Early life

Sawalha was born in Lambeth, London, the daughter of Roberta Lane and actor Nadim Sawalha. She was named after her grandmother, a Jordanian businesswoman who had received an award from Queen Noor for enterprise. She is of Jordanian, English, and French Huguenot ancestry. As part of an acting family, Sawalha's father Nadim appeared in the James Bond movies The Spy Who Loved Me and The Living Daylights, while her sister Nadia starred in the soap EastEnders and is now a television presenter and chat show host.

Career

Sawalha made her debut in the 1982 BBC miniseries Fame Is the Spur and in 1988, played a small role in Inspector Morse on the episode "Last Seen Wearing". She first gained attention for her starring role in the Bafta award-winning ITV teenage comedy/drama Press Gang, which ran from 1989 to 1993.

In 1992 she starred in episode "Parade" (S2 E4) of Bottom as Veronica Head, a beautiful young barmaid at the Lamb and Flag, whom Richie tries to woo by boasting of his false adventures in the Falklands.

From 1991-94, she starred in the ITV family comedy Second Thoughts and continued with her character, Hannah (Lynda Bellingham's daughter), in the British Comedy Award-winning Faith in the Future (1995-98). In 1994, she played Mercy (Merry) Pecksniff in the BBC production of Martin Chuzzlewit.

From 1992 to 2012, Sawalha played straight-laced daughter Saffron Monsoon in the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous alongside Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley. She starred in the 1995 BBC adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as Lydia Bennet, co-starring opposite Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. She also voiced Ginger in DreamWorks/Aardman's Chicken Run. She also played "Dawn the Wise Man" in The Flint Street Nativity on Christmas Eve.

In 2000 she appeared as Janet, the Australian barmaid ("Built for bar work; it's instinct... instinct!!") in the first series of the British sitcom Time Gentlemen Please. She also played the much put-upon PA to "Zak" in Argos TV adverts during 2002-2004, along with Richard E. Grant. She has also joined actor Ioan Gruffudd in the internationally successful TV adaptations of C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels, as the captain's wife Maria. The following year, she became Alan Davies's co-star in Jonathan Creek after Caroline Quentin left, appearing in a Christmas Special ("Satan's Chimney"). She returned for a series between 2003-2004.

In 2006, she participated in the third series of the genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are? tracing her family's roots, which are Jordanian Bedouin on her father's side, and French Huguenot on her mother's. She also appeared in the pilot of BBC 1's A Taste of my Life presented by Nigel Slater. After a two-year break, she was back on screen in May 2007, competing in the BBC dog training celebrity reality show The Underdog Show. She then returned to acting in two successive BBC costume dramas; as Jessie Brown in 2007 series Cranford, followed by Lark Rise to Candleford in 2008. She provided the voice acting for Sister Hannah (a.k.a. "Hammer"), a main character in the Xbox 360 video game Fable II. On 9 May 2015 she read the account of a member of the Women's Land Army at VE Day 70: A Party to Remember in Horse Guards Parade, London that was broadcast live on BBC1.

Personal life

Sawalha lived with Press Gang co-star Dexter Fletcher, and subsequently comedian Richard Herring. She also had a relationship with Patrick Marber. She had an affair with actor Keith Allen whom she met on the set of Martin Chuzzlewit.

On 1 January 2004, it was alleged in the tabloid newspapers that she had married boyfriend Alan Davies, her co-star in the television series Jonathan Creek. Both she and Davies, who avoided discussing their private lives in public, denied this, and took legal action against the reports.

