Lesley Nicol

Born in Manchester, England, Lesley Nicol was the daughter of a Scottish doctor and Welsh actress who imbued upon her daughter a remarkable knack for the diverse array of United Kingdom accents. She fell in love with acting as a teenager at St. Elphin's Boarding School in Derbyshire, and made her first stage appearance as a 12-year-old boy in a production of George Bernard Shaw's "Androcles and the Lion" with the Manchester Library Theatre. Nicol then studied acting for three years at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama before launching her acting career. She worked primarily in theater before making her television debut in 1986's "Blackadder II" (BBC, 1986), starring Rowan Atkinson. More television roles followed, including Mrs. Beaver in the Emmy-nominated "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" (BBC, 1988) and multiple episodes of the police drama "The Bill" (ITV, 1984-2010) before Nicol made her feature debut reprising her stage role in a film version of Ayub Khan-Din's play "East is East" (1999), about a Anglo-Pakistani family in London.Nicol divided her time in the new millennium between U.K. television and the stage, appearing in such popular plays and musicals as "Mamma Mia!" (2000), "Our House" (2002) and a 2005 production of Gilbert and Sullivan's "H.M.S. Pinafore," while also enjoying a series of television advertisements for Tetley Tea which cast her as the kindly "Aunt Tea." In 2010, she reprised her role as Aunt Annie in "West is West," the sequel to "East is East," before joining the cast of "Downton Abbey" as the formidable Mrs. Patmore. Initially portrayed as a domineering and perfectionist cook in the Crawley household, Mrs. Patmore softened as the series progressed, most notably in her relationship with scullery maid Daisy (Sophie McShera). In later episodes, Mrs. Patmore's eyesight began to deteriorate, which required cataract surgery. She further showed her sensitive side after learning that her nephew had been shot for cowardice while serving in World War I. The show's worldwide popularity among public television fans led to not only her debut on American television in an episode of "Once Upon a Time" (ABC, 2011-), but also a 2013 Screen Actors Guild nomination along with her castmates for Best Ensemble in a Drama. By Paul Gaita