Joanna Christie

Christie was born and raised in Huddersfield, in West Yorkshire until the age of 13, when she was awarded a music scholarship to study flute, piano, and voice at Oundle School in Northamptonshire. Five years later, she moved to London to attend drama school at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts.

Christie joined the National Youth Theatre at 17, where she made her breakthrough stage role in Immaculate Conceit, a play about a stripper who is pregnant with the next messiah. She then found small roles in television, before joining Kevin Spacey's Old Vic, New Voices collective for a year in 2005. She was delighted to be part of the collective of actors taking part in the 24-hour plays at The Old Vic. The group received its name because Spacey, who selected the actors, believed them to be the best new actors around.

After a five-month tour of India performing Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in Jaipur in 2006, she returned to Britain, but endured a lean year and nearly gave up acting altogether when she landed the role of Jill Mason in her West End debut in Equus at the Gielgud Theatre. She beat over 300 other actresses to the role opposite Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe in Thea Sharrock's high-profile revival of Peter Shaffer's award-winning play.