Amelia Fiona Driver is better known by her childhood nickname ‘Minnie’. An actress and accomplished singer/songwriter, Minnie has been nominated for an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award in the TV series The Riches.
She also has an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress in Good Will Hunting.
Minnie signed my sketch at the premiere of her latest film I Give It A Year, at the Vue Cinema in London’s Leicester Square in January this year.
Laura Carmichael, best known for her role as Lady Edith Crawly in the Golden Globe and Emmy award winning historical drama Downton Abbey, made her West End debut in the new production of Uncle Vanya at the Vaudeville Theatre.
She joined Kim Stott, Anna Friel and Samuel West.
Laura’s other television and film credits include The Heart of Thomas Hardy and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
2012 was certainly the year of Uncle Vanya revivals. A very funny and mercurial account of Chekhov’s great tragicomedy of wasted lives, directed by Lucy Bailey at the Print Room, and a more melancholic take from Jeremy Herrin at Chichester. In November, opening within days of each other, two ‘Vanyas‘ hit the West End. A version from Moscow based Vakhtangov Company at the Noël Coward Theatre and Lindsay Posner’s rendering at the Vaudeville, based on a sharp, ruefully witty translation by Oscar Winner Christopher Hampton.
Theatrical titan Sir Peter Hall enjoyed the evening and Laura’s performance immensely, but had to apologise to her for an outburst during the poignant closing speech, during the opening night. “Being rather aged I dropped off for a moment and on being woken up by my wife I was briefly disorientated.”
The production generally garnered positive reviews with the 25 year old Laura’s performance as Vanya’s niece Sonya singled out for praise for its sensitivity.
Mary-Louise Parker is no stranger to screen and stage acting awards – in 2003 she won both a Golden Globe and an Emmy for Supporting Actress in Angels In America. She won a Tony Award for Proof in 2001 and in 2006 another Golden Globe for Best Actress in Needs.
Proof is a 2000 play by American writer David Auburn. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Play. It premiered off Broadway in May 2000, before transferring to the Walter Kerr Theater in October that year.
Mary-Louise played Catherine, the daughter of a deceased mathematical genius and Professor at the University of Chicago, who struggled with mental illness. After his death, one of his students finds his ‘proof’ for a paradigm shift involving prime numbers. Catherine has to prove her father is the author amongst fears of following in her father’s footsteps, both mathematically and mentally.
Mary-Louise signed my sketch at the European Premiere of Red 2, Empire Cinema in Leicester Square, London, on the 22nd July 2013.
American actress Laurie Metcalf played Jackie Harris in the sitcom Roseanne, which ran for 221 episodes from 1988-97. She won three consecutive Emmy Awards (1992-94) and was nominated for two Golden Globes for her performance in the role. She has also appeared in Desperate Housewives, The Big Bang Theory. She has won both a Theatre World Award and an Obie Award for her work on stage.
In 2012, she joined David Suchet in Eugene O’Neills Long Day’s Journey Into Night at London’s Apollo Theatre.
Laurie signed my sketch at the Apollo Theatre stage door in July 2012.
When Brooke Shields was only 5 days old, her mother, Teri, openly stated that she was grooming her for show business. Eleven months later, Brooke modelled for Ivory Soap. As a twelve year old she won critical acclaim in Louis Malle’s film Pretty Baby, playing a child prostitute. In 2009 a naked photo of her, taken when she was 10 was included in an exhibition of works by Richard Prince at the Tate Modern. It was removed after a police warning. By the time she was 16, Brooke was one of the most recognisable faces in the world, due to dual careers as a provocative fashion model and as a child actress.
In 1983, she abandoned her acting and modelling to complete a Bachelor’s degree in French literature a Princeton University. She returned to acting in the 1990s, including a four season run in the titular role of the TV sitcom Suddenly Susan (1996-2000), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Brooke has appeared in several Broadway productions, including revivals of Grease (1999), Cabaret (2001), and as Roxie Hart in Chicago (2005), a role she previously played at the Adelphi Theatre in London’s West End a year earlier.
Brooke signed my sketch at Barnes and Noble Tribeca in New York on 24 June 2008. She was doing a signing for her book Welcome to Your World, Baby.
London-born Carey Mulligan made her film debut in 2005’s Pride and Prejudice, but her breakthrough role was Jenny in An Education in 2009. Likened to Audrey Hepburn by some critics, she was nominated for numerous awards including the Oscar and a BAFTA, which she went on to win.
In 2007 she appeared in Christopher Hampton’s adoption of Chekhov’s The Seagull at London’s Royal Court Theatre to critical acclaim. She starred opposite Kristin Scott Thomas and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
It transferred to Broadway in 2008 resulting in a Drama Desk Award nomination.
Carey signed my sketch in London on 24 May 2010.
An alumna of King’s College, Cambridge, Lily Cole has had to balance her scholarly activity with her screen and modelling commitments. From appearing on the cover of British Vogue at the age of 16, she has modelled for the world’s leading brands including Alexander McQueen, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Jean Paul Gaultier and Prada. Paris Vogue listed her as one of the top 30 models of the 2000s.
Lily has appeared in a dozen films with her first lead role as the bohemian Valentina in Terry Gilliam’s fantasy The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009).
A Daily Mirror poll in 2010 voted her the fourth sexiest redhead of all time, behind Florence Welch, Prince Harry and Nicola Roberts. She supports a variety of humanitarian and environmental causes including the children’s charity Global Angels and the Environmental Justice Foundation.
The biro sketch is based on her character Lettuce Leaf in Sally Potter’s murder mystery Rage. It was the first feature film to debut on mobile phones and starred Jude Law and Judi Dench. I left the drawing at the Soho Hotel where Lily was attending the premiere of Dr Parnassus in October 2009, and she returned it signed a month later.
Freida Pinto rose to prominence in her debut film as Latika in the 2008 British drama Slumdog Millionaire. The ‘sleeper hit’ of that year went on to be nominated for 10 Academy Awards, winning eight, including Best Pictures, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was also nominated for 11 BAFTA Awards, including Supporting Actress nod for Freida. It won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast.
Freida is also a member of the Agassi Foundation, which was founded by tennis legends Andre Agassi and his wife Steffi Graff to provide education for deprived children.
Freida signed my quick biro sketch at the Gala screening of Miral, at the Vue Cinema in Leicester Square, which was part of the BFI London Film Festival in October 2010.
Caroline Quentin is best known as Maddie Magellan in Jonathan Creek, and as Dorothy in Men Behaving Badly, for which she won Best Actress at the 1995 British Comedy Awards. She won again in 2004 for her role in the TV film Von Trapped.
Caroline will head the cast of the satirical WWI musical Oh What A Lovely War at the Theatre Royal Stratford East next year. She signed my sketch just before the final performance of Terrible Advice at the Menier Chocolate Factory in London on 12 November 2011.
Dame Judi Dench is considered to be one of the greatest actresses of the post-war period, primarily through her work in theatre, including several of Shakespeare’s plays.
However, it was a Shakespearean role in a film about the Bard that won her film’s most coveted award – the Oscar (she also won the BAFTA). Playing Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love (1999) for only a few minutes earned her the Best Supporting Actress statue. In her acceptance speech she said “I feel for eight minutes on the screen, I should only get a little bit of him.” Her understated take on the monarch does set much of the film’s plot in motion.
Dame Judi signed my sketch through the post and sent me a nice complimentary letter.
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