Tamsin Greig
Tamsin Greig
Tamsin Margaret M. Greigis an English actress. She played Fran Katzenjammer in Black Books and Dr. Caroline Todd in Green Wing. She currently stars in two sitcoms: as Beverly Lincoln in the transatlantic sitcom Episodes, and as Jackie in the Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner. Other roles include Alice Chenery in BBC One's comedy drama Love Soup, Debbie Aldridge in BBC Radio 4's soap opera The Archers, Miss Bates in the 2009 BBC version of Jane Austen's Emma, and...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionActress
Date of Birth12 July 1966
amazed badly cleaner job people work
I was a cleaner while at university. The job wasn't bad, but I was amazed by how badly cleaners are treated - how disrespected they are by the people they work for.
became clear future plays rehearsals school science seem
Going to rehearsals of school plays got me out of science. It became clear what inspired me and what dampened my spirit. The only other thing I could do at school was trampolining - it didn't seem to have much future in it.
bending comedy direction funny metal needs piece trying
I think if you're trying to be funny, sometimes you're bending a piece of metal in a direction it doesn't want to go. And sometimes comedy just needs to find itself.
beyond metric music plays poetry shakespeare straight telling tv weird
I think going from doing TV and straight plays to Shakespeare is weird enough because you have this heightened language, and you are telling a story through metric poetry. But I think music is that place beyond poetry.
brilliant cannot children engaged family help husband incredible life present step women
I cannot step into any day without help. I have a fantastically engaged husband who is very present for his children and our family life. We've got a brilliant nanny, other help from parents-in-law, godparents, friends. Also, I've had incredible women around me in the business.
company gone job seem slow
I did a drama degree, went to secretarial college, then got a job with a theatre company in Birmingham. It's been a slow burn, which doesn't seem to have gone out.
interesting people arses
It's interesting to see the dislocation between how people perceive a person visually. Apparently on the radio I'm blonde with a big arse.
mother country drama
Every drama school in the country turned me down, and so I was lucky to study drama at all, even if it was lowly Birmingham University. But even when I came out with my degree, my mother promptly insisted I go straight to secretarial college to have something to fall back on, just in case - which didn't exactly fill me with confidence.
thinking play mind
Oh, nobody would ever want to know me in Hollywood. I'm far too puffin-faced for that, too weird-looking. No, I think I'll probably stick to telly, if telly'll have me, though I wouldn't mind doing radio plays as well.
thinking two acting
When I came to faith, I thought I would have to stop being an actor, because it's all about artifice and manipulation. But we're living in a world where God doesn't really have an influence, unless it's fundamentalists, so I'll always be an outsider because of my faith. And when you think about it, faith and acting are all about stories, so the two are not mutually exclusive.
one-day married leafs
It suddenly hit me one day: after we're married I'll be called Mrs T Leaf!
mother father sides
On my mother's side I'm Polish-Jewish, and on my father's side I'm Scottish puffin.
strong children past
I did used to like trampolining, but I’m probably past it, I think. You need to have a really strong pelvic floor to be good at trampolining, and I’ve had three children.
thinking laughing pieces
There aren't many laughs in that and I remember doing a look and everybody laughed and I just thought, wow, that's incredible how you can do that. So I did another look and they laughed again and then I remember thinking, hold on, this isn't right for this piece, you've got to stop it.