---
name: "Clare Perkins"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/clare-perkins"
fi1m_id: "clare-perkins"
imdb_id: "nm0673907"
tmdb_id: 1147904
wikidata_id: "Q5126232"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "18 August 1965"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 74
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 4
updated: "2026-10-01T00:03:55.988122+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Clare Perkins

## Identity

Clare Perkins

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/clare-perkins
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** clare-perkins
- **IMDb ID:** nm0673907
- **TMDB ID:** 1147904
- **Wikidata ID:** Q5126232
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Perkins, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5126232, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0673907/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1147904

Actor. Born 18 August 1965 in London, England.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 18 August 1965, London, England
- **Active:** 1996–present
- **Average Fi1m score:** 74, as actor, over 4 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 88 (1), 2020s 69 (3)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 76 to 74 across 3 titles
- **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 1 of 2 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Drama 4, Comedy 2, Crime 1, Mystery 1, Sci-Fi & Fantasy 1, Thriller 1
- **Screen time:** 4 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $13m across 1 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Perkins, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5126232, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0673907/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1147904

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*The Outlaws*](https://film.one/tv/the-outlaws.md) (67)
- **Tubi:** [*Medusa Deluxe*](https://film.one/film/medusa-deluxe.md) (64)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Clare Perkins

> Clare Perkins is loud in the way only an actor with perfect timing can afford to be: she never leaves a gap for a reply. After thirty years of supporting parts, *Medusa Deluxe* finally gave her the space, and she filled it.

Cleve, the stylist Clare Perkins plays in *Medusa Deluxe* (2023), has a speech early on about what goes into a single head of hair: hours of it, unpaid and unnoticed. Perkins delivers it in a rising stream, reaching the end of a sentence, breathing, and starting the next before anyone can get a word in. It is a grievance, a boast and a confession all at once, and it tells you everything about a woman who has been in the trade long enough to consider herself owed. We laughed harder than we had at anything for weeks, and the reason was the timing. She never leaves a gap, so everyone else has to wait for her.

She has been doing this for thirty years, mostly in other people's films. Ken Loach's *Ladybird Ladybird* (1994) and Mike Leigh's *Secrets & Lies* (1996) came early, and she has said the improvised way of working on Saul Dibb's *Bullet Boy* (2004) mattered to her. Between them came the long soap years, as Denise Boulter in *Family Affairs* and Ava Hartman in *EastEnders* from 1997. The theatre took over from the 2010s, at the National, the Royal Court and the Young Vic, and then the screen came back for her all at once: *Censor* (2021), *The Outlaws* (2021), *Medusa Deluxe*, *Silo* (2023).

The parts she is given are nearly always the outspoken one: the activist, the rival, the woman who says the thing. The danger is that the type arrives before the person. In Stephen Merchant's *The Outlaws*, Myrna and Darren Boyd's John are handed the political argument and told to have it, and the writing does not always give her more than a position to play. Perkins plays it with more patience than the scripts always earn, and it is her patience, not the lines, that turns Myrna from a placard into someone you would want on your side. *Medusa Deluxe* suits her better, because Thomas Hardiman asks nothing of Cleve except to be herself at full volume for ninety minutes, and Perkins does it without repeating a note.

Start with *Medusa Deluxe*. The murder is the least interesting thing in the building and she is the most, and at home she is exactly as loud. What she has not yet had is a film that belongs to her from the first shot to the last. On the evidence of Cleve, she would not run out of things to say.

## Biography

Clare Perkins is an English actress. Born in London on 18 August 1965, she trained at Rose Bruford College.

She is known for her film roles in *Secrets & Lies* (1996) and *Medusa Deluxe* (2023), in which she played Cleve. Perkins has also appeared in television series including *EastEnders* (as Ava Hartman), *Holby City*, *Silo* (as Carla McLain), *The Wheel of Time*, *The Crown*, *Censor* (2021), *Bodies* (2023) and *The Outlaws* (2021).

*Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org.*

## On Fi1m (4)

- *Medusa Deluxe* (2023), Fi1m 64, as Cleve — [page](https://film.one/film/medusa-deluxe.md)
- *Silo* (2023), Fi1m 75, as Carla McLain — [page](https://film.one/tv/silo.md)
- *The Outlaws* (2021), Fi1m 67, as Myrna — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-outlaws.md)
- *Secrets & Lies* (1996), Fi1m 88, as Hortense's Sister in Law — [page](https://film.one/film/secrets-and-lies.md)

## Complete filmography (36)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *100 Nights of Hero* (2025), as Wilmot
- *National Theatre Live: Bacchae* (2025), as Vida
- *Hard Times* (2024), as Joan
- *Bodies* (2023), series, as Inspector Anderson
- *Embers* (2023), as Helen
- *Charlie's Freedom* (2023), as Sarah
- *Love Without Walls* (2023), as Faye the Hostel Manager
- *Medusa Deluxe* (2023), as Cleve — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/medusa-deluxe.md)
- *Silo* (2023), series, as Carla McLain — Fi1m 75, [page](https://film.one/tv/silo.md)
- *National Theatre Live: The Wife of Willesden* (2022), as Alvita, The Wife of Willesden
- *I Hate You* (2022), series, as Angela
- *Suspicion* (2022), series, as Lydia Thompson
- *The Wheel of Time* (2021), series, as Kerene Nagashi
- *The Outlaws* (2021), series, as Myrna — Fi1m 67, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-outlaws.md)
- *Censor* (2021), as Anne
- *Emilia* (2021), as Emilia 3
- *Flack* (2019), series, as Shirelle
- *Kaleidoscope* (2017), as Launderette Assistant
- *The Crown* (2016), series, as Social Worker — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-crown.md)
- *Run* (2013), series, as Jocelyn
- *Death in Paradise* (2011), series, as Fabienne Jordan
- *7lives* (2011), as Kids Mum (as Claire Perkins)
- *Deadmeat* (2007), as De Costa
- *All In The Game* (2006), as Mrs. Lamone
- *Shoot the Messenger* (2006), as Mary Gibbs
- *Bullet Boy* (2004), as Beverley
- *Celebrity Mastermind* (2003), series, Actor
- *Pig Heart Boy* (1999), series, as Cathy Kelsey
- *Pig Heart Boy* (1999), as Cathy Kelsey
- *Secrets & Lies* (1996), as Hortense's Sister in Law — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/secrets-and-lies.md)
- *My Wonderful Life* (1996), series, as Bridget Groves
- *Ladybird Ladybird* (1994), as Jill
- *Hallelujah Anyhow* (1991), as Opal
- *She-Play* (1990), series, Actor
- *Chilling Out* (1990), as Clare
- *Screen Two* (1985), series, as Opal

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/clare-perkins