Maxine Peake
Maxine Peake (born 14 July 1974) is an English stage, radio, film and television actress, playwright, producer, director and political activist, who made her name as Twinkle in Victoria Wood's sitcom Dinnerladies. She has since played Veronica in Channel 4's Manchester-based drama series Shameless, barrister Martha Costello in the BBC legal drama Silk and Grace Middleton in The Village. She is also an accomplished stage actress, having played the title role in Hamlet, and had a role in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything. In 2018 she played the lead in the film Funny Cow and had a starring role in Mike Leigh's epic Peterloo, a film very close to her heart.
Filmography · 108
The Graham Norton Show
2007 · Self
Black Mirror
2011 · Bella
The One Show
2006 · Self - Guest
Shameless
2004 · Veronica Fisher
Star Wars: Visions
2021 · Kalina Kalfus (voice)
Silk
2011 · Martha Costello QC
I Swear
2025 · Dottie
Inside No. 9
2014 · Nadia
Jonathan Creek
1997 · Marion Cretiss
Timeshift
2002 · Self - Narrator
Bait
2026 · Helen
The Hollow Crown
2012 · Doll Tearsheet
ChuckleVision
1987
The Great Celebrity Bake Off for Stand Up To Cancer
2018 · Self - Guest
Hetty Wainthropp Investigates
1996 · Photocopy Assistant
Say Nothing
2024 · Older Dolours Price
The Village
2013 · Grace Middleton
The Theory of Everything
2014 · Elaine Mason
Little Dorrit
2008 · Miss Wade
Mandy
2020 · Susan Blower
Criminal Justice
2008 · Juliet Miller
Comedy Connections
2003
dinnerladies
1998 · Twinkle
The Street
2006
Three Girls
2017 · Sara Rowbotham
Clocking Off
2000 · Marie Leach
Messiah
2001 · DS Vickie Clarke
Wendell & Wild
2022 · Irmgard Klaxon (voice)
Red Riding
2009
Early Doors
2003 · Janice
The Devil's Whore
2008 · Elizabeth Lilburne
The Bisexual
2018 · Sadie
Fairy Tales
2008 · Cindy Mellor
Linda Green
2001 · Receptionist
Anne
2022 · Anne Williams
Sunburn
1999 · Sue
Laundreams
2025
All or Nothing
2002 · Party girl
Dinnerladies Diaries
2018 · Self
Art That Made Us
2022 · Self - Actrice (Rules...
Alan Bennett's Talking Heads
2020 · Miss Fozzard
Red Top
2016 · Rebekah Brooks
Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980
2009 · Helen Marshall
Words of War
2025 · Anna Politkovskaya
Room at the Top
2012 · Alice Aisgill
Peterloo
2018 · Nellie
Run & Jump
2014 · Vanetia
Rules of the Game
2022 · Sam Thompson
The Falling
2015 · Eileen Lamont
We Have Been Watching
2017 · Self
Private Peaceful
2012 · Hazel Peaceful
Funny Cow
2018 · Funny Cow
Woken
2024 · Helen
Fanny Lye Deliver'd
2019 · Fanny Lye
Dance First
2023 · Barbara
A Midsummer Night's Dream
2016 · Titania
Clubbed
2008 · Angela
Frozen
2005 · Ticket Attendant
Faith
2005 · Linda
Girls' Night
1998 · Sharon
Secret Life of the Safari Park
2024 · Narrator
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas
2007 · Self
Becoming Victoria Wood
2026 · Self
Tish
2023 · Tish Murtha (voice)
Svengali
2013 · Angie
DeafBlind
2011 · Maggie
Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings
2000 · Self
The Haunted Season
2024 · The Englishwoman (voic...
Irvine Welsh: Reality Is Not Enough
2025 · Narrator
Choked Up
2023 · Fiona Lacey
Wonders of the Moon
2018 · Narrator (voice)
The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister
2010 · Anne Lister
Unseen
2017 · Emma
The Shuttleworths
2015 · Helen Bach
Surfaces
2020 · Alix
Cake
2017
Gwen
2018 · Elen
Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle
2017 · Narrator
Strange Weather
2015 · Jane
Best Laid Plans
2012 · Isabel
Keeping Up with the Joneses
2013 · Celia
Twisting My Melon
— · Linda Ryder
Hamlet
2015 · Hamlet
Generation '66
2016 · Narrator
Where We Used to Meet
2021
Keeping Rosy
2014 · Charlotte
I Wish For You
2016 · Grown Up Mia
The Real Anne: Unfinished Business
2022 · Self- Presenter
Hancock & Joan
2008 · Joan Le Mesurier
Hamilton Mattress
2002 · Lulu (voice)
Christmas Lights
2004 · Pauline
Bunch of Kunst - A Film About Sleaford Mods
2017 · Self (archive footage)
The Occupant of the Room
2025 · The Englishwoman (voic...
The Great Mountain Sheep Gather
2020 · Self - Narrator
Art Matters
2024 · Self
Bike Squad
2008 · WPC Kate McFay
The Priest
2017
It's Me
2020 · Miriam
Men Who Sleep in Cars
2017 · Sarah
Edge
2010 · Elly
Ceremony: The Return of Friedrich Engels
2018 · Friedrich Engels (voic...
Something Out of Nothing
2022
The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca
2018 · Self
The Fear of Trilogy
2006
Judy
2019 · Judy
Quiet on Set: The Class Division in the Film Industry?
2025 · Self
See No Evil: The Moors Murders
2006 · Myra Hindley
Lapushka!
2022 · Scoot Piccolo