Lesley Nicol

A veteran performer on the English stage and television since the mid-1980s, actress Leslie Nicol vaulted to international fame as the imperious cook, Mrs. Patmore, on "Downton Abbey (ITV/PBS, 2010-16). For much of her early career, Nicol divided her time between bit and supporting roles on television and in theater productions, with her first feature coming more than a decade after her first small-screen appearance on the hit U.K. comedy "East is East" (1999). By the year 2000, she had advanced to major roles in musicals like "Mamma Mia!" and a recurring turn in TV advertisements for Tetley Tea. But it was "Downton Abbey" that thrust Nicol, like many of its performers, into the international spotlight, where public television viewers around the world delighted in her iron rule of the Crawley estate's kitchen staff, as well as her increasingly matronly relationship with Sophie McShera's maid, Daisy. The exposure afforded by "Downton" led to roles in American television, but more importantly, a second act to a career that seemed at long last pointed towards more substantive stardom.

Born in Manchester, England in 1953, Lesley Nicol was the daughter of a Scottish doctor and Welsh actress who imbued upon her daughter a remarkable knack for the diverse array of United Kingdom accents. She fell in love with acting as a teenager at St. Elphin's Boarding School in Derbyshire, and made her first stage appearance as a 12-year-old boy in a production of George Bernard Shaw's "Androcles and the Lion" with the Manchester Library Theatre. Nicol then studied acting for three years at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama before launching her acting career. She worked primarily in theater before making her television debut in 1986's "Blackadder II" (BBC, 1986), starring Rowan Atkinson. More television roles followed, including Mrs. Beaver in the Emmy-nominated "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" (BBC, 1988) and multiple episodes of the police drama "The Bill" (ITV, 1984-2010) before Nicol made her feature debut reprising her stage role in a film version of Ayub Khan-Din's play "East is East" (1999), about a Anglo-Pakistani family in London.

Nicol divided her time in the new millennium between U.K. television and the stage, appearing in such popular plays and musicals as "Mamma Mia!" (2000), "Our House" (2002) and a 2005 production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore," while also enjoying a series of television advertisements for Tetley Tea which cast her as the kindly "Aunt Tea." In 2010, she reprised her role as Aunt Annie in "West is West," the sequel to "East is East," before joining the cast of "Downton Abbey" as the formidable Mrs. Patmore. Initially portrayed as a domineering and perfectionist cook in the Crawley household, Mrs. Patmore softened as the series progressed, most notably in her relationship with scullery maid Daisy (Sophie McShera). In later episodes, Mrs. Patmore's eyesight began to deteriorate, which required cataract surgery. She further showed her sensitive side after learning that her nephew had been shot for cowardice while serving in World War I. The show's worldwide popularity among public television fans led to not only her debut on American television in an episode of "Once Upon a Time" (ABC, 2011- ), but also a 2013 Screen Actors Guild nomination along with her castmates for Best Ensemble in a Drama. By Paul Gaita