Kelly MacDonald biography
Date of birth : 1976-02-23
Date of death : -
Birthplace : Glasgow, Scotland
Nationality : Scottish
Category : Arts and Entertainment
Last modified : 2011-11-17
Credited as : Actress, Nanny McPhee, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
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Kelly Macdonald was born on February 23, 1976, in Glasgow, Scotland. When her parents divorced a few years later, Kelly and her younger brother, David, grew up in suburban Newton Mearns with their mother, Patsy. Money was difficult to come by for the family and Kelly found herself on the move a lot before she graduated from Eastwood High School.
The leaflet that Kelly spotted was a casting session for Trainspotting. After a few auditions and a screen test, Kelly won the role of Diane, the underaged temptress who has her way with Ewan McGregor's drug-tripping Renton. The film gained an international following and Kelly was recognized by BAFTA Scotland with a nomination for Best Actress.
Although Trainspotting was a runaway success, Kelly was penniless and resumed her bar job until she returned to the screen as a struggling prostitute in Stella Does Tricks. Kelly's brave performance won her ample critical notice and she moved to London for more auditions. Roles in Cousin Bette and Elizabeth (opposite Cate Blanchett) soon followed. With these films to her credit, Kelly had enough work to keep her going, and she decided to concentrate on acting full-time.
Over the next five years, Kelly racked up an impressive array of film credits on the independent film circuit. Gregg Araki cast Kelly as Kathleen Robertson's lesbian friend in 1999's Splendor and she co-starred with emerging stars Stephen Dorff and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers in Entropy and The Loss of Sexual Innocence, respectively. Her most notable future star would be her screen partner in the 2000 drama, Some Voices: the future James Bond himself, Daniel Craig.
That same year, Kelly's role in Two Family House as a pregnant woman romancing a Staten Island dreamer earned her an Independent Spirit Awards nomination for Best Female Lead. Legendary director Robert Altman took notice and cast Kelly as a maid in his 2001 ensemble period piece, Gosford Park. Now a capable film lead and supporting player, Kelly was only missing some awards to show for it.
In 2003, Kelly switched to television, starting with the detective series State of Play. Kelly then collaborated with State co-star, Bill Nighy, for the 2005 TV romance, The Girl in the Café. As the title character who hooks up with a civil servant, Kelly netted a Golden Globe nomination and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie.
Even as she climbed the television ranks, Kelly didn't let her film career fall off the radar. She played Cillian Murphy's ex in Intermission and even appeared as Peter Pan in Finding Neverland. Although she wasn't always the prime draw in these films, Kelly was priming herself for even bigger things.
In the last few years, Kelly has concentrated primarily on films and she's still going strong. Among other things, she had a fun cameo in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and starred as Steve Coogan's girlfriend in the lively comedy, Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story.
Kelly appears as Josh Brolin's wife in No Country for Old Men (2007) for the Coen brothers, following up with Choke, co-starring Sam Rockwell, and In the Electric Mist with Tommy Lee Jones.She also played the lead in The Merry Gentleman (2008), as Kate Frazier. She currently plays Margaret Schroeder on HBO's Boardwalk Empire. Her next project is the romantic comedy The Decoy Bride opposite David Tennant.In 2011, she played the Grey Lady, revealed to be Helena Ravenclaw, in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, the final instalment of the Harry Potter film franchise. She replaced Nina Young, the original actress.
Kelly's come a long way since her humble beginnings in Scotland, and she has many years of quality acting still to come.
