Maxine Peake (1974 - *)
Maxine Peake was born in Bolton in 1974. Her father was a lorry driver and her mother a care worker. Peake’s mother and father separated when she was fifteen, and she subsequently went to live with her grandparents when her mother met a new partner. After leaving school, Peake took a Performing Arts course at Salford College of Technology. In 1995, at the age of twenty-one, she gained a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) in London, and after appearing on the South Bank television show she won a scholarship which enabled her to take her place there. In 1998, Victoria Wood, who had seen Peake on the South Bank Show, offered her the role of Twinkle in her new sitcom Dinnerladies. At the time, Peake weighed fifteen-stone, and after Wood cautioned her that this would limit her career, Peake dieted and lost four and a half stone in nine months.
Peake’s willingness to embrace a number of challenging and diverse acting roles has earned her credibility and respect in the acting profession. Some of her most notable roles to date are the loud-mouthed Veronica in Shameless; serial killer Myra Hindley in See No Evil; Joan Le Mesurier in the BBC 4 film Hancock and Joan, which in 2008 earned her a BAFTA nomination; the barrister Martha Costellow in the popular television series Silk; and prostitute Doll Tearsheet in the BBC's Hollow Crown. Peake attests that her first love is the theatre. She has recently given some memorable performances at the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester, including her universally acclaimed role as Hamlet in 2014, which has since been released on dvd; and most recently, in 2016, as Blanche Dubois in A Street Car Named Desire. Peake has also written several radio plays, including Beryl: Love on two wheels, based on the life of champion cyclist Beryl Burton, which has been adapted for the stage.
After living in London for twelve years, in 2008 Peake moved back up north, and she currently lives in Salford. At this moment in time, there is a great deal of public interest in celebrity lives, and many well-known, and not so well-known, people have produced their autobiographies and memoirs in order to cash in on the celebrity culture. Although Peake has not yet published her autobiography, on numerous occasions in her public life, she is called upon to tell her personal story. Interviewers/interrogators explicitly coax Peake into telling her life-story, and newspaper and online articles reveal much of her working-class background.
Despite the discriminatory nature of her chosen profession, Peake has managed to transcend her working-class roots. She is instrumental in challenging expectations and stereotypical assumptions of what it means to be a working-class woman in contemporary society. She embraces her working-class identity. She is a politically conscious working-class woman, who draws attention to the relevance of class issues in contemporary society. She is very vocal in highlighting current political issues in a socialist framework, and is active in lending her support to political causes.
Peake’s willingness to embrace a number of challenging and diverse acting roles has earned her credibility and respect in the acting profession. Some of her most notable roles to date are the loud-mouthed Veronica in Shameless; serial killer Myra Hindley in See No Evil; Joan Le Mesurier in the BBC 4 film Hancock and Joan, which in 2008 earned her a BAFTA nomination; the barrister Martha Costellow in the popular television series Silk; and prostitute Doll Tearsheet in the BBC's Hollow Crown. Peake attests that her first love is the theatre. She has recently given some memorable performances at the Royal Exchange theatre in Manchester, including her universally acclaimed role as Hamlet in 2014, which has since been released on dvd; and most recently, in 2016, as Blanche Dubois in A Street Car Named Desire. Peake has also written several radio plays, including Beryl: Love on two wheels, based on the life of champion cyclist Beryl Burton, which has been adapted for the stage.
After living in London for twelve years, in 2008 Peake moved back up north, and she currently lives in Salford. At this moment in time, there is a great deal of public interest in celebrity lives, and many well-known, and not so well-known, people have produced their autobiographies and memoirs in order to cash in on the celebrity culture. Although Peake has not yet published her autobiography, on numerous occasions in her public life, she is called upon to tell her personal story. Interviewers/interrogators explicitly coax Peake into telling her life-story, and newspaper and online articles reveal much of her working-class background.
Despite the discriminatory nature of her chosen profession, Peake has managed to transcend her working-class roots. She is instrumental in challenging expectations and stereotypical assumptions of what it means to be a working-class woman in contemporary society. She embraces her working-class identity. She is a politically conscious working-class woman, who draws attention to the relevance of class issues in contemporary society. She is very vocal in highlighting current political issues in a socialist framework, and is active in lending her support to political causes.
