Acting

Maxine Peake

Born 1974-07-14 · Westhoughton, Lancashire, England, UK

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.

Credits

Newest first

Crackula
2026
Last Seen
as Jenna Reid
2026
Bait
as Helen
2026
Becoming Victoria Wood
as Self
2026
Laundreams
2025
The Occupant of the Room
as The Englishwoman (voice)
2025
Irvine Welsh: Reality Is Not Enough
as Narrator
2025
I Swear
as Dottie
2025
Quiet on Set: The Class Division in the Film Industry?
as Self
2025
Words of War
as Anna Politkovskaya
2025
The Haunted Season
as The Englishwoman (voice)
2024
Say Nothing
as Older Dolours Price
2024
Art Matters
as Self
2024
Woken
as Helen
2024
Secret Life of the Safari Park
as Narrator
2024
Tish
as Tish Murtha (voice)
2023
Dance First
as Barbara
2023
Choked Up
as Fiona Lacey
2023
Wendell & Wild
as Irmgard Klaxon (voice)
2022
Inner Polar Bear
as Narrator (voice)
2022
Lapushka!
as Scoot Piccolo
2022
Something Out of Nothing
2022
Incompatible
Director
2022
Art That Made Us
as Self - Actrice (Rules of the Game, Anne)
2022
Rules of the Game
as Sam Thompson
2022
The Real Anne: Unfinished Business
as Self- Presenter
2022
Anne
as Anne Williams
2022
Where We Used to Meet
2021
Star Wars: Visions
as Kalina Kalfus (voice)
2021
Doughnut
Thanks
2021
Mandy
as Susan Blower
2020
Alan Bennett's Talking Heads
as Miss Fozzard
2020
Surfaces
as Alix
2020
The Great Mountain Sheep Gather
as Self - Narrator
2020
It's Me
as Miriam
2020
Fanny Lye Deliver'd
as Fanny Lye
2019
Be Still My Beating Heart
2019
Judy
as Judy
2019
Peterloo
as Nellie
2018
The Bisexual
as Sadie
2018
The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca
as Self
2018
The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca
Producer
2018
The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca
Director
2018
Gwen
as Elen
2018
Ceremony: The Return of Friedrich Engels
as Friedrich Engels (voice)
2018
Funny Cow
as Funny Cow
2018
Funny Cow
Executive Producer
2018
Dinnerladies Diaries
as Self
2018
The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer
as Self - Guest
2018
Wonders of the Moon
as Narrator (voice)
2018
The Priest
2017
The Priest
Writer
2017
Men Who Sleep in Cars
as Sarah
2017
Cake
2017
Unseen
as Emma
2017
Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle
as Narrator
2017
Three Girls
as Sara Rowbotham
2017
Bunch of Kunst - A Film About Sleaford Mods
as Self (archive footage)
2017
We Have Been Watching
as Self
2017
Generation '66
as Narrator
2016
A Midsummer Night's Dream
as Titania
2016
Red Top
as Rebekah Brooks
2016
I Wish For You
as Grown Up Mia
2016
The Falling
as Eileen Lamont
2015
Hamlet
as Hamlet
2015
Artsnight
as Self - Presenter
2015
Strange Weather
as Jane
2015
The Shuttleworths
as Helen Bach
2015
The Theory of Everything
as Elaine Mason
2014
Keeping Rosy
as Charlotte
2014
Inside No. 9
as Nadia
2014
Run & Jump
as Vanetia
2014
Keeping Up with the Joneses
as Celia
2013
Svengali
as Angie
2013
The Village
as Grace Middleton
2013
The Heart Fails Without Warning
as Mother
2013
Private Peaceful
as Hazel Peaceful
2012
Room at the Top
as Alice Aisgill
2012
The Hollow Crown
as Doll Tearsheet
2012
Best Laid Plans
as Isabel
2012