Alexandra Boyd
Encyclopedia
Alexandra Boyd is a British
actress, who is best known for playing Clarissa Mason in Coronation Street
. On British TV Alexandra has also appeared in two episodes of Doctors was Denis Waterman's love interest in New Tricks and has also appeared in Holby City. She has been a guest on Loose Women
and plays the Head of the Delegation in the 2010 John Travolta
/Luc Besson
action movie From Paris with Love
. Her other movie roles include Sarah Olmstead in Mr. Holland's Opus
and First Class Woman in James Cameron's Titanic
.
father and English mother in Bangor, Wales
. She grew up in Norwich, Norfolk
and went to Norwich High School for Girls. She left school at 16 to study full time at Laine Theatre Arts
in Epsom, Surrey
. Alexandra wanted a more formal actor's training so in 1986 she enrolled in the post graduate acting course at Drama Studio, London
. In 1987 she co-founded a theatre company with director Maggi Law (Jude Law
's mother). The company performed Shakespeare
and adapted classics for the London
and Edinburgh
fringe. They also produced English plays for several tours of Italy
. In the 1993 tour Alexandra played Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion
. Jude played Freddie Eynsford Hill.
for many years. In Los Angeles
she appeared in films such as Mr Holland’s Opus and Titanic
.
On American TV Alexandra made appearances on Party Of Five
, Sabrina The Teenage Witch
and The Bernie Mac Show
. She has performed voices for radio commercials & animated features such as The Wild Thornberries and is the voice of Elaine Marley
in The Curse of Monkey Island
, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, Tales of Monkey Island
, and Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge
. On UK TV, she played Clarissa Mason on Coronation Street (Granada TV) in the summer of 2008 and in 2009 played Dennis Waterman's American love interest in an episode of New Tricks (BBC). She has guest starred in BBC1's Doctors and Holby City.
Her theatre credits range from Shakespeare to panto; many Alan Ayckbourn
plays; Rita in Educating Rita
and Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion
. In 2007 she performed in a one woman show (Stork Bite) at [The Hackney Empire]. In 2009 she appeared in Three S**t Hot Shorts by Dean Stalham at The Camden Fringe Festival
.
In November 2009 she co-starred with Danny Webb
in VISITING HOURS, a short film shot at Shepperton Studios, written for her and directed by Steve Hughes
. The movie has played at the Milan International Film Festival 2010 and The Los Angeles Short Film Festival 2010 and ENCOUNTERS 2010 in Bristol.
She plays the Chief of Delegation in the Luc Beeson (Europacorp) movie From Paris With Love
, with John Travolta
and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. The movie was directed by Pierre Morel
and written and produced by Luc Besson
.
2011
Alexandra starred in the Middle Ground Theatre production of COLUMBO with fellow Coronation Street cast member, Brian Capron. She stars opposite Dominic Brunt and Mark Charnock in the EMMERDALE CHRISTMAS DVD (2011) The DVD is released on November 14th and is called Paddy and Marlon's Big Night Out. She plays Audrey in Seven Lucky Gods a thriller and independent feature film adapted from the book The Nick of Time by Frances King and directed by Jamil Dehlavi.
She has also written a 15 minute short film (Happy Now) The film is set in 1961 in Wales and is about her mother who gave birth to twins. The film is in pre-production and will shoot early 2011.
Alexandra will direct the film, Maddy Lewis (Easy Tiger Productions) will produce and the project is executive produced by Jon Pettigrew.
. She studied with some of the foremost green architects in the United States. She writes a blog about living a green and sustainable lifestyle called How Green Is Your Life.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
actress, who is best known for playing Clarissa Mason in Coronation Street
Coronation Street
Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...
. On British TV Alexandra has also appeared in two episodes of Doctors was Denis Waterman's love interest in New Tricks and has also appeared in Holby City. She has been a guest on Loose Women
Loose Women
Loose Women is a British lunchtime television programme, first broadcast in 1999 on ITV. It consists of a panel of four women who interview celebrities and discuss topical issues, ranging from daily politics and current affairs, to celebrity gossip...
and plays the Head of the Delegation in the 2010 John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
/Luc Besson
Luc Besson
Luc Besson is a French film director, writer, and producer. He is the creator of EuropaCorp film company. He has been involved with over 50 films, spanning 26 years, as writer, director, and/or producer.-Early life:...
action movie From Paris with Love
From Paris with Love (film)
From Paris with Love is a 2010 action film starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers and directed by Pierre Morel. The screenplay was co-written by Luc Besson. The film was released in the United States on February 5, 2010.-Plot:...