After she met Rich Annetts at the Glastonbury Festival in 2005, the couple moved to Bath, Somerset, and lived in a flat close to the Royal Crescent. Sawalha started growing her own vegetables, attending yoga lessons and studying for an Open University English degree. Sawalha and Annetts have since split up.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1981	Keep It in the Family	Walk-On Role	uncredited
1982	The Pirates of Penzance	Daughter	uncredited
	Fame Is the Spur	Amy	TV series (1 episode: "Episode 1.2")
	Educating Marmalade	Good Girl	TV series (4 episodes)
1988	Inspector Morse	Rachel	TV series (1 episode: "Last Seen Wearing")
1989	Press Gang	Lynda Day/Young Katherine Hill	TV series (43 episodes: 1989-1993) RTS Television Award - Best Actor
1990	Spatz	Chloe Fairbanks	TV series (1 episode: "The Sound of Muzak")
1991	El C.I.D.	Trudy	TV series (1 episode: "Thursday's Child")
	Buddy's Song	Kelly
	Casualty	Nikki Watson	TV series (1 episode: "Living In Hope")
	Second Thoughts	Hannah Grayshot	TV series (47 episodes: 1991-1994)
1992	Bottom	Veronica Head	TV series (1 episode: "Parade")
	Absolutely Fabulous	Saffron Monsoon	TV series (40 episodes: 1992-2012)
1994	Lovejoy	Joanna Whymark	TV series (1 episode: "Double-Edged Sword")
	Keeper	Alison	tv short
	Martin Chuzzlewit	Mercy Pecksniff	TV series (6 episodes)
1995	In The Bleak Midwinter	Nina Raymond (Ophelia)
	Pride and Prejudice	Lydia Bennet	TV mini-series (6 episodes)
	Faith in the Future	Hannah Grayshot	TV series (22 episodes: 1995-1998)
1996	French and Saunders		TV series (1 episode: "Baywatch")
	Tales from the Crypt	Teresa	TV series (1 episode: "The Kidnapper")
	The Wind in the Willows	The Jailer's Daughter
1997	McLibel!	Helen Steel	TV mini-series (1 episode: "Episode 1.1")
	Ain't Misbehavin'	Dolly Nightingale	TV mini-series (3 episodes)
1998	Absolutely Fabulous: Absolutely Not!	Saffron Monsoon	video
1999	Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death	Emma	Charity spoof TV movie by Comic Relief
	The Flint Street Nativity	Wise Man	TV movie
	The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything	Catherine Parr	TV movie
2000	Mirrorball	Freda Keill	tv short
	Time Gentleman Please	Janet Wilson	TV series (21 episodes: 2000-2001)
2001	Venus and Mars	Marie
	Jonathan Creek	Carla Borrego	TV series (7 episodes: 2002-2004)
2002	The Final Curtain	Karen Willet
2003	Hornblower	Maria Mason/Hornblower	TV series (2 films: 2003)
2007	Cranford	Jessie Brown	TV series (5 episodes)
2008	Lark Rise to Candleford	Dorcas Lane	TV series (40 episodes: 2008-2011)
2013	Agatha Christie's Marple	Mrs. Cresswell	TV series (1 episode: "Greenshaw's Folly")
2014	Remember Me	Jan Ward	TV series (3 episodes)
2016	Midsomer Murders	Penny Henderson	TV series (1 episode: "Saints and Sinners")
2016	Ab Fab: The Movie		Filming

Appearances

Year	Appearance	Notes
1992	The Word	TV series (1 episode: "Episode 3.2")
1993	Parallel 9	TV series (1 episode: "Episode 2.5")
1997	An Audience with the Spice Girls	TV special
1998	Light Lunch	TV series (1 episode: "The Future's Bright, the Future's Funny")
1999	Late Lunch	TV series (1 episode: "#2.14")
2000	The Hatching of 'Chicken Run'	TV special
	Loose Women	TV series (1 episode: "#2.13")
	Bob Martin	TV series (1 episode: "Through the Keyhole")
	Masterchef	TV series (1 episode: "#10.14")
	Poultry in Motion: The Making of Chicken Run	TV special
	HBO First Look	TV series (1 episode: "The Hatching of Chicken Run")
	Stars in Their Eyes	TV series (1 episode: "Cerys Matthews")
2004	The Story of Absolutely Fabulous	TV special
	Hell's Kitchen	TV series (1 episode: "#1.4")
2006	A Taste of My Life	TV special
	Who Do You Think You Are?	TV series (1 episode: "Julia Sawalha")
2007	The Underdog Show	TV series (unknown episodes)
	The Graham Norton Show	TV series (1 episode: "#1.7")
2009	The Alan Titchmarsh Show	TV series (1 episode: "9 March 2009")

Voice

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1999 - 2000	Kipper the Dog	Mouse	Animated TV series (4 episodes: 1999 - 2000)
2000	Sheeep	Georgina	Animated TV series (26 episodes: 2000)
2000	Chicken Run	Ginger	Animated Movie
2004	Comedy Connections	Narrator	TV series (14 episodes: 2003-2004)
2008	Fable II	Hannah/Hammer	Game for Xbox 360

[ Source: Wikipedia ]