Janie Dee

Acting

Janie Dee

Born 1962-06-20 · Old Windsor, England, UK

Janie is an award-winning British actress, singer and musical theatre performer, characterised by her extraordinary versatility in acclaimed work on stage, film, television and radio. Her career embraces everything from Shakespeare at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare's Globe, to revivals of classic plays at the Bath Festival, directed by Sir Peter Hall, acclaimed performances in modern dramas and comedies, and leading roles in classic musicals, both in the West End and major regional theatres. Janie is also a passionate champion of new writing. In addition, she regularly performs her own witty and sophisticated cabaret at leading venues including Crazy Coqs, The Hippodrome, The Pheasantry, the St James Studio, Aldeburgh Festival and the 'Divas at the Donmar' season. Janie has worked closely with contemporary playwrights, particularly Alan Ayckbourn and Michael Frayn, and the late Harold Pinter in numerous productions and has become a renowned interpreter of their work. In recent years, she has also worked with the next generation of outstanding emerging playwrights, including Lucy Kirkwood, whose acclaimed new play NSFW was premiered at The Royal Court in 2012 and for which Janie received her fourth Olivier Award nomination, this time as Best Supporting Actress in a Play, for her performance as glossy womens' magazine editor, Miranda. Janie is increasingly expanding her work in film and television and has recently completed two feature films; Dare To Be Wild, set in Ireland and written and directed by Vivienne Decourcy and The Trouble With Dot and Harry, opposite Neil Morrissey, written and directed by Sundance Festival Grand Prize-winner, Gary Walkow. Janie won the three most prestigious awards in British Theatre; the Olivier Award, the Evening Standard Award and Critics Circle Awards for Best Actress in a Play, as well as the Obie and Theatre World Best Newcomer Award in New York, for her hilarious and heartbreaking performance as Jacie Triplethree in Alan Ayckbourn's Comic Potential. She also received the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for her performance as Carrie Pipperidge in Nicholas Hytner's acclaimed production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel at the National Theatre and the TMA UK Theatre Award 2013 for Best Performance in a Musical for her performance as Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly! at Curve, Leicester.

Acting credits

Official Secrets poster
7.2

The true story of British intelligence whistleblower Katharine Gun who—prior to the 2003 Iraq invasion—leaked a top-secret NSA memo exposing a joint US-UK illegal spying operation against members of the UN Security Council. The memo proposed blackmailing member states into voting for war.

Official Secrets

2019

Me and Orson Welles poster
6.4

New York, 1937. A teenager hired to star in Orson Welles' production of Julius Caesar becomes attracted to a career-driven production assistant.

Me and Orson Welles

2008

Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends poster
8.0

On 3 May 2022, Cameron Mackintosh invited many of Stephen Sondheim’s old friends to join him in London’s West End for a thrilling, joyously staged production. He had specially devised it to celebrate Sondheim’s extraordinary talents as a composer and lyricist. Featuring an all-star cast including Michael Ball, Helena Bonham Carter, Rob Brydon, Petula Clark, Anna-Jane Casey, Rosalie Craig, Janie Dee, Judi Dench, Daniel Evans, Maria Friedman, Haydn Gwynne, Bonnie Langford, Damian Lewis and Julia McKenzie.

Stephen Sondheim's Old Friends

2022

The Murder Room poster
6.5

London's Dupayne Museum is in danger of closing since one of the trustees feels that the money expended on preserving the past could be better spent addressing the problems of living people. One of the museum's collections concerns murders committed between the world wars. When a killing that reflects one of the cases on display occurs, history seems to be repeating itself.

The Murder Room

2004

National Theatre Live: The Motive and the Cue poster
7.5

In 1964, Richard Burton, newly married to Elizabeth Taylor, is to play the title role in an experimental new Broadway production of Hamlet under Sir John Gielgud’s exacting direction. But as rehearsals progress, two ages of theatre collide and the collaboration between actor and director soon threatens to unravel.

National Theatre Live: The Motive and the Cue

2024

Little White Lies poster
4.0

The tragic, unexpected death of David in a car-crash causes the cozy, safe life of gardener Beth to be thrown into complete chaos. In the aftermath, as Beth begins to pick up the pieces, worrying facts come to light about David's illegal deals with Oliver, the family solicitor, and his apparent long-running, illicit affair with Julia, Oliver's wife. In her distress and disbelief Beth digs deeper into her husband's private affairs and uncovers another layer of lies and deceit concerning Julia's mental stability and her friends' hollow, loveless marriage. Beth's anger and desperation for the truth about the husband she loved drives her ever on toward the truth behind tragic events of the past which lead inevitably towards further tragedy to come.

Little White Lies

1998

The Driving Seat poster
2.0

One Saturday morning, a middle aged couple decide to make love in their car in the driveway to put a spark back in their marriage - only to find it has rather the opposite effect..

The Driving Seat

2016

National Theatre Live: Follies poster
8.0

New York, 1971. There’s a party on the stage of the Weismann Theatre. Tomorrow the iconic building will be demolished. Thirty years after their final performance, the Follies girls gather to have a few drinks, sing a few songs and lie about themselves.

National Theatre Live: Follies

2017

Celebration poster
6.3

All the action takes place in a swish London restaurant where two coarse-grained strategy consultants are dining with their respective wives. At an adjacent table a banker and his wife banter over his recently discovered affair. But while Pinter gets a lot of laughs out of these gold-plated philistines, he also suggests they are displaced people. Shorn of any inherited values, they live in an eternal present of sex, food and conspicuous consumption. - Michael Billington, Guardian

Celebration

2007

Harold Pinter:  A Celebration poster
8.0

In June 2009, a group Britain's leading actors gathered for one night only to perform a celebration of the work of Harold Pinter at the National Theatre, directed by Ian Rickson. The team who made the acclaimed Harold Pinter documentaries for BBC's Arena was there to record this unique performance.

Harold Pinter: A Celebration

2010

All's Well That Ends Well - Live at Shakespeare's Globe poster
7.2

Helena loves the arrogant Bertram, and when she cures the King of France of his sickness, she claims Bertram as her reward. But her new husband, flying from Helena to join the wars, attaches two obstructive conditions to their marriage - conditions he is sure will never be met. Featuring Olivier-award winning actress Janie Dee as the Countess of Roussillon.

All's Well That Ends Well - Live at Shakespeare's Globe

2012

Kings of Broadway 2020: A Celebration of the Music of Jule Styne, Jerry Herman, and Stephen Sondheim poster
NR

This streaming charity concert with performances from Liz Callaway, Janie Dee, Fra Fee, Ramin Karimloo, L. Morgan Lee, Jamie Parker, Laura Pitt-Pulford, Clive Rowe, Jenna Russell, Michael Xavier, and more raises money for Acting For Others, NHS Charities Together, and Black Lives Matter Global Charities.

Kings of Broadway 2020: A Celebration of the Music of Jule Styne, Jerry Herman, and Stephen Sondheim

2020

The Trouble with Dot & Harry poster
NR

An American writer is in over his head when he must take his ex-girlfriend's two precocious children on a road trip across England. But sometimes driving on the wrong side of the road can make things right.

The Trouble with Dot & Harry

2015