Victoria Hamilton

Hamilton was born Victoria Sharp in Wimbledon, London into a non-theatrical family. She attended St Hilary's School, an independent school in Surrey, from 1974 to 1982, then Prior's Field School, Godalming, until 1987. She initially intended to study English at Bristol University, before opting to train at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, from which she graduated.

Hamilton began her acting career in classical theatre, spending the first five years appearing in productions by companies such as the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. She stayed with the Royal Shakespeare Company for 18 months. She commented in 2001 that it was "very unfashionable" to begin a career in classical theatre, but she had sought to emulate the careers of actors like Judi Dench and Ian Holm who "started in rep and slowly built themselves into the position where they could juggle theatre and film".

In 1995, Hamilton appeared in Ibsen's The Master Builder directed by Peter Hall, starring Alan Bates and Gemma Jones and performed at the Haymarket Theatre in the West End of London. The Independent described Hamilton as a "formidable talent" despite being a newcomer, and noted that she had previously appeared in two performances held at the Orange Tree Theatre in London, one of them being an adaptation of a play by James Saunders. The Master Builder earned Hamilton the Critics Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She received the 2000 Critics' Circle Theatre Award for her performance in As You Like It, Crucible Theatre. She made her Broadway debut in the 2003 play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, co-starring alongside the comedian Eddie Izzard. She had starred with Clive Owen, and later Izzard, in a successful London production of the play the previous year, in which she and Izzard portray the parents of a girl with severe brain damage who attempt to save their marriage through jokes and black comedy. For her performance in the Broadway adaptation, Hamilton received a nomination for Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. The following year she appeared in Suddenly, Last Summer (2004), an adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play, performed at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield. For her performance, she was honoured as Best Actress by winning the Critics' Circle Theatre Award and Evening Standard Theatre Award. Her success led some of the media to brand her as "the next Judi Dench". Hamilton took a three-year break from the stage before returning as Viola in the Shakespearean comedy Twelfth Night (2008), staged at Wyndham's Theatre in London's West End.

Hamilton met actor Mark Bazeley while co-starring in a 2005 production of Tennessee Williams' Suddenly Last Summer. They became engaged on a beach in Greece, and married in 2008. They have two sons.