Michelle Dockery

For her role as Eliza Doolittle in a 2007 London revival of Pygmalion, she was nominated for the Evening Standard Award. For her role in the 2009 play Burnt by the Sun, she earned an Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Dockery has appeared in the films Hanna (2011), Anna Karenina (2012), Non-Stop (2014), and The Gentlemen (2019). She has also played lead roles in the western miniseries Godless (2017), for which she received her fourth Emmy nomination, and the drama miniseries Defending Jacob (2020) and Anatomy of a Scandal (2022).

Michelle Dockery studied at Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Chadwell Heath Academy. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is acting. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are jazz. Works named in the authority record are Downton Abbey. Distinctions recorded are Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series.

• Name — Michelle Dockery • Birth Name — Michelle Suzanne Dockery • Born — 15 December 1981 • Birthplace — Romford, England • Alma Mater — Guildhall School of Music and Drama • Occupation — Actress • Years Active — 2004–present • Children — 1 • Relatives — * Phoebe Waller-Bridge (sister-in-law) • Isobel Waller-Bridge (sister-in-law)

Michelle Suzanne Dockery is the daughter of Lorraine, a care home assistant from Stepney, London, and Michael Dockery, an analytical chemist from Ireland. She grew up in Romford, Greater London. She attended the Finch Stage School, and graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2004.

Dockery was a member of the National Youth Theatre. She made her professional debut in His Dark Materials at the Royal National Theatre in 2004. In 2006, she was nominated for the Ian Charleson Award for her performance as Dina Dorf in Pillars of the Community at the National Theatre. She appeared in Burnt by the Sun at the National Theatre, for which she received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She won second prize at the Ian Charleson Awards for her performance as Eliza Doolittle in Peter Hall's production of Pygmalion at the Theatre Royal, Bath, which toured the UK and transferred to The Old Vic in 2008, and for the same production was nominated Best Newcomer at the Evening Standard Awards 2008. In 2010, she played Ophelia in Hamlet at the Crucible Theatre alongside John Simm.

Dockery is a trained singer. She sang at the 50th anniversary of Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London and has occasionally sung with Sadie and the Hotheads, a band formed by Elizabeth McGovern, who played her mother in Downton Abbey. In February 2022, it was announced that Dockery and her Downton Abbey co-star Michael C. Fox had signed a record deal with Decca Records as the duo Michelle and Michael. The duo's singles "The Watching Silence" and "Starlight" reached numbers 7 and 24, respectively, on the UK Physical Singles Chart.

On World Humanitarian Day 2014, Oxfam announced Dockery as its first ever Humanitarian Ambassador. Dockery is also a patron of Changing Faces, as well as other charities. In 2014, Dockery was one of nine British celebrities featured in a short film promoting Stand Up to Cancer UK.

Dockery began a relationship with John Dineen (1981–2015), from Waterfall, Ireland, in 2013. Dockery had been introduced to Dineen, then a public relations director at FTI Consulting in London, by Irish actor Allen Leech, who appeared alongside Dockery in Downton Abbey. Dineen died on 13 December 2015, aged 34, from a rare form of cancer at the Marymount Hospice in Cork. Dockery began a relationship with Jasper Waller-Bridge, brother of Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge and composer Isobel Waller-Bridge, in 2019. They announced their engagement in January 2022 and married on 22 September 2023. In September 2025, at the Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale premiere, Dockery revealed that she and Waller-Bridge are expecting their first child and in 2026 she gave birth.

• Name — the Waller-Bridges • Notes — Royal Licence granted in May 1913 • Escutcheon — Quarterly, 1st and 4th: Azure, issuant from the centre of a bar wavy of water Proper in the nombril point a bridge of three arches embattled Argent, masoned Sable, the whole between as many sea lions each crowned with a naval coronet Or (Bridge); 2nd and 3rd: Azure, between two bendlets Or, three walnut-leaves Argent, the whole between two fleur-de-lys of the Last (Waller). • Crest — 1st, on a wreath of the colours an eagle rising holding in the beak a sprig of laurel Proper (Bridge); 2. on a wreath of the colours, three mascles Or, in front of a walnut-tree Proper (Waller). • Motto — Me juvat ire per altum

Key • Denotes works that have not yet been released

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 2005 — Fingersmith — Betty — Miniseries • 2006 — Hogfather — Susan — Television film • 2007 — Dalziel and Pascoe — Aimee Hobbs — 2 episodes • 2008 — Heartbeat — Sue Padgett — Episode: "Take Three Girls" • Poppy Shakespeare — Dawn — Television film • 2009 — Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1974 — Kathryn Taylor • Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1983 — Kathryn Taylor • The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler — Ewa Rozenfeld • The Turn of the Screw — Ann • Waking the Dead — Gemma Morrison — 2 episodes • Return to Cranford — Erminia Whyte • 2010–2015 — Downton Abbey — Lady Mary Crawley/Talbot — Main cast; 52 episodes • 2012 — Restless — Ruth Gilmartin — Miniseries • 2012 — American Dad! — Margaret Watkins (voice) — 1 episode • 2012 — The Hollow Crown — Lady Kate Percy — Episode: "Henry IV, Part I and Part II" • 2013 — Family Guy — Lady Mary Crawley (voice) — Episode: "Boopa-dee Bappa-dee" • 2015 — Japan: Earth's Enchanted Islands — Narrator — BBC2 Documentary Series • 2016–2017 — Good Behavior — Letty Raines — Main cast; 20 episodes • 2017 — Angie Tribeca — Victoria Nova — 1 episode • 2017 — Godless — Alice Fletcher — Miniseries; 7 episodes • 2019 — Tuca & Bertie — Lady Netherfield (voice) — Episode: "The Deli Guy" • 2020 — Defending Jacob — Laurie Barber — Miniseries; 8 episodes • 2020–2022 — Amphibia — Lady Olivia (voice) — 9 episodes • 2022 — Anatomy of a Scandal — Kate Woodcroft — Miniseries; 6 episodes • 2024 — This Town — Estella — Main cast

