Sophie Winkleman
Born: August 5, 1980
Age: 44
Birthplace: Primrose Hill, London, United Kingdom
Sophie Lara Winkleman (born 5 August 1980) is an English television, film, and stage actress. As the wife of Lord Frederick Windsor, son of Queen Elizabeth II's first cousin Prince Michael of Kent, she is formally referred to as Lady Frederick Windsor.
Early life
Winkleman was born in Primrose Hill, London. Her father, Barry Winkleman, published the Times Atlas of World History, her mother is the children's author Cindy Black and her half-sister by her father's first marriage is the television presenter Claudia Winkleman. Winkleman was educated at the City of London School for Girls and at Trinity Hall, Cambridge where she read English literature. She joined the university's dramatic society Cambridge Footlights and wrote and performed in the comic revue Far Too Happy, which toured Britain for three months and garnered the troupe's first Perrier Award nomination in twenty years. Winkleman is a member of the National Youth Theatre. She is also a soprano, reprising her singing in the First Love series for Sky Arts.
Career
Television
Winkleman's credits include roles in numerous series including Peep Show, Harry & Paul, White Teeth, The Trial of Tony Blair, Plus One, Red Dwarf: Back to Earth, Lead Balloon, Keen Eddie, Chasing Alice, Poirot (in the episode "Five Little Pigs"), The Palace, Robin Hood, Death in Paradise and Titanic.
Winkleman was nominated for Best Newcomer by the BBC for her leading guest role in Waking the Dead. Winkleman made her debut on American television as the star of the NBC sitcom 100 Questions as main character Charlotte Payne and as a recurring guest on the hit series Two and a Half Men as Zoey, the girlfriend of Walden Schmidt (Ashton Kutcher).
Stage
Winkleman's numerous roles while at Cambridge University included the Bride in Lorca's Blood Wedding, which toured the amphitheatres of Greece, Elizabeth in Six Degrees of Separation, which played at the Edinburgh Festival, Abigail in Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Dockdaisy in Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui and Kate in Alan Ayckbourn's Confusions. Winkleman's stage career includes a season at the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she played Veronique in Laurence Boswell's adaptation of Beauty and the Beast and a summer in Bath with the Peter Hall Company playing a variety of roles including Archangela in Gallileo's Daughter directed by Peter Hall, a new play by Timberlake Wertenbaker, Violet in George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman directed by Peter Hall, and Charlotte in Molière's Don Juan, directed by Thea Sharrock. In 2012 she played Helena in Eric Idle's musical What About Dick at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, alongside Eddie Izzard, Russell Brand and Billy Connolly.
Film
Winkleman's film credits include the lead roles in the films Shattered and Love Live Long written and directed by Mike Figgis. Winkleman also played the comic role of Debbie Levine in Pathe's romantic comedy Suzie Gold and the older Susan Pevensie in the Disney film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Other film roles include the leads in the shorts Seared, Love Letters, and The Lost Domain, a cinematic take on Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes and Post directed by Debs Gardner-Paterson.
Radio
Winkleman is a regular in BBC Radio 4 comedy and drama. She is among the cast of comedy programmes such as Marcus Brigstocke's Giles Wemmbley-Hogg Goes Off, and such afternoon plays as Tea for Two. She played Polly Pot in P.G. Wodehouse's Uncle Fred in the Springtime with Alfred Molina and Rufus Sewell, Gloria in Bernard Shaw's You Never Can Tell, and Zoe in Alan Ayckbourn's Henceforward, alongside Jared Harris, all for Radio 4. She also played the role of Sasha in Von Ribbentrop's Watch, a historical drama for Radio 4, Anna Freud in the play Dr. Freud Will See You Now, Mrs. Hitler, by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, and the Amazon warrior princess Penthiselea alongside Alistair McGowan and Stephen Mangan in the Radio 4 comic fantasy series ElvenQuest, by Anil Gupta and Richard Pinto.
Marriage
On 14 February 2009, Winkleman became engaged to Lord Frederick Windsor, the son of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. They married in Hampton Court Palace on 12 September 2009. The bride wore a dress designed by Anna-Roza Bistroff. By virtue of her marriage, she became entitled to be styled as Lady Frederick Windsor, but continues to use her maiden name in her professional career. Lord Frederick is currently 46th in the line of succession to his father's cousin, Queen Elizabeth II.
On 15 August 2013, Lord and Lady Frederick became the parents of a daughter, Maud Elizabeth Daphne Marina, who was born at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles and is the first grandchild of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. Lady Frederick Windsor gave birth to a baby girl, named Isabella Alexandra May, on January 16th, 2016 at 11:59 PM, at London's Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. Isabella is 48th in line to the throne.
Filmography
- 2001: Me Without You
- 2002: Ultimate Force as Woman in Bank
- 2002: White Teeth as Joely
- 2002: Waking the Dead as Joanna Gold/Clara Gold (2 episodes)
- 2003: Chasing Alice
- 2003: Keen Eddie as Prudence
- 2003: Agatha Christie's Poirot as Angela Warren
- 2004: Suzie Gold as Debbie Levine
- 2004: AD/BC: A Rock Opera as Wise Man
- 2005: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe as Older Susan
- 2005-2010: Peep Show as Big Suze (10 episodes)
- 2006: Lewis as Regan Peverill
- 2006: Dalziel and Pascoe as Alice Shadwell (2 episodes)
- 2007: The Trial of Tony Blair as Fiona
- 2007: Shattered as Natalie Encore
- 2007-present: Harry and Paul as various roles/characters
- 2008: The Palace as Princess Eleanor (8 episodes)
- 2008: Love Live Long as Rachel
- 2008: Seared as Stranger
- 2009: Plus One as Abby Ross
- 2009: Kingdom as Kate
- 2009: Red Dwarf: Back to Earth as Katerina (2 episodes)
- 2009: Red Dwarf: The Making of Back to Earth as Herself
- 2009: Robin Hood as Ghislaine
- 2010: 100 Questions as Charlotte Payne (6 episodes)
- 2011: Lead Balloon
- 2011: CSI: Miami as Sharon Kirby
- 2011: Death in Paradise as Mrs Hamilton
- 2012: Titanic as Dorothy Gibson
- 2015: Hot in Cleveland as Jill Scroggs (1 episode)
- 2011-2015: Two and a Half Men as Zoey (Seasons 9-12)