Jane Horrocks

About:

Born Barbara Jane Horrocks in Lancashire, England, Horrocks trained at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art alongside Ralph Fiennes and Imogen Stubbs.

She rose to theatrical fame with her work in Jim Cartwright’s Road for the Royal Court Theatre in London, an association that she has carried on throughout her career with Cartwright writing the hit film Little Voice for her in order to show off her extraordinary ability to mimic the great female singers. Her uncompromising stand in retaining her Lancashire roots and accent have meant that she has almost cornered the market in young Northern girls. A wider fame was assured by her astonishing performance in Mike Leigh’s Life is Sweet (1990), and her creation of the character of Bubble in Jennifer Saunders’ television hit Absolutely Fabulous. Her more recent work includes the British television series The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006) and voicing the films Chicken Run (2000) and Corpse Bride (2005).

She has played many characters but the common link is often a childish edge to the performance, it was this non-saccharin, true-to-life childishness that worked so well with her reading of the classic Nursery Rhymes, being as they are funny, hard hitting and rather gruesome – somewhat like childhood!

She lives in London with the writer Nick Vivian and their two children, Dylan and Molly.

Selected Filmography:

The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (TV Series)
Little Voice
Absolutely Fabulous (TV Series)
Garfield: A Tail of Two Kittens
Corpse Bride