Biography
Katherine Parkinson is an English actress. Born on 9 March 1978 in Hounslow, London, she studied classics at St Hilda’s College, Oxford, and trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.
She is best known for playing Jen Barber in the Channel 4 series The IT Crowd (2006–2013), for which she won the BAFTA Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance in 2014 and British Comedy Awards. Other television roles include appearances in Doc Martin (2005–2009) and Humans (2015–2018). On stage she has performed in The Seagull (2007), Cock (2009) and Home, I’m Darling (2018), the last earning an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Play. Film credits include The Boat That Rocked (2009) and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018). She played Lizzie Vereker in the series Rivals (2024).
