Samantha Jane Morton is an English actress and director. She is known for her work in independent productions often with dark themes and has received numerous accolades, including a British Academy Television Award, a British Independent Film Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for two Academy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award and a British Academy Film Award.
Morton was a member of the Central Junior Television Workshop in her native Nottingham, and later began her career in British television in 1991. She guest-starred in Soldier Soldier and Cracker and had a bigger role in the ITV series Band of Gold. She made the transition to film with lead roles in the dramas Emma (1996), Jane Eyre (1997) and the well-received Under the Skin (1997). Morton also starred alongside Max Beesley in BBC's mini series production of 'Tom Jones, A Foundling' in 1997 to critical acclaim. The next year, Woody Allen cast Morton in Sweet and Lowdown (1999), which earned her nominations for the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Established as a prominent force on the independent film scene by the early 2000s, Morton starred in Morvern Callar (2002), which garnered her the BIFA Award for Best Actress, and she received her second Academy Award nomination for her performance in In America (2003), this time for Best Actress. Her role in the commercially successful sci-fi thriller Minority Report (2002) was followed by biographical portrayals of Myra Hindley in Longford (2006), Deborah Curtis in Control (2007) and Mary, Queen of Scots in Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007). For her role in Longford, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.
Morton made her directorial debut with the television film The Unloved (2009), which won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Single Drama. She had also starred in films such as The Messenger (2009), John Carter (2012), Decoding Annie Parker (2013), and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016). By the late 2010s, she often ventured back into television, starring in the series The Last Panthers (2015), Rillington Place (2016), Harlots (2017–2019) and The Walking Dead (2019–2020).
