1. Hannah Waddingham was born on 28 July 1974 and is an English actress, singer and television presenter.
31 Facts About Hannah Waddingham
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Hannah Waddingham is known for playing businesswoman Rebecca Welton in Ted Lasso, for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award and two Critics' Choice Television Awards for Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
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Hannah Waddingham has appeared in a number of West End musicals, including Spamalot, the 2010 Regent's Park revival of Into the Woods and The Wizard of Oz as the Wicked Witch of the West, and has received three Laurence Olivier Awards nominations for her work.
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Hannah Waddingham's mother, Melodie Kelly, was an opera singer, as were both of her maternal grandparents.
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Hannah Waddingham's mother joined the English National Opera when Waddingham was eight years old, and she grew up around the theatre.
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Hannah Waddingham is a graduate of the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts.
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Hannah Waddingham has been a stage actress on both London's West End and New York's Broadway.
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Hannah Waddingham made her West End debut in Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens at The Queens Theatre in 1998 and went on to star in Lautrec by Charles Aznavour in March 2000, then created the role of Christine Warner in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton's The Beautiful Game, staying with the show for the year-long run at the Cambridge Theatre from September 2000.
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Hannah Waddingham portrayed the Lady of the Lake in Spamalot, both in the London production and then on Broadway.
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Hannah Waddingham received an Olivier Award nomination for the role.
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Hannah Waddingham received outstanding reviews for her portrayal of Desiree Armfeldt in Trevor Nunn's revival of A Little Night Music.
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Hannah Waddingham subsequently received a further Olivier Award nomination in 2010 for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance in Night Music.
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In mid-2010, Hannah Waddingham played the Witch in the production of Into the Woods at London's Open Air Theatre.
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Hannah Waddingham originated the role of The Wicked Witch of the West in the West End production of The Wizard of Oz, which opened on 1 March 2011 at the London Palladium and was the first to perform the new Lloyd Webber and Rice song "Red Shoes Blues".
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In 2012, Hannah Waddingham starred in Chichester Festival Theatre's revival of Kiss Me, Kate.
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On 25 August 2023, Hannah Waddingham was announced as the host of the Fantasy, Myths and Legends Prom as part of that year's BBC Proms; on 28 August, she pulled out just hours before the performance, in solidarity with the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.
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In 2011, Hannah Waddingham appeared in series 4, episode 3 of the BBC sitcom, Not Going Out.
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Hannah Waddingham played the role of Jane, an actress in an adult film being recorded in the show.
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Hannah Waddingham had a small role in the 2012 film Les Miserables, and in 2014, she appeared in the ITV comedy Benidorm.
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Hannah Waddingham portrayed the "Shame Nun", Septa Unella, in season 5 and 6 of Game of Thrones.
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Hannah Waddingham began filming her scenes nine weeks after the birth of her daughter and claims that she underwent actual waterboarding during filming so that the scene would look authentic.
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Hannah Waddingham was given the role's iconic "shame bell" as a parting gift.
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Since 2020, Hannah Waddingham has portrayed Rebecca Welton, the owner of AFC Richmond, on the Apple TV+ series Ted Lasso.
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Hannah Waddingham appears as the character Mother Witch in Hocus Pocus 2, Disney's sequel to Hocus Pocus released on Disney+ on 30 September 2022.
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Hannah Waddingham portrayed Lady Bellaston in the ITV drama series Tom Jones, based on Henry Fielding's 1749 novel, inspired by the real life of Etheldreda Townshend.
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In May 2023, Hannah Waddingham co-hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 in Liverpool, alongside Alesha Dixon and Ukrainian singer Julia Sanina, with Graham Norton joining them for the final.
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Hannah Waddingham appeared in the 2024 action-comedy film The Fall Guy alongside Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, playing producer Gail.
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In 2000, Hannah Waddingham played the role of Christine in the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Ben Elton musical The Beautiful Game in London's West End.
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Hannah Waddingham emigrated to Australia in 2012 but came straight back.
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Hannah Waddingham was in a relationship with Italian businessman Gianluca Cugnetto for a decade and they had a daughter in 2014, whom Waddingham has raised as a single mother since 2023.
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Hannah Waddingham speaks fluent French and Italian and has stated her love for languages.