. Her other movie roles include Sarah Olmstead in Mr. Holland's Opus
Mr. Holland's Opus
Mr. Holland's Opus is a 1995 American drama film directed by Stephen Herek, produced by Ted Field, Robert W. Cort, and Michael Nolin, and Executive Produced by Patrick Sheane Duncan. It stars Richard Dreyfuss in the title role, and the cast includes Glenne Headly, Olympia Dukakis, William H. Macy...
and First Class Woman in James Cameron's Titanic
Titanic (1997 film)
Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...
.
Early life
Alexandra was born to a ScottishScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
father and English mother in Bangor, Wales
Bangor, Gwynedd
Bangor is a city in Gwynedd, north west Wales, and one of the smallest cities in Britain. It is a university city with a population of 13,725 at the 2001 census, not including around 10,000 students at Bangor University. Including nearby Menai Bridge on Anglesey, which does not however form part of...
. She grew up in Norwich, Norfolk
Norwich
Norwich is a city in England. It is the regional administrative centre and county town of Norfolk. During the 11th century, Norwich was the largest city in England after London, and one of the most important places in the kingdom...
and went to Norwich High School for Girls. She left school at 16 to study full time at Laine Theatre Arts
Laine Theatre Arts
Laine Theatre Arts is an independent performing arts college, based in the town of Epsom in Surrey, England. The college was founded in 1974, and developed from an earlier school, the Frecker-Laine School of Dancing...
in Epsom, Surrey
Epsom
Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England. Small parts of Epsom are in the Borough of Reigate and Banstead. The town is located south-south-west of Charing Cross, within the Greater London Urban Area. The town lies on the chalk downland of Epsom Downs.-History:Epsom lies...
. Alexandra wanted a more formal actor's training so in 1986 she enrolled in the post graduate acting course at Drama Studio, London
Drama Studio London
Drama Studio London is a drama school based in Ealing, London, England, United Kingdom. It is accredited by the National Council for Drama Training, London and is a Member of the Conference of Drama Schools...
. In 1987 she co-founded a theatre company with director Maggi Law (Jude Law
Jude Law
David Jude Heyworth Law , known professionally as Jude Law, is an English actor, film producer and director.He began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first television role in 1989...
's mother). The company performed Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
and adapted classics for the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
fringe. They also produced English plays for several tours of Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. In the 1993 tour Alexandra played Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion
Pygmalion (play)
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...
. Jude played Freddie Eynsford Hill.
Career
Alexandra currently lives in London. She moved back to the UK in 2006 after living in the USAUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for many years. In Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
she appeared in films such as Mr Holland’s Opus and Titanic
Titanic (1997 film)
Titanic is a 1997 American epic romance and disaster film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron. A fictionalized account of the sinking of the RMS Titanic, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson, Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater and Billy Zane as Rose's fiancé, Cal...
.
On American TV Alexandra made appearances on Party Of Five
Party of Five
Party of Five is an American teen drama television series that aired on Fox for six seasons, from September 12, 1994, until May 3, 2000.Critically acclaimed, the show suffered from low ratings and after its first season was slated for cancellation...
, Sabrina The Teenage Witch
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (TV series)
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch is an American sitcom based on the Archie comic book series of the same name.The show stars Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina Spellman, a teenager with magical powers, who lives with her aunts Hilda and Zelda , and their magical talking cat Salem...
and The Bernie Mac Show
The Bernie Mac Show
The Bernie Mac Show is an American sitcom featuring comic actor Bernie Mac and his wife Wanda raising his sister's three kids: Jordan, Bryana and Vanessa. The show aired for five seasons , concluding with a half-hour series finale on Fox....
. She has performed voices for radio commercials & animated features such as The Wild Thornberries and is the voice of Elaine Marley
Elaine Marley
Elaine Marley–Threepwood is a fictional character in the Monkey Island series of graphic adventure video games. Created by Ron Gilbert for LucasArts, the character first appears in The Secret of Monkey Island and is one of the core characters in the franchise...
in The Curse of Monkey Island
The Curse of Monkey Island
The Curse of Monkey Island is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts, and the third game in the Monkey Island series. It was released in and followed the successful games The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge...
, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, Tales of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island
Tales of Monkey Island is a 2009 graphic adventure video game developed by Telltale Games and LucasArts. It is the fifth game in the Monkey Island series, released nearly a decade after the previous installment, Escape from Monkey Island. Developed for Windows and the Wii console, the game was...
, and Monkey Island 2 Special Edition: LeChuck's Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is an adventure game developed and published by LucasArts in 1991. It was the second game of the Monkey Island series, following The Secret of Monkey Island, and the sixth LucasArts game to use the SCUMM engine. It was the first game to use the iMUSE sound...
