Monica Dolan

Monica Dolan

Birth : 1969-03-15, Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England, UK

History

Monica Dolan is a BAFTA and Olivier Award winning actor whose work spans television, film and stage. Monica was born in March 1969 into an Irish family and has a sister Gabrielle. She studied drama at the Guildhall School in London, graduating in 1991 and soon afterwards went into television. A supremely versatile character actress, she has tended to specialize in stunning portrayals of the darker side of life, as real-life stalker Maria Marchese in U Be Dead (2009), demure but deadly Miss Gilchrist in the superior Poirot adaptation Poirot: After the Funeral (2006) and, particularly, as serial killer Rosemary West in Appropriate Adult (2011) for which she, along with fellow Guildhall graduate Dominic West, deservedly received a BAFTA award.

Profile

Monica Dolan

Movies

A Woman Walks Into A Bank
Narrator
A Woman Walks into a Bank is about a young woman’s journey from normality to extremism and back again. The film is told through increasingly elaborate crime scene reconstructions, pretentious drama exercises, finger-gun shoot-outs and interpretative dance.
Empire of Light
Rosemary Bates
The duty manager of a seaside cinema, who is struggling with her mental health, forms a relationship with a new employee on the south coast of England in the 1980s.
Typist Artist Pirate King
Audrey Amiss
The growing friendship between two women as they hit the road in an electric car looking for endings and reconciliation.
My Name Is Leon
Maureen
Leon, a mixed-race boy, and Jake, his white baby brother, are separated after their mother has a breakdown. Leon is determined to find him and gets unexpected support along the way.
Cyrano
Marie
A man ahead of his time, Cyrano de Bergerac dazzles whether with ferocious wordplay at a verbal joust or with brilliant swordplay in a duel. But, convinced that his appearance renders him unworthy of the love of a devoted friend, the luminous Roxanne, Cyrano has yet to declare his feelings for her—and Roxanne has fallen in love, at first sight, with Christian.
The Dig
May Brown
As WWII looms, a wealthy widow hires an amateur archaeologist to excavate the burial mounds on her estate. When they make a historic discovery, the echoes of Britain's past resonate in the face of its uncertain future‎.
Days of the Bagnold Summer
Sue
Sue works in a library. Daniel eats crisps and listens to Metallica. This was the summer Daniel was due to spend with his father and his father's new wife in Florida. But when they cancel his trip at the last minute, Sue and Daniel suddenly face the prospect of six long weeks together.
Rialto
Claire
Colm is in his mid-forties, married, with two teenage children. Still grieving the death of his father, a destructive figure in his life, Colm struggles with his relationship to his own son, whilst at work a recent takeover threatens his job. Unable to share his vulnerability with his wife, Colm’s world is falling apart around him. In the midst of this crisis, Colm finds a comfort that no one else can provide but Jay.
Official Secrets
Fiona Bygate
The true story of British intelligence whistleblower Katharine Gun who—prior to the 2003 Iraq invasion—leaked a top-secret NSA memo exposing a joint US-UK illegal spying operation against members of the UN Security Council. The memo proposed blackmailing member states into voting for war.
National Theatre Live: All About Eve
Karen Richards
The story of Margo Channing. Legend. True star of the theatre. The spotlight is hers, always has been. But now there’s Eve. Her biggest fan. Young, beautiful Eve. The golden girl, the girl next door. But you know all about Eve…don’t you…?
Fern
Woman
A woman loses her husband and finds a potted plant.
Neil Gaiman’s Likely Stories “Foreign Parts”
Dr. Marshall
There’s a sense that time is running out. Our narrator, Simon, is like a man sinking in quicksand. He’s a man of routine. Rising, dressing, travelling to work on the DLR. Every day is the same. His sense of self is slipping away as he becomes (perhaps literally) someone else. It’s a similar story for Dr Benham, stuck in his STD clinic watching a parade of patients come and go. In his parallel story of metamorphosis he’s being spat out by his own life. He too is becoming a different person, from the feet up.
Eye in the Sky
Angela Northman
A UK-based military officer in command of a top secret drone operation to capture terrorists in Kenya discovers the targets are planning a suicide bombing and the mission escalates from “capture” to “kill.” As American pilot Steve Watts is about to engage, a nine-year old girl enters the kill zone, triggering an international dispute reaching the highest levels of US and British government over the moral, political, and personal implications of modern warfare.
The Falling
Miss Martha Alvaro
England, 1969. The fascinating Abbie and the troubled Lydia are great friends. After an unexpected tragedy occurs in the strict girls' school they attend, a mysterious epidemic of fainting breaks out that threatens the mental sanity and beliefs of the tormented people involved, both teachers and students.
Pride
Marion
In 1984, a group of LGBT activists decide to raise money to support the National Union of Mineworkers during their lengthy strike. There is only one problem: the Union seems embarrassed to receive their support.
