Early life

McCormack was born in Epsom, Surrey, England. She has Irish ancestry, as one of her grandfathers was Irish. Her mother died of lupus when McCormack was six years old, and her steelworker father subsequently raised her and her brother Stephen. She was brought up in the Roman Catholic religion (though is now a "lapsed Catholic") and attended the Convent of Our Lady of Providence. She then went on to study at the Oxford School of Drama.

Career

Film

McCormack's first notable role was as the character Murron MacClannough in the multiple Academy Award-winning film Braveheart (1995). Her screen debut was as the lead in the Anna Campion-directed film Loaded (1994). She has subsequently stated that she had a "miserable time with the director (Anna Campion)... it was my first film job, I needed to be mollycoddled, I needed to be helped through it, and I wasn't. Mostly, it was a horrible experience."

After Braveheart, McCormack had lead roles in Nils Gaup's Northstar and Marshall Herskovitz's Dangerous Beauty. Other films include Spy Game (2001) 28 Weeks Later. Despite being in demand, she does few films, stating that "I read very few scripts I'm passionate about... Maybe one in every twenty or thirty."

Theatre

McCormack has shown a preference in her career for the theatre, saying that "theatre really is an actor's medium: you're on stage with no director anymore, whereas in film very rarely do you get much rehearsal other than running through the scene very quickly. Then everyone comes in and shoots it." McCormack was one of the original 2006 London cast of Patrick Barlow's play of The 39 Steps. In 2008, she performed the role of Nora in A Doll's House, directed by Peter Hall at the Theatre Royal, Bath, and also the role of Isabel Archer in a stage adaptation of The Portrait of a Lady, both of which commenced their runs in July 2008, ending in August, before transferring to the Rose Theatre in Kingston later that year.

In 2009, she appeared in the British tour of Headlong's adaptation of Six Characters in Search of an Author. In 2012, she starred as Juana Ines de la Cruz in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Helen Edmundson's play The Heresy of Love.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Loaded	Rose
1995	Braveheart	Murron MacClannough
1996	North Star	Sarah
1998	Land Girls, TheThe Land Girls	Stella
1998	Dangerous Beauty	Veronica Franco
1998	Dancing at Lughnasa	Christina 'Chrissy' Mundy
1999	This Year's Love	Hannah
1999	The Debtors
2000	Shadow of the Vampire	Greta Schröder
2000	Rumor of Angels, AA Rumor of Angels	Mary Neubauer
2000	Weight of Water, TheThe Weight of Water	Jean Janes
2000	Born Romantic	Jocelyn
2001	Tailor of Panama, TheThe Tailor of Panama	Francesca Deane
2001	Spy Game	Elizabeth Hadley
2004	Strings	Zita (voice)
2005	Sound of Thunder, AA Sound of Thunder	Sonia Rand
2006	Renaissance	Bislane Tasuiev (voice)
2007	Moon and the Stars, TheThe Moon and the Stars	Kristina Baumgarten / Tosca
2007	28 Weeks Later	Alice
2013	Fold, TheThe Fold	Rebecca Ashton	Post-production
2014	Magic in the Moonlight	Olivia

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1994	Wycliffe	Asenath Gardner	Episode: "The Scapegoat"
1997	Deacon Brodie	Annie Grant	TV film
1999	Love in the 21st Century	Fay	Episode: "Reproduction"
2001	Armadillo	Flavia	TV film
2004	Gunpowder, Treason & Plot	Queen Elizabeth I	TV film
2005	Kenneth Tynan: In Praise of Hardcore	Kathleen Tynan	TV film
2006	Elizabeth David: A Life in Recipes	Elizabeth David	TV film
2006	Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire	Poppaea Sabina	Episode: "Nero"
2008	Midnight Man	Alice Ross	TV miniseries
2011	Lights Out	Theresa Leary	13 episodes
2013	Lucan	Veronica	TV miniseries
2016	Sherlock	Lady Carmichael	Episode "The Abominable Bride"

Theatre

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999	Anna Weiss	Anna Weiss	Whitehall Theatre, London
2000	All My Sons	Ann	National Theatre
2001	Lie of the Mind, AA Lie of the Mind	Beth	Donmar Warehouse, London
2001	Kiss Me Like You Mean It	Ruth	Soho Theatre, London
2001	White Horses	Paula	Gate Theatre, Dublin
2002	Free	Sophie	National Theatre
2002	Dinner	Sian	National Theatre
2003	Honour	Claudia	National Theatre
2003	Under the Curse	Iphigenia	Gate Theatre, London
2004	Vermillion Dream	Miriam	Salisbury Playhouse
2006	39 Steps, TheThe 39 Steps	Various	Tricycle Theatre, London
2007	Lady from Dubuque, TheThe Lady from Dubuque	Jo	Theatre Royal Haymarket, London

[ Source: Wikipedia ]