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Jenna Coleman (born 27 April 1986[1][2]) — initially credited in Doctor Who as Jenna-Louise Coleman — played companion Clara Oswald in Doctor Who, also making a cameo in the 2017 Christmas special. Coleman later appeared as Bonnie in the Doctor Who television story The Zygon Invasion / The Zygon Inversion and read AudioGO audio story The Time Machine with Michael Cochrane and Nicholas Briggs.
Prior to landing the role on Doctor Who, Coleman was perhaps best known for portraying Jasmine Thomas in Emmerdale and had also appeared in Waterloo Road as Lindsay James, the Marvel feature film Captain America: The First Avenger as Connie and the 2012 miniseries Titanic as Annie Desmond.
Coleman was born in Blackpool, Lancashire. Incidentally, Blackpool is also the home town of her character, the modern Clara Oswald, as revealed in Robot of Sherwood.
In 2012, Coleman also introduced the prequel, The Great Detective, and the trailer for The Snowmen, for their broadcast during Children in Need.
In June 2013, Coleman announced that she was shortening her professional name to Jenna Coleman, and was credited thus beginning with The Day of the Doctor.[3] (She does not actually receive screen credit for the minisode Clara and the TARDIS, which was released after the announcement.)
Also in 2013, she appeared as herself in The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot, and also co-starred in the three-part BBC miniseries Death Comes to Pemberley, which began the day after the broadcast of The Time of the Doctor.
By the end of Series 9, Coleman had become the longest-serving companion actress of the revival era, surpassing Karen Gillan by several episodes. Her final episode to date was TV: Hell Bent.
After filming her final scenes for Doctor Who in late August 2015, Coleman took on the lead role of Queen Victoria in the ITV series Victoria, which began filming in the fall of 2015. During a break in filming series 9, she shot a supporting role in the romantic drama Me Before You, released in 2016. She also recorded a guest voice for an episode of the second series of the animated sci-fi programme Thunderbirds Are Go that aired in October 2016. Victoria began airing in August 2016 in the UK and was swiftly renewed for a second series and a Christmas special, production of which began in February 2017 for an assumed late-summer/early fall broadcast in the UK. (Victoria co-stars Eve Myles and Tommy Knight).
Characters portrayed
During her three seasons on Doctor Who, Coleman portrayed multiple characters, some with substantial roles in stories, some briefly:
- Clara Oswald (TV: The Snowmen to Hell Bent, Twice Upon a Time)
- Oswin Oswald (echo) (TV: Asylum of the Daleks)
- Clara Oswin Oswald (echo) (The Snowmen)
- TARDIS holographic interface (TV: Hide)
- Multiple Clara echoes (TV: The Name of the Doctor)
- Saibra (Clara impersonation): (TV: Time Heist)
- Bonnie: (TV: The Zygon Invasion and The Zygon Inversion)
In addition, Coleman played multiple versions of Clara Oswald from different points in her timestream in the mini-episode HOMEVID: Clara and the TARDIS. She also played an elderly version of Clara in TV: Last Christmas. Her 2013 audio book, AUDIO: The Time Machine does not feature Clara; instead, she voices a one-off companion named Alice Watson as well as the Eleventh Doctor.