Emma Pierson

Emma Jane Pierson, known better as Emma Pierson, is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Anna Thornton-Wilton in the British TV comedy Hotel Babylon.

She has appeared in many television programmes, including Days Like These, Beast, I Saw You, Charles II, The Worst Week of My Life, Bloodlines, Coupling and Time Gentlemen Please. Her more recent projects include the film Lives of the Saints.

Biography

Emma was born Emma Jane Pierson on April 30th 1981 in Plymouth, Devon. Her Mother was a nurse and her father was a submariner in the Royal Navy, being stationed at Faslane Naval Base on the Clyde where Emma spent the first four years of her life.

By the time she was in her teens, Emma was one of four children living with her parents in North Bradley near Warminster in Wiltshire, and it was while attending St Laurence School in nearby Bradford on Avon that she decided to take acting lessons with the school's drama department, quickly learning the fundamentals of the craft.

After leaving school in 1997 Emma continued with amateur dramatics, principally with the North Bradley players, appearing in Chekov plays such as "Uncle Vanya".

While studying law at Bath College, she was spotted by a casting agent and chosen from among dozens of young hopefuls to play schoolgirl Becky Radcliffe in the long running BBC children's drama series Grange Hill.

Work and Profile

After leaving "Grange Hill" Emma was picked to play the flirty Jackie Burgett in Days Like These a British remake of hit US comedy That 70s Show, becoming at age 17, the youngest member of the cast. However, unlike the original series Days Like These did disastrously and was cancelled after only a few episodes.

However, it would not prove to be Emma's last foray into comedic television. She would go on to appear in a wide range of situation comedies over the next few years, either as a series regular or as a guest star, as well as a string of short films, most of which had a comic flavour

She appeared a number of times in various episodes of the Channel 4 sketch show "Armstrong and Miller" and would come to work with both Alexander Armstrong and Ben Miller several times in other things. Most notably in veterinary comedy "Beast" with Armstrong, and "Worst Week of my Life" with Miller.

But arguably her most popular sitcom role among her fans is that of Connie, the no-nonsense barmaid from Time Gentlemen Please, a sitcom written as a vehicle for Al Murray's Pub Landlord character by Murray and Richard Herring. Emma replaced actress Julia Sawalha for the final run of episodes, remaining friends with the "Perrier" award winning Murray after the series ended on Sky One in 2002.

Although well versed in comedy, comedy dramas like "Bedtime" and "Legend of the Tamworth Two" have shown that weightier roles are by no means beyond this talented young actress's reach.

She has appeared in "Stranded" the Hallmark channels' version of "Swiss Family Robinson", "The Project" a political drama for the BBC, played Nell Gwynn opposite Rufus Sewells' "Charles II" and played the female lead in an as yet unreleased low budget British movie, "The Engagement" from the director of "Sirens" John Duigan.

In 2002 she appeared in an episode of the popular sitcom Coupling starring as Patrick's bisexual girlfriend Jennifer.

In 2005, Emma played the role of tragic young Policewoman Justine Hopkin, in the two part ITV drama production, Bloodlines. A part that paid dividends, with casting agents picking her for roles in many more prestigious dramas such as "Riot at the Rite" a period drama for BBC2 set in Paris revolving around the famous Russian dancer Nijinsky, and Hotel Babylon, a series about life behind the scenes in a London hotel and starring Emma's "Bloodlines" co-star Max Beesley, first shown in 2006.

2006 also saw the release of British indie movie "The Lives of the Saints" co-directed by Chris Cottam,and the famous photographer, Rankin, in which Emma played a character called Tina. Previously Emma had been seen only fleetingly in movies. She had a "blink and you'll miss her" part in "Virtual Sexuality" and a small role in "Guest House Paradiso" early on in her career, but Until "The Engagement" finally gets a release then "The Lives of the Saints" must stand as Emma's biggest movie role to date.

If movie success thus far has proven elusive, Emma continues to be a regular face on British television at least, thanks mainly to her appearances as series regular, Anna Thornton Wilton in "Hotel Babylon", which returned in June 2009 for a Fourth season.

Personal life

Pierson has three siblings, Ross, James, and Sara, and lives in Islington, in London. She lives with her long term boyfriend Damian Village and ragdoll cat Marvin.

Emma's hobbies include listening to music, rock climbing, scuba diving, and photography. She also enjoys travelling to other countries and has put that to good use by teaching English as a second language to people living in beach communities in Sri Lanka.

Emma comes from a family of adventurers. Her father Charles was a lieutenant-commander on submarines in the Royal Navy, while her elder brother is in the British Army and also a former snowboarding champion. Her student sister regularly visits an orphanage in Nepal, and her younger brother James does free running, which involves jumping between buildings, and, she says, 'has broken almost every bone in his body'.