Helen Mirren

Helen Mirren is one of the best known and most respected actors with an international career spanning stage, screen and television. She is renowned for tackling challenging roles and has received numerous awards for her powerful and versatile performances, including the Academy Award® for her work in “The Queen.”

Her credits include Julie Taymor’s “The Tempest,” as Prospera in a gender twist on the classic character, “RED,” an espionage thriller based on the WildStorm/DC comic book and “Brighton Rock,” written and directed by Rowan Joffe and based on the novel by Graham Greene.

Mirren has completed filming a remake of the classic 1981 comedy “Arthur” with Warner Brothers, opposite Russell Brand. In a twist on the John Gielgud role, Helen plays the long-time and long-suffering nanny to Russell’s naughty playboy character.

Mirren launched her career in London at the National Youth Theatre, playing Cleopatra. She went on to star in a number of esteemed productions, including “Troilus and Cressida” and “Macbeth,” for the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1972, she joined renowned director Peter Brook’s theatre company and toured the world.

Mirren’s film career began with Michael Powell’s “Age of Consent,” but her breakthrough role was in John Mackenzie’s “The Long Good Friday,” opposite Bob Hoskins. She has starred in such acclaimed films as John Boorman’s “Excalibur” and Neil Jordan’s Irish thriller “Cal,” for which she received the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. She continued to push boundaries in Peter Weir’s “The Mosquito Coast,” Peter Greenaway’s “The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover” and Terry George’s “Some Mother’s Son,” which she also co-produced. She recently starred in Taylor Hackford’s “Love Ranch,” a film inspired by the story of the first legalized brothel in Nevada. It will be the first film collaboration with Hackford (who is also Mirren’s husband) since “White Knights” in 1985.

Mirren earned her first Academy Award® nomination for her performance as Queen Charlotte in “The Madness of King George,” a role that won her another Best Actress Award from the Cannes Film Festival. She earned her second Oscar® nomination for her role as the housekeeper in Robert Altman’s “Gosford Park.” Additional film credits include “Calendar Girls,” “The Clearing” and “State of Play.” Mirren’s recent role in Sony Pictures Classics’ “The Last Station,” as Sofya the wife of Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, garnered her nominations in 2010 for Best Actress for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe®, Screen Actors Guild® and Independent Spirit Award.

Her most celebrated role was as Elizabeth II in Stephen Frear’s “The Queen,” for which she won the Academy Award® for Best Actress along with a Golden Globe®, BAFTA, SAG® and numerous other awards from around the world.

In television, Mirren starred in the award-winning PBS series “Prime Suspect” as Detective Chief Inspector Jane Tennison. “The Final Chapter - Prime Suspect 7” was released in 2006, bringing this iconic role to its conclusion after an unprecedented total of two Emmy® Awards and six nominations, one Golden Globe® nomination (which she lost to herself for her role in “Elizabeth I”), three BAFTA Awards and six nominations and a TCA nomination.

Her other television credits include “The Passion of Ayn Rand,” (Emmy® and a Golden Globe® nominations), “Losing Chase” (Golden Globe Best Actress), “Door to Door” (Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild® nominations), “The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone” (Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild nominations) and “Elizabeth I” (Emmy and a Golden Globe for Best Actress).

Mirren’s more recent stage credits include “Phedre” at the National Theatre, London and New Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, DC; “A Month in the Country,” for which she received a Tony® nomination; “The Dance of Death” on Broadway opposite Sir Ian McKellan; and she played Christine in “Mourning Becomes Electra” at the National Theatre, for which she was nominated for an Olivier Best Actress Award.

Miramax Films