Victoria Hamilton

Victoria Hamilton (born 5 April 1971) is an English actress.

After training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, Hamilton began her career in classical theatre, appearing in productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. In 2002, she appeared in the London stage play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg alongside Clive Owen and later Eddie Izzard.She made her Broadway debut in 2003 when the production moved to New York, where she earned a Tony Award nomination. She won the Critics' Circle Theatre Award and Evening Standard Theatre Award for her performance in the play Suddenly, Last Summer, held in 2004 at the Lyceum Theatre.Hamilton has often worked in the costume drama genre. During the 1990s, she had supporting roles in three Jane Austen adaptations: the 1995 serial Pride and Prejudice, the 1995 film Persuasion, and the 1999 film Mansfield Park.Hamilton won the role of Queen Victoria in the 2001 television production, Victoria & Albert, portraying the monarch in her early years. From 2008 to 2011, Hamilton was a cast member in the BBC1 series Lark Rise to Candleford. In 2016-17, she portrayed Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in the Netflix historical drama series The Crown.Hamilton was born on 5 April 1971 in Wimbledon, London to a non-theatrical family. She attended St Hilary's School, a private school in Surrey, from 1974 to 1982, then Prior's Field School, Godalming, until 1987.She initially intended to read English at Bristol University, before opting to train at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. She began her acting career in classical theatre, spending the first five years appearing in productions by companies such as the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.She stayed with the Royal Shakespeare Company for eighteen months.She commented in 2001 that it was "very unfashionable" to begin a career in classical theatre, but she had sought to emulate the careers of actors like Judi Dench and Ian Holm who "started in rep and slowly built themselves into the position where they could juggle theatre and film"Hamilton is known for working in the costume drama genre. In 2001, she joked that she had been in corsets for the preceding seven years.

During the 1990s, she had supporting roles in three adaptations of