Maxine Peake
Acting
Maxine Peake (born 14 July 1974) is an English stage, radio, film and television actress, playwright, producer, director and political activist, who made her name as Twinkle in Victoria Wood's sitcom Dinnerladies. She has since played Veronica in Channel 4's Manchester-based drama series Shameless, barrister Martha Costello in the BBC legal drama Silk and Grace Middleton in The Village. She is also an accomplished stage actress, having played the title role in Hamlet, and had a role in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything. In 2018 she played the lead in the film Funny Cow and had a starring role in Mike Leigh's epic Peterloo, a film very close to her heart.
Known for
2026Becoming Victoria Wood
Self
2025Words of War
Anna Politkovskaya
2025I Swear
Dottie
2025Irvine Welsh: Reality Is Not Enough
Narrator
2025Quiet on Set: The Class Division in the Film Industry?
Self
2025The Occupant of the Room
The Englishwoman (voice)
2024Woken
Helen
2024Art Matters
Self
2023Dance First
Barbara
2023Tish
Tish Murtha (voice)
2023Choked Up
Fiona Lacey
2022The Real Anne: Unfinished Business
Self- Presenter
2022Wendell & Wild
Irmgard Klaxon (voice)
2022Something Out of Nothing
2022Lapushka!
Scoot Piccolo
2021Where We Used to Meet
2020Surfaces
Alix
2020It's Me
Miriam
2020The Great Mountain Sheep Gather
Self - Narrator
2019Judy
Judy
2019Fanny Lye Deliver'd
Fanny Lye
2018Funny Cow
Funny Cow
2018Peterloo
Nellie
2018Wonders of the Moon
Narrator (voice)