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 2004 — His Dark Materials — Jessie — National Theatre • 2005 — Henry IV, Parts I and II — Carrier • The UN Inspector — Female activist • Pillars of the Community — Dina • 2007 — Dying for It — Kleopatra — Almeida Theatre • Pygmalion — Eliza Doolittle — UK tour • 2008 — Uncle Vanya — Yelena • Pygmalion — Eliza Doolittle — Old Vic Theatre • 2009 — Burnt by the Sun — Maroussia — National Theatre • 2010 — Hamlet — Ophelia — Crucible Theatre, Sheffield • 2017–2018 — Network — Diana Christensen — National Theatre, London

Michelle Dockery is recorded as jazz musician and actress.

• Illustration — Dockery at the 2013 Golden Globe Awards In 2006, Dockery starred as Susan Sto Helit in a two-part adaptation of Terry Pratchett's novel Hogfather. In 2008, she played Kathryn in Channel 4's The Red Riding Trilogy and played the guest role of tormented rape victim Gemma Morrison in BBC's Waking the Dead. In 2009, she appeared on the BBC as Erminia, a ward of Jonathan Pryce's character, in the two-part Cranford Christmas special (also known as Return to Cranford), and as the young governess in an adaptation of The Turn of the Screw, opposite her future Downton Abbey co-star Dan Stevens in the role of her psychiatrist. Dockery came to public prominence in 2010 when she played Lady Mary Crawley in Julian Fellowes' series Downton Abbey. The series ran from 2010 to 2015. Each year it was filmed from February to August and broadcast on ITV from September to November, with a special Christmas night episode each year beginning in 2011. It later aired in the U.S. on PBS. For her role as Lady Mary Crawley in the Downton Abbey series, Dockery received three consecutive Emmy Award nominations in the category of Outstanding Lead Actress In a Drama Series, in 2012, 2013, and 2014. She also earned a Golden Globe nomination in 2013. Dockery's first big screen role was as False Marissa in Hanna (2011). In 2012, she appeared as Princess Myagkaya in the film adaptation of Anna Karenina and starred with Charlotte Rampling in a two-part dramatisation of William Boyd's spy thriller Restless on BBC One. In January 2014, she appeared in the action thriller feature film Non-Stop alongside co-stars Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore, and Lupita Nyong'o. In 2014, Dockery was made Fellow of the Guildhall School in recognition of her achievements in television. In 2014, Dockery was listed in The Sunday Times Britain's 500 Most Influential People, which is a compilation of the most significant individuals in the UK who have demonstrated outstanding qualities of influence, achievement and inspiration. In a departure from her portrayal of Lady Mary in Downton Abbey, Dockery advanced her Hollywood career with a 2015 performance in the sci-fi thriller feature film Self/less, with Ryan Reynolds. Beginning in November 2016, Dockery starred in the lead role of Letty Raines in Good Behavior, an American drama series based on the novella series by Blake Crouch. Letty is a drug-addicted thief and con-artist who, released early from prison on good behaviour, is attempting to get her life under control. Her efforts are complicated by a chance meeting and subsequent entanglement with a charismatic hitman, played by Juan Diego Botto. The 10-episode first season, airing on a U.S. basic-cable network TNT, was filmed in and around Wilmington, North Carolina. In January 2017, the show was picked up for a second season. In November 2018, the series was cancelled after two seasons. In 2017, Dockery appeared alongside Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walter, and Emily Mortimer in the British film The Sense of an Ending from CBS Films, based on the Booker-winning novel of the same name by Julian Barnes. She plays Susie Webster, the daughter of Tony Webster (Jim Broadbent), a man who lives in quiet unquestioning solitude until he confronts secrets of his past. "The film is a beautiful adaptation of the book which I love. And I jumped at the chance to work with director Ritesh Batra, who also filmed The Lunchbox (2013)", explained Dockery. Later that year, Dockery had a lead role in the Netflix western miniseries Godless. In 2019, Dockery reprised her lead role as Lady Mary Crawley in the Downton Abbey film, alongside Hugh Bonneville and Maggie Smith. The film received generally positive reviews from critics and was a financial success, grossing $192 million. She continued to portray Lady Mary in the films' subsequent sequels. Later in 2019, Dockery appeared in The Gentlemen, directed by Guy Ritchie, as the wife of a drug baron played by Matthew McConaughey. The film opened in wide release in 2020 and has grossed over $100 million worldwide. It was met with mixed to positive reviews.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 2011 — Hanna — False Marissa • 2012 — Anna Karenina — Princess Myagkaya • 2014 — Non-Stop — Nancy Hoffman • 2015 — Self/less — Claire Hale • 2017 — The Sense of an Ending — Susie Webster • 2019 — Downton Abbey — Lady Mary Talbot • The Gentlemen — Rosalind "Roz" Pearson • 2022 — Downton Abbey: A New Era — Lady Mary Talbot • 2023 — Boy Kills World — Melanie van der Koy • 2024 — Please Don't Feed the Children — Clara • Here — Mrs Harter • 2025 — Flight Risk — Madolyn Harris • Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale — Lady Mary Talbot • The Queen of Fashion — Alexandra Shulman — Post-production