42 Facts About Janie Dee

Janie Dee was born on 20 June 1962 and is a British actress.

Janie Dee won the Olivier Award for Best Actress, Evening Standard Award and Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress in a Play, and in New York the Obie and Theatre World Award for Best Newcomer, for her performance as Jacie Triplethree in Alan Ayckbourn's Comic Potential.

In 2013, Dee won the TMA Theatre Award UK for Best Performance in a Musical for her performance as Dolly Levi in Hello Dolly at Curve, Leicester.

Janie Dee is the daughter of John Lewis and Ruth Lewis and the eldest of four sisters.

Janie Dee trained at the Arts Educational School in Chiswick, London.

On leaving ArtsEd, Janie Dee began her career as a dancer, subsequently moving to Rome, Italy where she taught dance, took singing lessons, and learned to speak Italian.

Janie Dee subsequently went on to play Helen of Troy in The Women of Troy.

Janie Dee has had an important working relationship with the playwright and director Alan Ayckbourn.

Janie Dee returned to work with Ayckbourn in 1996 in Neil Simon's They're Playing Our Song after which Ayckbourn wrote Comic Potential 'with Janie in mind'.

Janie Dee was invited by opera director David Pountney, to play Lidotchka in his production of Shostakovich's Paradise Moscow for Opera North.

Janie Dee followed this playing Masha in Brian Friel's translation of Chekhov's Three Sisters and Edyth Herbert, opposite Tim Flavin in the George Gershwin musical My One and Only, both at the Chichester Festival Theatre.

My One and Only subsequently transferred to the West End and Janie Dee was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

In 2006, Janie Dee returned to musical theatre to play Mabel Normand in John Doyle's production of Jerry Herman's Mack and Mabel opposite David Soul at the Criterion Theatre.

Janie Dee followed this with the role of Lady Driver in Michael Frayn's Donkeys' Years at the Comedy Theatre.

In 2007, Hall, Pinter, and Janie Dee were reunited for the National tour of Old Times with Susannah Harker and Neil Pearson.

Later that year, Janie Dee was reunited with director Michael Barker-Caven and Charles Dance in the West End Production of Shadowlands.

In 2008 Janie Dee returned to the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park to play Olivia in Twelfth Night opposite her Carousel co-star, Clive Rowe.

In 2009 Janie Dee returned to Theatre Royal Bath to play Orinthia in George Bernard Shaw's The Apple Cart, directed by Sir Peter Hall, and took over the role of Annie in Calendar Girls by Tim Firth in the West End.

In 2010, Janie Dee played The Countess of Roussillion in All's Well That Ends Well at Shakespeare's Globe which was filmed for DVD release by Opus Arte.

Janie Dee appeared as Anna Leonowens in Rodgers and Hammerstein's The King and I at the Curve, Leicester, and as Natalya in Jonathan Kent's production of A Month in the Country at Chichester.

In 2012, Janie Dee was offered the role of women's magazine editor, Miranda in NSFW, a new play by Lucy Kirkwood at the Royal Court Theatre for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.

From March until June 2014, Janie Dee co-starred in the London revival of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit at the Gielgud Theatre, opposite Dame Angela Lansbury, who reprised her 2009 Tony Award-winning Broadway performance as Madame Arcati.

In January 2015 Janie Dee starred as Desiree Armfeldt in a Gala Concert performance of Sondheim's A Little Night Music at London's Palace Theatre to mark the 40th anniversary of the original London production.

Whilst appearing in the O'Neill play, Janie Dee performed a special one-off show, Dream Queen in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe, as part of the London Festival of Cabaret.

Janie Dee was joined by special guests, Juliet Stevenson and Kit Hesketh-Harvey.

Janie Dee starred as Phyllis Rogers Stone in Follies at the National Theatre in London, opposite Imelda Staunton, Tracie Bennett and Philip Quast.

In 2018 Janie Dee starred in Monogamy, a dark comedy by Torben Betts.

Janie Dee played Fosca in Stephen Sondheim's musical Passion at the Cantiere Internazionale d'Arte di Montepulciano, Italy directed by Keith Warner and returned to London to star in Off-Broadway play The Niceties by Eleanor Burgess at the Finborough Theatre opposite Moronke Akinola.

In spring 2022, Janie Dee starred opposite Griff Rhys Jones in An Hour And a Half Late at Theatre Royal Bath and on a UK tour.

Janie Dee has appeared in numerous TV dramas, including Love Hurts, The Bill, as Remy in 8 episodes of London's Burning, Heartbeat, House of Cards, Midsomer Murders, A Tribute to Harold Pinter, the South Bank Show with Sir Peter Hall and In Love With Shakespeare for Sky TV.

In 2013, Janie Dee filmed Dare To Be Wild, written and directed by Vivienne Decourcy, in Dublin for Oasis Films and The Trouble With Dot And Harry.

Janie Dee starred opposite Neil Morrissey, directed by Sundance Festival Grand Prize-winner, Gary Walkow.

In January 2016, Janie Dee appeared as Cara in comedy series Crashing written by and starring Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

Janie Dee has recorded a number of musicals, concerts and dramas for radio, including Carousel and Finian's Rainbow for BBC Radio 2, and she has played Ian Fleming's Miss Moneypenny in radio dramatisations of the James Bond classics On Her Majesty's Secret Service, From Russia With Love, Dr No and Thunderball, as well as a role in Michael Frayn's Skios, all directed by Martin Jarvis.

Janie Dee has appeared as a guest on the quiz show Quote.

Janie Dee was married to the actor and barrister Rupert Wickham and they have two children.

Janie Dee is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Royal Theatrical Fund and supports a number of charities including Stop the War Coalition, St Mungos, Medecins Sans Frontieres and Amnesty International.

In March 2003, Janie Dee devised and produced the London Concert For Peace, a charity concert celebrating the joy of life which was performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane with a cast including Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen and David Tennant.

In June 2014, Janie Dee organised a Noel Coward charity cabaret, entitled I Went to a Marvellous Party at London's historic Cafe de Paris, as a celebration of and farewell to Angela Lansbury, marking the end of the run of Blithe Spirit in London.

In 2020, Janie Dee organised the London Climate Change Festival to inspire, inform and bring hope around climate change.

However, Janie Dee produced a TV programme of performances and interviews at the London Coliseum, titled Song for Nature in 2021 for Sky Arts, including many of the artists and activists who were to take part in the Festival.

In 2024, Janie Dee took the Beautiful World Cabaret to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it received rave reviews, returning to London and playing to sold out audiences at the Jermyn Street Theatre, the Playground Theatre and Tabard Theatre.