Maxine Peake

Maxine Peake

Maxine Peake (born 14 July 1974) is an English stage, radio, film and television actress, playwright, producer, director and political activist, who made her name as Twinkle in Victoria Wood's sitcom Dinnerladies. She has since played Veronica in Channel 4's Manchester-based drama series Shameless, barrister Martha Costello in the BBC legal drama Silk and Grace Middleton in The Village. She is also an accomplished stage actress, having played the title role in Hamlet, and had a role in the 2014 film The Theory of Everything. In 2018 she played the lead in the film Funny Cow and had a starring role in Mike Leigh's epic Peterloo, a film very close to her heart.

Words of War
2025
Anna Politkovskaya
I Swear
2025
Dottie Achenbach
Irvine Welsh: Reality is Not Enough
2025
Narrator
Woken
2024
Helen
Art Matters
2024
Self
Dance First
2023
Barbara
Tish
2023
Tish Murtha (voice)
Choked Up
2023
Fiona Lacey
Incompatible
2022
Director
The Real Anne: Unfinished Business
2022
Self- Presenter
Wendell & Wild
2022
Irmgard Klaxon (voice)
Something Out of Nothing
2022
Lapushka!
2022
Scoot Piccolo
Doughnut
2021
Thanks
Where We Used to Meet
2021
Surfaces
2020
Alix
It's Me
2020
Miriam
The Great Mountain Sheep Gather
2020
Self - Narrator
Judy
2019
Judy
Fanny Lye Deliver'd
2019
Fanny Lye
The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca
2018
Producer
Funny Cow
2018
Executive Producer
Peterloo
2018
Nellie
Wonders of the Moon
2018
Narrator (voice)
Gwen
2018
Elen
Ceremony: The Return of Friedrich Engels
2018
Friedrich Engels (voice)
The Priest
2017
Writer
Men Who Sleep in Cars
2017
Sarah
Cake
2017
Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle
2017
Narrator
Bunch of Kunst - A Film About Sleaford Mods
2017
Self (archive footage)
Unseen
2017
Emma
I Wish For You
2016
Grown Up Mia
Generation '66
2016
Narrator
Red Top
2016
Rebekah Brooks
A Midsummer Night's Dream
2016
Titania
Strange Weather
2015
Jane
The Falling
2015
Eileen Lamont
Hamlet
2015
Hamlet
The Shuttleworths
2015
Helen Bach
Run & Jump
2014
Vanetia
The Theory of Everything
2014
Elaine Mason
Keeping Rosy
2014
Charlotte
Svengali
2013
Angie
Keeping Up with the Joneses
2013
Celia
Private Peaceful
2012
Hazel Peaceful
Best Laid Plans
2012
Isabel
DeafBlind
2011
Maggie
The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister
2010
Anne Lister
Edge
2010
Elly
Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980
2009
Helen Marshall
Clubbed
2008
Angela
Hancock & Joan
2008
Joan Le Mesurier
Bike Squad
2008
WPC Kate McFay
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas
2007
Self
The Fear of Trilogy
2006
Faith
2005
Linda
Frozen
2005
Ticket Attendant
Christmas Lights
2004
Pauline
All or Nothing
2002
Party girl
Hamilton Mattress
2002
Lulu (voice)
Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings
2000
Self