Anna Maxwell Martin

Anna Maxwell Martin (born Anna Charlotte Martin; 10 May 1977), sometimes credited as Anna Maxwell-Martin, is an English actress. She has won two British Academy Television Awards, for her portrayals of Esther Summerson in the BBC adaptation of Bleak House (2005), and of N in the Channel 4 adaptation of Poppy Shakespeare (2008). She is also known for her roles as DCS Patricia Carmichael in BBC One crime drama Line of Duty (2019–2021) and Kelly Major in Code 404 (2020–2022). From 2016–2022, Martin starred in the BBC comedy Motherland, for which she was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Female Comedy Performance. In 2025, she won the International Emmy Award for Best Actress for playing Delia Balmer in ITV's Until I Kill You.

Martin's theatre work includes the role of Lyra Belacqua in the production of His Dark Materials (2003–2004) at the National Theatre.

Anna Charlotte Martin was born in Beverley on 10 May 1977 to Rosalind (née Youngson) and Ivan Martin. Her father was managing director of a pharmaceutical company and her mother was a research scientist. Her mother gave up her job to bring up Anna and her elder brother, Adam.

She attended Beverley High School, where she appeared in school plays. After she left school, Martin studied history at Liverpool University.

After completing her education at Liverpool, Martin enrolled to study acting at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) from which she graduated in 2001. She added the name Maxwell (her maternal grandfather's first name) to her name to distinguish her from another member with the same name when she joined Equity. In 2022, Martin appeared on an episode of Who Do You Think You Are?, and said that Maxwell is a middle name and not part of her surname.

Martin made her professional stage debut in 2001, in The Little Foxes at the Donmar Theatre, London. She first came to prominence on the London stage playing the leading role of Lyra in the National Theatre's production of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. She was then cast in the part of Bessie Higgins in the BBC television adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's novel North and South in 2004, and made a guest appearance in the 2005 series of Doctor Who. She played Esther Summerson, the central character in the 2005 BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens's Bleak House, for which she won the Best Actress BAFTA Television Award in 2006.

In January 2006, Martin took part in a reading of The Entertainer at the Royal Court Theatre, and in February and March she appeared in Laura Wade's Other Hands, directed by Bijan Sheibani at the Soho Theatre. She is the narrator of the CD version of The Foreshadowing, a children's book about the First World War by Marcus Sedgwick, which was published in May 2006. In the same year she was one of the five leads in I Really Hate My Job, directed by Oliver Parker and, from October 2006 to April 2007, played Sally Bowles in Bill Kenwright and Rufus Norris's West End production of Cabaret at the Lyric Theatre.

She played Cassandra Austen in Becoming Jane, a 2007 film about the early life of the novelist Jane Austen, starring American actress Anne Hathaway in the title role. At the end of the year she played the gaoler's daughter in Lee Hall's adaptation of The Wind in the Willows, a multimillion-pound production by Box TV for BBC One, and was the joint narrator (with Anton Lesser) of the CD version of Tamar, a children's book about the Second World War by Mal Peet, which was published in December 2007.