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Amanda Donohoe

Amanda Donohoe has built a career that moves comfortably between provocative film roles, American television, British drama and the stage. Born in London on 29 June 1962, she spent parts of her childhood overseas because of her father’s work for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She later attended the Francis Holland School and trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Before drama school, Donohoe appeared in the 1981 promotional videos for Adam and the Ants songs “Antmusic” and “Stand and Deliver.” Her major film breakthrough came in Castaway (1986), in which she co-starred with Oliver Reed as Lucy Irvine. The role brought her to a worldwide audience and was followed by two films directed by Ken Russell: The Lair of the White Worm (1988) and The Rainbow (1989). Together, those early performances established her as an actor willing to take on unusual, adult material rather than settle into an obvious lane. After moving to Los Angeles in 1990, Donohoe joined the American legal drama L.A. Law as lawyer Cara Jean “C.J.” Lamb, appearing across its fifth and sixth seasons. In 1991, the character kissed fellow lawyer Abby Perkins, played by Michele Greene, in one of the early same-sex kiss episodes on American television. Donohoe later took a major supporting role opposite Jim Carrey in the 1997 comedy Liar Liar and made a guest appearance in Ally McBeal. Her stage work has been equally varied. She made her Broadway debut in a 1995 production of Uncle Vanya at the Circle in the Square Theatre, then returned to the UK stage as Mrs. Robinson in a 2001 production of The Graduate. Back on British television, she played DI Susan Alembic in Murder City, Louise Stoke in the eighth series of Bad Girls and businesswoman Natasha Wylde in Emmerdale. Across film, television and theatre, Donohoe’s career is marked by sharp shifts in tone and a consistent readiness to play formidable, complicated characters.