Maxine Peake
Acting • Born 1974-07-14
Biography
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.
Filmography
118 credits
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas
Movie • 2007
Self
Girls' Night
Movie • 1998
Sharon
Where We Used to Meet
Movie • 2021
Dance First
Movie • 2023
Barbara
Words of War
Movie • 2025
Anna Politkovskaya
Clubbed
Movie • 2008
Angela
The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister
Movie • 2010
Anne Lister
The Real Anne: Unfinished Business
Movie • 2022
Self- Presenter
I Am Bob
Movie • 2007
Marilyn Monroe Lookalike/Compere's Assistant
Christmas Lights
Movie • 2004
Pauline
Tish
Movie • 2023
Tish Murtha (voice)
Edge
Movie • 2010
Elly
Wendell & Wild
Movie • 2022
Irmgard Klaxon (voice)
Woken
Movie • 2024
Helen
Svengali
Movie • 2013
Angie
Run & Jump
Movie • 2014
Vanetia
Hancock & Joan
Movie • 2008
Joan Le Mesurier
The Theory of Everything
Movie • 2014
Elaine Mason
Confessions of a Diary Secretary
Movie • 2007
Tracey Temple
Keeping Rosy
Movie • 2014
Charlotte
Something Out of Nothing
Movie • 2022
Surfaces
Movie • 2020
Alix
Lapushka!
Movie • 2022
Scoot Piccolo
Judy
Movie • 2019
Judy
Strange Weather
Movie • 2015
Jane
I Wish For You
Movie • 2016
Grown Up Mia
It's Me
Movie • 2020
Miriam
Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980
Movie • 2009
Helen Marshall
The Falling
Movie • 2015
Eileen Lamont
Inner Polar Bear
Movie • 2022
Narrator (voice)
Hamlet
Movie • 2015
Hamlet
The Great Mountain Sheep Gather
Movie • 2020
Self - Narrator
The Madness of the Dance
Movie • 2006
Generation '66
Movie • 2016
Narrator
Faith
Movie • 2005
Linda
Red Top
Movie • 2016
Rebekah Brooks
Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings
Movie • 2000
Self
Choked Up
Movie • 2023
Fiona Lacey
Private Peaceful
Movie • 2012
Hazel Peaceful
Bike Squad
Movie • 2008
WPC Kate McFay
All or Nothing
Movie • 2002
Party girl
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Movie • 2016
Titania
Hamilton Mattress
Movie • 2002
Lulu (voice)
Funny Cow
Movie • 2018
Funny Cow
Art Matters
Movie • 2024
Self
Keeping Up with the Joneses
Movie • 2013
Celia
Best Laid Plans
Movie • 2012
Isabel
Frozen
Movie • 2005
Ticket Attendant
I Swear
Movie • 2025
Dottie Achenbach
Fanny Lye Deliver'd
Movie • 2019
Fanny Lye
Would Like To Meet
Movie • 2007
George's Mum
Imaginary Friend
Movie • 2010
Pauline
The Heart Fails Without Warning
Movie • 2013
Mother
Peterloo
Movie • 2018
Nellie
Men Who Sleep in Cars
Movie • 2017
Sarah
Wonders of the Moon
Movie • 2018
Narrator (voice)
Cake
Movie • 2017
DeafBlind
Movie • 2011
Maggie
Gwen
Movie • 2018
Elen
The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca
Movie • 2018
Herself
The Priest
Movie • 2017
Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle
Movie • 2017
Narrator
The Fear of Trilogy
Movie • 2006
The Shuttleworths
Movie • 2015
Helen Bach
Bunch of Kunst - A Film About Sleaford Mods
Movie • 2017
Self (archive footage)
Twisting My Melon
Movie
Linda Ryder
Be Still My Beating Heart
Movie • 2019
Unseen
Movie • 2017
Emma
Ceremony: The Return of Friedrich Engels
Movie • 2018
Friedrich Engels (voice)
Irvine Welsh: Reality Is Not Enough
Movie • 2025
Narrator
Quiet on Set: The Class Division in the Film Industry?
Movie • 2025
Self
The Occupant of the Room
Movie • 2025
Becoming Victoria Wood
Movie • 2026
Self
dinnerladies
TV • 1998
Twinkle
Early Doors
TV • 2003
Janice
ChuckleVision
TV • 1987
Jonathan Creek
TV • 1997
Marion Cretiss
Comedy Connections
TV • 2003
Dalziel & Pascoe
TV • 1996
We Have Been Watching
TV • 2017
Self
Criminal Justice
TV • 2008
Juliet Miller
Little Dorrit
TV • 2008
Miss Wade
The Alan Titchmarsh Show
TV • 2007
Self
The Street
TV • 2006
Star Wars: Visions
TV • 2021
Kalina Kalfus (voice)
Red Riding
TV • 2009
Timeshift
TV • 2002
Self - Narrator
Artsnight
TV • 2015
Self - Presenter
Room at the Top
TV • 2012
Alice Aisgill
Hetty Wainthropp Investigates
TV • 1996
Photocopy Assistant
Messiah
TV • 2001
DS Vickie Clarke
Alan Bennett's Talking Heads
TV • 2020
Miss Fozzard
Clocking Off
TV • 2000
Marie Leach
Rules of the Game
TV • 2022
Sam Thompson
Sunburn
TV • 1999
Sue
Three Girls
TV • 2017
Sara Rowbotham
Art That Made Us
TV • 2022
Self - Actrice (Rules of the Game, Anne)
See No Evil: The Moors Murders
TV • 2006
Myra Hindley
The Devil's Whore
TV • 2008
Elizabeth Lilburne
Shameless
TV • 2004
Veronica Fisher
Black Mirror
TV • 2011
Bella
The Graham Norton Show
TV • 2007
Self
Linda Green
TV • 2001
Receptionist
Secret Life of the Safari Park
TV • 2024
Narrator
The Bisexual
TV • 2018
Sadie
Say Nothing
TV • 2024
Older Dolours Price
The Hollow Crown
TV • 2012
Doll Tearsheet
Anne
TV • 2022
Anne Williams
Inside No. 9
TV • 2014
Nadia
The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer
TV • 2018
Self - Guest
The Dispatcher
TV
Mandy
TV • 2020
Susan Blower
Dinnerladies Diaries
TV • 2018
Self
The One Show
TV • 2006
Self - Guest
Fairy Tales
TV • 2008
Cindy Mellor
The Village
TV • 2013
Grace Middleton
Silk
TV • 2011
Martha Costello QC
First Day on Earth
TV
Helen