English actress Miriam Margolyes was BOTD in 1941. Born in London as the only child of a middle-class Jewish family, she attended Oxford High School and Cambridge University, where she began her acting career. In 1963, she represented her college on TV quiz show University Challenge, and is thought to be the first person to say “fuck” on British television. Her varied and prolific career includes voicing “Sexy Sonia” in a 1970s softcore porn recording, guest spots in 1980s TV comedy Blackadder, and writing and performing a one-woman show in which she played 23 of Charles Dickens’ characters. A popular character actress, her film work includes Martin Scorsese’s period drama The Age of Innocence (winning her a BAFTA award), the lascivious Nurse in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet, and a recurring role as Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter franchise. Her cheerfully filthy anecdotes in interviews and late-night talk show The Graham Norton Show have endeared her to younger generations, rejuvenating her career. In recent years, she has hosted a number of TV travel programmes, notably Lost in Scotland, in which she and Alan Cumming toured the Scottish countryside in a campervan. Margolyes has been in a relationship with Australian academic Heather Sutherland since 1968, and became an Australian citizen in 2013. Her memoir This Much Is True was published in 2021, becoming a bestseller, followed by a sequel Oh Miriam! in 2023. Still performing, on- and offstage, into her 80s, she lives between Australia and London.