Lydia Leonard (born 5 December 1981) is a British actress. She starred in the stage adaptation of Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies, and as Jane Rochford in the 2024 TV adaptation of Mantel's third novel in the trilogy, '. She is also known on television for her roles in the BBC Two sitcom Quacks (2017), and Amazon Prime series Ten Percent (2022), and The Crown (2022âÂÂ2023) on Netflix.
Lydia Leonard was born on 5 December 1981 in Paris, France.
She attended Bedales School in the village of Steep, Hampshire, before training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, England.
In 2005 Leonard appeared on stage as Polyxena in an Royal Shakespeare Company {RSC) production of Hecuba starring Vanessa Redgrave. The production played in London's West End and then at B.A.M. in New York. Also in 2005, she appeared as Caroline Cushing in the original Donmar Theatre and West End productions of Frost/Nixon.
In May 2009 she played Hazel Conway alongside Francesca Annis in the National Theatre's production of Time and the Conways.
In 2010 Leonard played the role of Jackie Onassis in Martin Sherman's play Onassis at the Novello Theatre in London.
Leonard played Anne Boleyn in the RSC production of Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies at London's Aldwych Theatre from May until October 2014. The RSC production transferred to Broadway as Wolf Hall: Parts One and Two at the Winter Garden Theatre, running from March until July 2015. Leonard reprised the role, which earned her a nomination for the 2015 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play.
In March 2023, she starred in Women, Beware the Devil at the Almeida Theatre, London. The production was rated 3/5 stars by The Guardian.
On television Leonard had an ongoing role in 1950s-set detective series Jericho starring Robert Lindsay, and appeared in True True Lie (2006) and The Long Walk to Finchley (2008), along with a cameo in Rome (2006, "The Stolen Eagle"), and as a nurse in the BBC's Casualty 1909.
In 2008 she played the female lead in the BBC feature film remake of The 39 Steps. She starred as Cynthia in Joanna Hogg's 2010 feature film Archipelago.
In 2012, Leonard starred in two episodes of ITV drama series Whitechapel, as psychiatrist Morgan Lamb, for which she was nominated for Most Outstanding Actress at the Monte Carlo television awards. In 2013, she played a leading role in the action adventure film Legendary: Tomb of the Dragon. In the same year, she played Alex Lang in DreamWorks The Fifth Estate, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
In 2015, Leonard played Virginia Woolf in Life in Squares, a BBC miniseries on the Bloomsbury Group.
Between 2019 and 2022, she appeared as Mariana Lawton in Gentleman Jack.
In 2022, Leonard starred as Rebecca Fox in Ten Percent, the English version of the French original TV series Call My Agent!. That same year, Leonard appeared as Cherie Blair in series 5 of Netflix drama The Crown.
In 2024, she was cast as Lady Rochford in the , replacing Jessica Raine who had portrayed the character in the first season.