. On UK TV, she played Clarissa Mason on Coronation Street (Granada TV) in the summer of 2008 and in 2009 played Dennis Waterman's American love interest in an episode of New Tricks (BBC). She has guest starred in BBC1's Doctors and Holby City.
Her theatre credits range from Shakespeare to panto; many Alan Ayckbourn
Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn CBE is a prolific English playwright. He has written and produced seventy-three full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their...
plays; Rita in Educating Rita
Educating Rita
Educating Rita is a stage comedy by British playwright Willy Russell. It is a play for two actors set entirely in the office of an Open University lecturer....
and Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion
Pygmalion (play)
Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of...
. In 2007 she performed in a one woman show (Stork Bite) at [The Hackney Empire]. In 2009 she appeared in Three S**t Hot Shorts by Dean Stalham at The Camden Fringe Festival
Camden Fringe
The Camden Fringe takes place over 4 weeks in the summer to provide an alternative to the Edinburgh Fringe in one of London's most vibrant and exciting areas....
.
In November 2009 she co-starred with Danny Webb
Danny Webb (actor)
Danny Webb is a British television and film actor. He may be best known for his role as the prisoner Morse in Alien 3. He has appeared in many famous British television programmes including The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Emmerdale Farm, Our Friends in the North, A Touch of Frost, Agatha...
in VISITING HOURS, a short film shot at Shepperton Studios, written for her and directed by Steve Hughes
Steve Hughes
Steve Hughes is an Australian musician and stand-up comedian.-Music career:In the early 1980s he formed the Sydney thrash metal band Slaughter Lord, who recorded some demos before disbanding. Hughes then joined Mortal Sin in 1989 and stayed with them until 1991...
. The movie has played at the Milan International Film Festival 2010 and The Los Angeles Short Film Festival 2010 and ENCOUNTERS 2010 in Bristol.
She plays the Chief of Delegation in the Luc Beeson (Europacorp) movie From Paris With Love
From Paris with Love (film)
From Paris with Love is a 2010 action film starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers and directed by Pierre Morel. The screenplay was co-written by Luc Besson. The film was released in the United States on February 5, 2010.-Plot:...
, with John Travolta
John Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. The movie was directed by Pierre Morel
Pierre Morel
-Movie career:After spending his formative years in cinema school, Pierre Morel debuted in 2000 as camera operator with the first Richard Berry's film L'Art de la séduction....
and written and produced by Luc Besson
Luc Besson
Luc Besson is a French film director, writer, and producer. He is the creator of EuropaCorp film company. He has been involved with over 50 films, spanning 26 years, as writer, director, and/or producer.-Early life:...
.
2011
Alexandra starred in the Middle Ground Theatre production of COLUMBO with fellow Coronation Street cast member, Brian Capron. She stars opposite Dominic Brunt and Mark Charnock in the EMMERDALE CHRISTMAS DVD (2011) The DVD is released on November 14th and is called Paddy and Marlon's Big Night Out. She plays Audrey in Seven Lucky Gods a thriller and independent feature film adapted from the book The Nick of Time by Frances King and directed by Jamil Dehlavi.
Hydroderm
In the summer of 2010, Alexandra was invited to become the UK face of the anti-aging serum Hydroderm. She shot the infomercial in Hollywood CA and it can now be seen on the V Shopping Channel. She writes about her experiences with the anti wrinkle serum in a blog. Click here to read her updates.Directing
In 2011 Alexandra directed her first film about Henry Mallin and Major Arthur Villiers. The six minute short has been used as a promotional tool for a full length feature called THE WILDERNESS It is a true story is based on the Eton Manor Boys Club founded by Villiers in the East End in the early part of the 20th century. Mallin trained there as a boxer and went on to win two Olympic Gold medals (1920/24). Alexandra has written the screenplay and is attached to direct in 2012. She is co-founder and director of WILDERNESS PRODUCTIONS with Jon Pettigrew who will produce the film.She has also written a 15 minute short film (Happy Now) The film is set in 1961 in Wales and is about her mother who gave birth to twins. The film is in pre-production and will shoot early 2011.
Alexandra will direct the film, Maddy Lewis (Easy Tiger Productions) will produce and the project is executive produced by Jon Pettigrew.
Eco Interior Design
While living in Los Angeles Alexandra trained as an interior designer at UCLAUniversity of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...
. She studied with some of the foremost green architects in the United States. She writes a blog about living a green and sustainable lifestyle called How Green Is Your Life.