Out of Darkness
A unique story told by nine different actors which explores the haunting of a conscience by lost souls that won't let go.
Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa
Angela
When famous DJ Alan Partridge’s radio station is taken over by a new media conglomerate, it sets in motion a chain of events which see Alan having to work with the police to defuse a potentially violent siege.
Kick-Ass 2
Tommy's Mum
After Kick-Ass’ insane bravery inspires a new wave of self-made masked crusaders, he joins a patrol led by the Colonel Stars and Stripes. When these amateur superheroes are hunted down by Red Mist — reborn as The Mother Fucker — only the blade-wielding Hit-Girl can prevent their annihilation.
Complicit
Judith
An MI5 officer's attempts to foil a possible terrorist plot are undermined by bureaucracy and moral dilemmas. Will he make the world a safer place or be complicit in making a tense situation even worse?
Sightseers
Janice
Chris wants to show girlfriend Tina his world, but events soon conspire against the couple and their dream caravan holiday takes a very wrong turn.
Meconium
Kel (voice)
Owain's girlfriend Lorna has gone into labour unexpectedly. The baby is stuck in its sac and Owain's the only one who can do anything about it. Has he got what it takes when life gets messy?
The Arbor
Ann Hamilton
Portrayal of the late Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar. Andrea Dunbar wrote honestly and unflinchingly about her upbringing on the notorious Buttershaw Estate in Bradford and was described as ‘a genius straight from the slums.’ When she died tragically at the age of 29 in 1990, Lorraine was just ten years old. The Arbor revisits the Buttershaw Estate where Dunbar grew up, thirty years on from her original play, telling the powerful true story of the playwright and her daughter Lorraine. Also aged 29, Lorraine had become ostracised from her mother’s family and was in prison undergoing rehab. Re-introduced to her mother’s plays and letters, the film follows Lorraine’s personal journey as she reflects on her own life and begins to understand the struggles her mother faced.
Excluded
Ian, a newly qualified teacher, comes up against Mark, a troubled and disruptive pupil who teachers want to see excluded from school. Against the odds, Ian makes a connection with the boy, but will he put his career on the line to save him?
Never Let Me Go
Nurse
As children, Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy spend their childhood at an idyllic and secluded English boarding school. As they grow into adults, they must come to terms with the complexity and strength of their love for one another while also preparing for the haunting reality awaiting them.
U Be Dead
Maria Marchese
A doctor and his girlfriend are stalked by a woman who claims to be in love with him. Meanwhile, the man falls in love with a younger woman. Based on a true story
Within the Whirlwind
Pitkowskaya
During Stalin's reign of terror, Evgenia Ginzburg, a literature professor, was sent to 10 years hard labor in a gulag in Siberia. Having lost everything, and no longer wishing to live, she meets the camp doctor and begins to come back to life.
Occupation
Nicky Swift
Three ex-servicemen return to Basra, each for a different reason.
King Lear
Regan
King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.
The History of Mr Polly
When Alfred Polly fails to find fulfilment as a shop keeper, he leaves his wife and sets out on the open road to see where freedom leads.
Wallis & Edward
Elizabeth
In 1936, Edward VIII abdicated in order to marry the woman he loved, Wallis Simpson, a twice divorced American. These events caused a scandal around the world and Wallis has since been demonised as the woman who stole the King of England. Wallis and Edward is the first time that the events have been considered from Wallis's point of view. The drama follows the beginning of their affair whilst Edward was Prince of Wales and Wallis was still married to Ernest Simpson.
Guernsey
Claire
Guernsey is the story of a woman who suddenly looks at her own life and wonders how she became miles apart from the people she is closest to.
She Stoops to Conquer
Miss Kate Hardcastle
Oliver Goldsmith's classic comedy of manners tells of the clever schemes and comic ruses that unfold one night at a country house. An ambitious step-mother, impassioned sweethearts, a pragmatic father and a pair of star-crossed suitors are sent spinning through a hilarous comedy of errors by one of the great characters of the stage, Tony Lumpkin. The National Theatre and Out Of Joint co-production of Goldsmith's comedy, recorded live on stage in Bath, after it's premiere at the Lyttelton theatre in London.
Topsy-Turvy
Miss Barnes
After their production "Princess Ida" meets with less-than-stunning reviews, the relationship between Gilbert and Sullivan is strained to breaking. Their friends and associates attempt to get the two to work together again, which opens the way to "The Mikado," one of the duo's greatest successes.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Hermia
A film adaptation of Shakespeare's comedy, based on a popular stage production by the Royal Shakespeare Company. A small boy dreams the play, which unfolds in a surreal landscape of umbrellas and lightbulbs.