Anna Charlotte Martin (born 10 May 1977), known professionally as Anna Maxwell Martin, is an English actress. She has won two British Academy Television Awards, for her portrayals of Esther Summerson in the BBC adaptation of Bleak House (2005), and of N in the Channel 4 adaptation of Poppy Shakespeare (2008). She is also known for her roles as DCS Patricia Carmichael in BBC One crime drama Line of Duty (2019–2021) and Kelly Major in Code 404 (2020–2022). From 2016 to 2022, Martin starred in the BBC comedy Motherland, for which she was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Female Comedy Performance. In 2025, she won the International Emmy Award for Best Actress for playing Delia Balmer in ITV's Until I Kill You.
Martin's theatre work includes the role of Lyra Belacqua in the production of His Dark Materials (2003–2004) at the National Theatre.
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Early life and education
Anna Charlotte Martin was born in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, on 11 May 1977, to Rosalind (née Youngson) and Ivan Martin. Her father was from Maghera, a small town in the south of County Londonderry in Northern Ireland, and he was the managing director of a pharmaceutical company, while her mother, who was from Scotland, was a research scientist. Her mother gave up her job to bring up Anna and her elder brother, Adam.
She attended Beverley High School, where she appeared in school plays. After she left school, Martin studied history at Liverpool University.
After completing her education at Liverpool, Martin enrolled to study acting at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) from which she graduated in 2001. She added the name Maxwell (her maternal grandfather's first name) to her name to distinguish her from another member with the same name when she joined Equity. In 2022, Martin appeared on an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, and said that Maxwell is a middle name and not part of her surname.
Career
Martin made her professional stage debut in 2001, in The Little Foxes at the Donmar Theatre, London. She first came to prominence on the London stage playing the leading role of Lyra in the National Theatre's production of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. She was then cast in the part of Bessie Higgins in the BBC television adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's novel North and South in 2004, and made a guest appearance in the 2005 series of Doctor Who. She played Esther Summerson, the central character in the 2005 BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens's Bleak House, for which she won the Best Actress BAFTA Television Award in 2006.
In January 2006, Martin took part in a reading of The Entertainer at the Royal Court Theatre, and in February and March she appeared in Laura Wade's Other Hands, directed by Bijan Sheibani at the Soho Theatre. She is the narrator of the CD version of The Foreshadowing, a children's book about the First World War by Marcus Sedgwick, which was published in May 2006. In the same year she was one of the five leads in I Really Hate My Job, directed by Oliver Parker and, from October 2006 to April 2007, played Sally Bowles in Bill Kenwright and Rufus Norris's West End production of Cabaret at the Lyric Theatre.
She played Cassandra Austen in Becoming Jane, a 2007 film about the early life of the novelist Jane Austen, starring American actress Anne Hathaway in the title role. At the end of the year she played the gaoler's daughter in Lee Hall's adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, a multimillion-pound production by Box TV for BBC One, and was the joint narrator (with Anton Lesser) of the CD version of Tamar, a children's book about the Second World War by Mal Peet, which was published in December 2007.
In 2008, Martin starred in the BBC Two drama White Girl and with Naomie Harris in Channel 4's adaptation of Poppy Shakespeare, for which she won her second Best Actress BAFTA Television Award in 2009.
From July to October of that year, she appeared with Dame Eileen Atkins in The Female of the Species at the Vaudeville Theatre in London. She also appeared in a BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel Crooked House. In July 2009, she appeared in the BBC Two drama Freefall, and played Neil Armstrong's wife, Janet, in Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11, an ITV1 drama documentary to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing.
Personal life
Martin married theatre and film director Roger Michell in 2010. The couple had two daughters. In April 2020, the couple separated. Michell died in September 2021, aged 65. She is currently in a relationship with camera operator Richard Cornelius, whom she met on the set of the Sky comedy, Code 404, after the Covid-19 pandemic.
In June 2026 Martin was the guest for BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. Her musical choices included "I Love to Boogie" by T. Rex, "Greatest Love of All" by Whitney Houston and "O mio babbino caro" by Giacomo Puccini. Her book was the Jackson Brodie series of books by Kate Atkinson and her luxury was a lucky conker.
Acting credits
Readings and benefits
The Lady of Larkspur Lotion (rehearsed reading) as Mrs. Hardwicke-Moore at the National Theatre (21 October 2002)
Hello from Bertha (rehearsed reading) as Goldie at the National Theatre (22 October 2002)
Collateral Damage II (poetry) at the National Theatre (14 March 2003)
Songs of Innocence and Experience (poetry) at the National Theatre (18 February 2004)
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (poetry) at the National Theatre (25 February 2004)
Will and Lyra as herself (interview) at the National Theatre (26 March 2004)
After the Fire (rehearsed reading) at the National Theatre (7 March 2005)
The Black Glove (rehearsed reading) at the National Theatre (15 March 2005)
Snowbound (showcase) at the Royal National Theatre Studio (October 2005)
The Entertainer (rehearsed reading) as Jean Rice at the Royal Court Theatre (16 January 2006)
Top Girls (reading) as Pope Joan at the Royal Court Theatre (19 September 2008)
Pencil (10-minute play in the 24 Hour Plays Celebrity Gala) at the Old Vic (1 November 2009)
Radio
The Tall One as Samantha (BBC Radio 4, 1 to 5 September 2003)
The Raj Quartet as Daphne Manners (BBC Radio 4, 10 April to 5 June 2005)
The Ante Natal Clinic as Ros (BBC Radio 4, 19 January 2006)
The Sea as Rose Jones (BBC Radio 4, 15 April 2006)
Great Expectations as Estella Havisham (BBC Radio 4, 6 and 13 August 2006)
The Invention of Childhood as one of several readers (BBC Radio 4, 25 September to 3 November 2006)
Berlin – Soundz Decadent as herself (BBC Radio 2, 2 January 2007)
Crooked House as Sophia Leonides (BBC Radio 4, 8 to 29 February 2008)
Words and Music: The Soft Machine as one of two poetry readers (BBC Radio 3, 1 June 2008)
The Portrait of a Lady as Isabel Archer (BBC Radio 4, 13 to 27 July 2008)
Villette as Lucy Snowe (BBC Radio 4, 3 to 7 and 10 to 14 August 2009)
Au Pairs as Dorika (BBC Radio 4, 7 to 11 September 2009)
Chekhov's Seven and a Half Years as Olga in Three Sisters (BBC Radio 3, 24 January 2010)
The New Radio 2 Arts Show with Claudia Winkleman as herself (BBC Radio 2, 15 March 2010)
Words and Music: Malady as one of two readers (BBC Radio 3, 11 April 2010)
Audiobooks
Peet, Mal (December 2007). Tamar: A Novel of Espionage, Passion, and Betrayal. Narrated by Anton Lesser & Anna Maxwell Martin. Walker Books Ltd.
Sedgwick, Marcus (May 2006). The Foreshadowing. Narrated by Anna Maxwell Martin. Orion Publishing Group Limited.
Christie, Agatha (1949) [original novel]. Crooked House. Narrated by Anna Maxwell Martin & Rory Kinnear (BBC Audio, September 2010 ed.).
James, Henry (1881) [original novel]. Portrait of a Lady. Dramatised by Rachel Joyce; narrated by Anna Maxwell Martin, Haydn Gwynne, Robert Bathurst & Gayle Hunnicutt (BBC Worldwide May 2013 ed.).
