are five things you should really know about the British star.
Olivia received acclaim for her role in Broadchurch
Olivia Colman's husband, Ed Sinclair
It was love at first sight when Olivia first set eyes on future husband, writer Ed Sinclair. They met at Cambridge, both cast in a student production, and the second she saw him as she walked into rehearsals she felt a thunderbolt — "I'm going to marry him". "He was gorgeous, the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen," she told the Telegraph. The feeling was not instantly mutual. "I stuck with him and made him realise he could only be happy with me. I still feel like I'm punching above my weight." The smitten couple are proud parents to two boys and a girl.
Olivia with her husband Ed Sinclair
She could have been a lorry driver
If she wasn't an actress, Olivia could have had a life on the road. Back when she was at school, the actress took a computer career test that told her she would make "an ideal HGV lorry driver, because I've got 100 per cent spatial awareness. I'd be able to back into tight spots".
Olivia has also been nominated for an Academy Award
Her Peep Show role was an accident
She fell in with Peep Show's David Mitchell and Robert Webb by accident. Olivia answered an audition advert, imagining it would be an amateur dramatic society, but instead found it was for Footlights, the Cambridge finishing school for comedians.In Cambridge studying at teacher training college, she decamped to the Bristol Old Vic to study drama and began her career with supporting roles in Peep Show and That Mitchell & Webb Look. "I owe Rob and David so much — they gave me my first job. I might not be doing this at all if it wasn't for them. And they're lovely friends."
Her most embarrassing moment is REALLY embarrasing
Her most embarrassing moment was wetting herself on stage. "We were doing The Miser and there were lots of quick changes, and David (Mitchell) never managed to get his bow tie in the right place," she told the Guardian. "It became to much to bear, wondering what he would have under his chin each time I turned around!"
She has a host of celebrity friends and fans
She counts Meryl Streep among her fans. Olivia starred alongside Meryl in The Iron Lady, playing Carol Thatcher to the Oscar-winner's Margaret. While Meryl won a Bafta for her performance, she singled out her talented British co-star calling her "divinely gifted". Olivia is also close friends with her The Favourite co-stars, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone, and affectionately called Emma 'Ems' at the BAFTA Awards.
