Freema Agyeman

Freema Agyeman (born Frema Agyeman on 20 March 1979^[1]^[2]^[3]) played the role of Martha Jones, a companion to the Tenth Doctor and also a temporary member of both Torchwood Three and UNIT. She changed the spelling of her first name upon beginning her professional acting career in order to avoid pronunciation errors. She was born to Ghanaian and Iranian parents.

Freema Agyeman first appeared on Doctor Who in the series 2 episode Army of Ghosts as Adeola Oshodi, a Torchwood Institute employee, who was an early victim of the Cybermen. She returned to the series as Adeola's cousin, Martha Jones, at the start of series 3 in Smith and Jones. Agyeman continued as Martha throughout the rest of Series 3, and also provided the character's voice for the special animated serial, The Infinite Quest. She left the series with the finale episode, Last of the Time Lords. As a consequence of her time on the series, she also gained the record for most guest appearances on Totally Doctor Who, entirely discounting her turn on The Infinite Quest — although David Tennant holds the record, including Quest.

Agyeman wasn't away from the Doctor Who franchise for long. She next reprised the role of Martha in several episodes of series 2 of Torchwood, and was the third character to cross over between the two shows. Only a couple of months after her Torchwood appearances, she was back on the parent program for five episodes of series 4, reprising Jones for a trilogy of episodes beginning with The Sontaran Stratagem, and returning once more for the finale, The Stolen Earth/Journey's End. After completing work on Doctor Who, Agyeman returned to the Torchwood team to portray Martha for an original BBC Radio audio drama based upon the spin-off, Lost Souls.

2008 was a breakout year for the actress. Besides her multiple appearances on Doctor Who and Torchwood (as well as hosting the July 2008 BBC Proms concert dedicated to Doctor Who), it was also announced that she would be starring in a remake of the 1970s Terry Nation series, Survivors, and in July 2008 it was announced that she would star in Law & Order: UK, an ITV spin-off of the American Law & Order franchise. Although rumours persisted that she would appear in the third series of Torchwood, she did not due to her commitment to Law & Order: UK.^[4] At the beginning of the series, however, it was stated that her character of Martha Jones was on her honeymoon at the time. Law & Order: UK was later renewed for a second series.

In 2009, Agyeman returned briefly to the role of Martha for a cameo appearance near the end of David Tennant's final story, The End of Time.

More recently, Agyeman has also appeared as Shelley Periwinkle/Pearl the Mermaid in Old Jack's Boat, with Bernard Cribbins in the title role; the American series The Carrie Diaries, and New Amsterdam.