Hannah Waddingham

Waddingham was in a relationship with Italian businessman Gianluca Cugnetto for about a decade. They have a daughter, Kitty, whom Waddingham has raised as a single parent since her daughter was two years old.

Kitty has Henoch-Schönlein purpura, an autoimmune condition that causes inflammation and bleeding in small blood vessels. Waddingham has kept her Primetime Emmy Award in her daughter's bedroom as a reminder that she takes work commitments seriously when they require time away from home.

Waddingham grew up around theatre. Her mother, Melodie Kelly, and both of her maternal grandparents were opera singers, and Kelly joined the English National Opera when Waddingham was eight. Waddingham studied at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts and began her career in dinner theatre before establishing herself in London's West End and on Broadway.

She played Christine Warner in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton's The Beautiful Game, the Lady of the Lake in Spamalot, Desirée Armfeldt in Trevor Nunn's revival of A Little Night Music, the Witch in Into the Woods, and the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. She later played Lilli Vanessi and Katharina in Kiss Me, Kate. Her performances in Spamalot, A Little Night Music and Kiss Me, Kate earned three Laurence Olivier Award nominations, while her work in The Wizard of Oz won a WhatsOnStage Theatergoers' Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical.

Waddingham made her screen debut in the sitcom Coupling and went on to appear in programmes including Benidorm, Krypton and Sex Education. In Game of Thrones, she played Septa Unella, the Shame Nun, during the show's fifth and sixth seasons. She began filming the role nine weeks after giving birth to her daughter and underwent waterboarding for a torture scene. The production gave her the character's shame bell as a parting gift.

Her international recognition grew through Ted Lasso, in which she played Rebecca Welton from 2020. Waddingham won the 2021 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and Critics' Choice Television Awards in 2021 and 2022 for the role. She also performed her own singing in several episodes, sharing the series' musical and comic focus with co-star Juno Temple, who played Keeley Jones.

Waddingham's film credits include Les Misérables, Winter Ridge, The Hustle, Hocus Pocus 2, The Fall Guy, The Garfield Movie and Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning. She played Gail Meyer opposite Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in The Fall Guy, and voiced Jinx in The Garfield Movie. Her television work also includes Lady Bellaston in Tom Jones and the voice role of Deliria in Krapopolis.

She co-hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool with Alesha Dixon and Julia Sanina, with Graham Norton joining the final. She hosted the Laurence Olivier Awards in 2023 and 2024. As a singer, she released the single "Our Kind of Love" from The Beautiful Game, which reached number 41 on the UK Singles Chart, and released the live album Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas in 2023.