Early Life and Education

Natalie Dormer is an English Actress, humanitarian and feminist who was born on 11 February 1982 in Reading, Berkshire, England.  Natalie is a decedent of Jane Dormer, the close friend (or fool) of Queen Mary Tudor.  Natalie attended Chiltern Edge Secondary School before moving on to Reading Blue Coat School in the sixth form.  She grew up with her stepfather, mother, her sister Samantha and her brother Mark.  Natalie was a victim to school bullies but still to this day cannot place why.

During her schooling years she trained in dance at the Allenova School of Dancing, Natalie described herself as the ‘Academic hopeful’ of the family as she was due to read history at University but instead decided to train at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.  Natalie also loves fencing and is a member of the London Fencing Academy, she also has a fondness for poker and competed in a contest during 2008 run by PartyPoker.com and placed second in the Celebrity Heats.  Natalie says that Cate Blanchett has been an influence in her career as an actress.

Philanthropy

During World Humanitarian Day in 2016, Natalie gave a speech at the United Nations headquarters to ‘highlight the plight of refugees’.  She highlighted the violence suffered by women and girls, then demanded men and boys to be ‘engaged’ in the conversation.  In 2017, returning to her ‘feminist roots’, Natalie went on holiday to Tanzania with the development and humanitarian organisation Plan International to ban child marriage.

Public Image

In a 2018 interview, Natalie said she does not use social media due to concern of being misquoted. Regarding her appearances in film and television where she performed nude, she said, “To set the record straight, I have never been comfortable doing sex or nude scenes. Are you joking? How many people would be? My job specification is finding motivation in the text. I turned down roles involving sex, solely because of the way I am misrepresented. I’m terrified of perpetuating that clickbait image of me.”

Professional Career

Natalie’s career debuted in her role as Victoria in the 2005 movie Casanova (2005) where she starred alongside Heath Ledger.  Natalie impressed Lasse Hallstrom so much that he expanded her part.  Natalie’s love for stage combat flourished in the film, only Natalie wishes there was more, “The swordplay in Casanova (2005) is beautiful. I’m actually disappointed that there isn’t more,” says Dormer. “I suppose I’m quite violent. I took a stage combat class at school and developed quite a sword collection.”  Furthermore, based upon Natalie’s brilliant performance she signed a three movie deal with Disney, but this has yet to be exercised.

Through Natalie’s role in Casanova (2005) she proved to the acting world that she was not only naturally talented but that she was destined for bigger and greater things.  During 2007 Natalie landed the role as Anne Boleyn in Showtime’s lavish Television Series The Tudors (2007-2010).  Natalie’s portrayal of Anne was critically acclaimed despite being snubbed by the Emmy’s in 2008.  It was said by many critics that Anne’s death (Natalie’s departure) had left an irreplaceable void.  In mid 2008 it was announced that Natalie would be working on Fencewalker a film shrouded in mystery by its director Chris Carter.

During 2009 Natalie voiced Serafina for Sarah Dunat’s novel Sacred Hearts (2009).  Serafina is a 16 year old girl living in Renaissance Italy who is forced into a convent by her parents due to her love her music teacher.  Also in the same year Natalie appeared in Marple: Why didn’t they ask Evans? (2009).  In December the same year she attended the Dubai Film Festival to promote her new movie City of Life (2009).  There was a whisper about a TV series Natalie would star in called Masterwork (2009), where Natalie plays a MI5 Agent traveling the world in search for stolen artefacts, but the series is yet to be picked up.

In the early part of 2010 Natalie was cast into a play called Sweet Nothings (2010) by Arthur Schnitzle.  Natalie travelled around Europe performing two shows a day and also managed to find time to return to The Tudors (2007-2010)  as a ghostly Anne Boleyn in the final season.  Katherine and Jane also appeared and this marked the end of King Henry and the end of The Tudors (2007-2010).  In the middle of 2010 Natalie was cast as the favourite Queen Mother, Elizabeth Parker-Bowles in W.E, (2011) a story of the love affair between Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII.  Natalie also signed on for the role of Niamh Cranitch in the television series legal drama Silk (2011), which she appeared in all episodes of season 1.  During 2011 Natalie also made appearances in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) as Private Lorraine, the TV Mini-Series The Fades (2011) as Sarah and in TV Movie Poe (2011) as Celeste Cavalier.

