Lauren Socha’s blunt delivery and comic timing make difficult characters worth spending time with. We rate the vulnerability she finds beneath their toughness, though the repeated casting as tough young women risks making her work seem narrower than it is.
Fi1m perspective
Kelly Bailey can be unpleasant company, and Lauren Socha does not spend Misfits (2009) asking us to excuse her. She commits to the bluntness and lets the comedy come from it, trusting us to stay interested in someone we might prefer not to meet. It is a persuasive performance in a sharp superhero comedy, though the characters can become wearing. We laughed at Kelly and her companions because the cast made their disagreeable behaviour funny without pretending it was harmless. The darker scenes benefit from that discomfort.
Her natural Derby accent and assured handling of a one-liner suit that directness. Alongside Iwan Rheon, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Antonia Thomas and Robert Sheehan, she helps make Howard Overman’s unlikely material believable. The timing is important, but so is her ability to convey sadness beneath the humour. Toughness is only part of what she plays; the loyalty and vulnerability keep those characters worth watching.
The same year brought her role as Lauren in Samantha Morton’s The Unloved (2009). Her portrayal of a troubled teenager there drew on observed experience. She stayed with Misfits for its first three series, through 2011. Her subsequent television work includes a guest role in Plebs (2013) and the lead as Cat in The Other One (2020). Cat is lighter and more upbeat, a welcome reason to look beyond the assumption that grit is all Socha has to offer.
There is a risk of repetition in that casting, and Socha has herself noted the tendency to give her gritty roles. We would welcome more parts that let her be funny without requiring the same hard exterior. In Misfits, the ensemble gives her difficult people to work with and enough good writing to justify their company. Start there for the comic timing, and do not expect to like everyone.
Biography
Lauren Socha is an English actress. Born in Derby, Derbyshire, she trained at the Television Workshop in Nottingham.
She rose to prominence playing Kelly Bailey in the E4 series Misfits (2009–2011). For the role she won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2011. She had earlier appeared as Lauren in the Channel 4 film The Unloved (2009), for which she received a BAFTA nomination.
Socha has also appeared in Plebs (2014) and Shed of the Dead (2019). Her brother Michael Socha is also an actor.
