Peake, Maxine: - "One of the UK's best loved actors, Maxine Peake is also an accomplished writer - her credits include BERYL (West Yorkshire Playhouse), QUEENS OF THE COAL AGE (Royal Exchange), "BETTY!" A SORT OF MUSICAL (Royal Exchange) and THE LAST TESTAMENT OF LILLIAN BILOCCA (Hulltruck Theatre). Her film credits include Mike Leigh's epic period drama PETERLOO, Oscar-nominated THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, a BIFA-nominated turn in independent British feature FUNNY COW (on which Maxine served as Executive Producer through her own production company, Vexed Pixie) and Thomas Clay's period thriller FANNY LYE DELIVER'D. Maxine is best known for leading high profile TV dramas such as BLACK MIRROR: METALHEAD (Netflix), THREE GIRLS (BBC), SILK (BBC), THE VILLAGE (BBC), SHAMELESS (Channel 4) and THE BISEXUAL (Hulu/Channel 4). In 2014, Maxine played the title role in HAMLET at the Manchester Royal Exchange in a critically acclaimed "radical reimagining" of William Shakespeare's play, returning to play Blanche in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE in 2016 and Winnie in Samuel Beckett's HAPPY DAYS in 2018, in equally lauded productions. In 2019 Maxine was seen at the Barbican in one woman show AVALANCHE, and returned to the National Theatre to lead Lucy Kirkwood's THE WELKIN in 2020."