ACTOR: “I don’t know why I wanted to be an actor - but I just knew since I was about three years old,” says Charlotte Spencer.

Charlotte Spencer

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By the age of 11, her parents were remortgaging the family home in Harlow, Essex, to send her to Silvia Young’s drama school, then in London’s Marylebone necessitating 6am starts (“thank God it’s paying back now,” she acknowledges).

Her professional debut came during her first year there when she was cast by Sir Richard Eyre in Mary Poppins (as Elizabeth Banks), and he would be a significant presence in her life ten years later, when he signed Spencer to play Christine Keeler in 2013’s West End production of Stephen Ward.

Since then, says the 24-year-old actress, “I don’t know if it was my confidence, but work has been pretty constant.”

Good work too – a BAFTA nomination for her role in TV’s Glue, the lead in Venice title Bypass, opposite George McKay, and another lead in TV’s Stonemouth. She has also signed on for the pilot Broad Squad for ABC in the US. Next up for Charlotte Spencer is another lead, in Ashley Pharaoh’s (Life On Mars, Ashes to Ashes) The Living And The Dead opposite Colin Morgan for the BBC. 

She’s happy. “There’s nothing else I can do, this is the only thing, so I’m glad it’s working out,” she says.

Versatile to a fault across stage and all forms of screen, she admits, “I’d love to be in a Western — I want to put that out there and maybe something will come back!”

Contact Oliver Slinger, oliverslinger@independenttalent.com