During 2012 Natalie played the role of Lauren Bacall in the short Electric Cinema: How to Behave (2012) and then was cast as Margaery Tyrell in HBO’s fantasy TV series Game of Thrones (2012-2016).  She received international recognition for the role, and critical acclaim for her performance. Natalie alongside the cast was nominated for four Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series in 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016, and the cast was awarded the Empire Hero Award in 2015 by the Brit film magazine Empire. For her performance in the third season of the show, Natalie won the Ewwy Award for Best Supporting Actress – Drama.  In March 2012 she played the title role in After Miss Julie (2012) a theatre production by Patrick Marber for the Young Vic. Her performance earned acclaim, with reviews describing her as “little short of sensational”, “outstanding”, and “the perfect Miss Julie”. The online theatre magazine Exeunt says her portrayal of Miss Julie contained “all the anger, desire, wit, loneliness, merriment, melancholy and desperation of the casts of several plays together… Dormer has more presence and eerie beauty than is apparent from her appearances on-screen, and she shape-shifts almost supernaturally between seductress, child, and tormentor.”

During 2013 Natalie went on to play the role of Lady Door in the radio production Neverwhere (2013) which is based on the novel by Neil Gaiman.  Later that year, she appeared in the car racing drama Rush (2013), the thriller The Counselor (2013) and in A Long Way From Home (2013). Natalie then appeared as Irene Adler in the final three episodes of the first season of the CBS series Elementary (2013-2015) and then went on to reprise the role in the second season.   During 2014 Natalie went on to play Cressida in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) and later reprised the role in the final film of the movie series The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015) which premiered in 2015.  During 2015 Natalie starred as the scandalous 18th-century noblewoman Lady Worsley in a BBC drama The Scandalous Lady W (2015), based on the book Lady Worsley’s Whim by the historian Hallie Rubenhold.  She went on to star in musician Hozier’s music video Someone New (2015) which was directed by her then fiance Anthony Byrne.

During 2016 Natalie starred alongside Taylor Kinney in the thriller The Forest (2016) where she played double time as twins Sara and Jess Price, went on to appear in the short The Roof (2016) and concluded her role as Margarey Tyrell in Game of Thrones (2012-2016).  During 2017, Natalie voiced Dr. Lexi T’Perro in the video game Mass Effect: Andromeda (2017).  She then returned to the stage at the Theatre Royal Haymarket for the lead role in David Ives’ Venus In Fur (2017).  The Telegraph described her performance as “sensational” while Lyn Gardner says Natalie was “dominant in every way”.

During 2018 Natalie starred as Mrs. Appleyard in the TV Mini-Series Picnic at Hanging Rock (2018) a remake of the Australian 1967 novel of the same name by Joan Lindsay.  Her performance was described as “commanding” and “delicious”.  She went on to star as Sofia as In Darkness (2018) which she co-write with her then fiance Anthony Byrne.  Interviews with Natalie and Anthony had both of them describing that writing together was “challenging” and the film was criticised for scenes of “gratuitous nudity”.  During an interview with The Guardian, Natalie says “There has to be sex in the power play of a thriller. We all got bodies, after all. In this film, the love-making scene is a metaphor for the way my character connects with the part played by Ed Skrein. Nakedness is a good equaliser, and the shower scene also shows the tattoos on my character’s body and makes it clear she is not quite who you think.”  During the same year Natalie also appeared as Dr Gina Rose in Patient Zero (2018) and starred alongside George Clooney in the short Nespresso: The Quest (2018).  Following her audio work on Neverwhere (2013), a August 2018 press-release announced Natalie would narrate the audiobook for Pottermore Publishing’s Harry Potter: A History of Magic (2018).

During 2019 Natalie starred alongside Mel Gibson and Sean Penn in The Professor and the Madman (2018).  She went on to voice the role of Onica in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019). In 2020, she starred in Showtime’s series, Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (2020), playing multiple roles; she received praise for her work on the series, and she was nominated for a Critics’ Choice Super Award. Sadly the series was not renewed for a further seasons.  She is set to play play Vivien Leigh in the miniseries Vivling which focuses on Leigh’s classic films, including Gone with the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire.  Natalie will develop and produce the show Vivling and is the first series of a first-look production deal with Fremantle.

Updated 7 March 2021.