CV: Hayley Atwell

Currently starring as Margaret Schlegel in the adaptation of E.M. Forster’s Howards End (9pm, BBC1), Hayley Atwell, 35, has made her name appearing in period dramas…

Early promise: Hayley Atwell was born in London, in 1982. Her mother is British, while her father is a shaman of part-Native American ancestry; his tribal name means Star Touches Earth. At school, Hayley was offered a place at Oxford, but failed to get the required grades, admitting later: ‘I sabotaged it; I felt it was a waste of time because I wanted to act.’

Shooting star: In 2002, she enrolled at drama school, partially funding her tuition with earnings from her appearance in a TV advertisement for crisps. Within months of graduating in 2005, she won film roles in How

About You and Woody Allen’s

Cassandra’s Dream (both 2007), followed by

The Duchess, Brideshead Revisited (both

2008), The Sweeney (2012) and Testament Of Youth (2014). After playing Peggy Carter in

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), she reprised the character in a further three films, a TV series – Marvel’s Agent Carter

(2015-16) – and several video games. Her first big TV part was in 2006 BBC drama The Line Of Beauty; this was followed by The Prisoner (2009), The Pillars Of The Earth and Any

Human Heart (both 2010), among others. Up next: Hayley is currently filming Christopher Robin (2018), the latest in a long line of period roles for which she has become known: ‘I’d love to do a film where I’m in jeans and a T-shirt. That would be so nice.’