Jo Hartley
Acting
Biography
Jo Hartley is an English actress. She is known for her roles in the films Dead Man's Shoes (2004), This Is England (2006), The Young Victoria (2009), Torvill & Dean (2018), Slaughterhouse Rulez (2018), Eddie the Eagle (2016), Sweetheart (2021), and Bank of Dave (2023). Television credits include This Is England '86 (2010), Not Safe For Work (2015), In My Skin (2018), After Life (2019-2022), Mandy (2021), Das Boot (2022), Death In Paradise (2023), Passenger (2024), and Adolescence (2025). Hartley was born in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, and brought up in a working-class family, attending North Chadderton School in Chadderton, in Oldham. She started acting at the age of 11 in her school production of The Sound of Music as Gretel Von Trappe. She joined Oldham Theatre Workshop, developing her acting skills until the age of 17, when she stopped acting to work at British Aerospace on a Youth Training Scheme. She worked as a secretary there for two years before leaving to join Japan Airlines as a flight attendant. Hartley had her debut film role in the 2004 Shane Meadows directed Crime Drama Thriller film Dead Man's Shoes as 'Marie'. She went on to appear in many British productions, including films such as Northern Soul and Me and Her both in 2004; Terra Firma and Flushed in 2008; and The Crossing, Janet and Bernard and I Don't Care in 2014. Hartley has been a character actor in many TV films and TV series since 2004, with her most notable roles in This Is England '86, This Is England '88 and This Is England '90, the follow-on TV mini-series to the film. In movies Hartley has appeared in This Is England (2006) as Cynthia, and the feature film The Young Victoria in 2009, with Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend. In 2016 Hartley appeared as Janette, Eddie's mother in the film Eddie the Eagle appearing alongside Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman. She co-starred in the David Cross series Bliss opposite Heather Graham as one of two partners of a fraudulent travel writer. Hartley also appeared in the comedy horror film Slaughterhouse Rulez, alongside Asa Butterfield and Simon Pegg. After a successful pilot episode, Hartley played the role of Bethan's mum, Katrina, who suffers from bipolar disorder in the BBC series In My Skin which aired on BBC1 in 2020. In April 2020, Hartley returned as June in the second series of Ricky Gervais's After Life. In January 2021, Hartley joined the Rising Star Award jury of the EE British Academy Film Awards to select the shortlist for the 2021 award, alongside Alicia Vikander, Naomi Ackie and several other prominent figures of the industry. In November 2021, Hartley was nominated for the BIFA for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Tina in the Marley Morrison directed British drama film Sweetheart. In December 2021, Hartley had a guest-role appearance in the BBC's Mandy Christmas special—We Wish You A Mandy Christmas alongside Diane Morgan and Johnny Vegas. In 2022, Hartley landed a recurring role in four episodes of series 3, of the Sky One German U-boat series Das Boot, alongside Tom Wlaschiha. In 2023, Hartley starred as 'Nicola', wife of Burnley banker Dave Fishwick (played by Rory Kinnear) in the film Bank of Dave, released on Netflix in January 2023. In April 2024, Hartley played the lead character in the British comedy film Swede Caroline.
Known For
A brilliant but idiosyncratic British detective and his resourceful local team solve baffling murder mysteries on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie.
Death in Paradise
A sharp detective with a messy life, DCI Vera Stanhope patrols her “patch” of northeast England, pursuing the truth in cases of murder, kidnapping, and blackmail. Vera is obsessive about her work and faces the world with caustic wit, guile and courage.
Vera
Waterloo Road is a British television drama series set in a comprehensive school of the same name, first broadcast on BBC One on 9 March 2006, and concluding its original run on 9 March 2015. It was recommissioned in 2021, and resumed starting 9 January 2023. At the failing comprehensive school, and later academy of the same name, the professional and personal lives of the students and staff are examined. Affairs, scandals, blackmail and many, many headteachers. Who said education was easy?
Waterloo Road
When a 13-year-old is accused of the murder of a classmate, his family, therapist and the detective in charge are all left asking: what really happened?
Adolescence
Moving On is a British television series set in contemporary Britain consisting of standalone dramas all sharing the theme of someone going through some kind of change in their life and moving on.
Moving On
Tony had a perfect life. But after his wife Lisa suddenly dies, Tony changes. After contemplating taking his own life, he decides instead to live long enough to punish the world by saying and doing whatever he likes from now on.
After Life
After CSI have done their stuff, the cleaner mops up the grisly remains. For Wicky, a bloodbath and the pub is all in a day's work.
The Cleaner
Mandy is a woman with dreams. Big dreams. Most of all she dreams of breeding Doberman Pinchers. But there are hurdles to overcome before that dream can become a reality. In the series we'll see her go on a health kick, rent out her small back bedroom on Airbnb and attempt a series of short-lived jobs in the modern gig economy.
Mandy
The Jury is a British television serial broadcast in 2002. The series was the first ever to be allowed to film inside the historic Old Bailey courthouse.
The Jury
A close-knit community is sent spinning on its axis following a series of strange and unnatural crimes.
Passenger
The feel-good story of Michael 'Eddie' Edwards, an unlikely but courageous British ski-jumper who never stopped believing in himself—even as an entire nation was counting him out. With the help of a rebellious and charismatic coach, Eddie takes on the establishment and wins the hearts of sports fans around the world by making an improbable and historic showing at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.
Eddie the Eagle
A middle-aged man recently ditched by his long-term girlfriend, ‘Karl’ lives with his elderly Auntie and his closest companion is his doppelgänger alter ego.
Sick of It
Shaun, Harvey, Gadget, Trev and Kelly hit up the nightlife of raves and ecstasy. Woody and Lol are happy, living together with their kids and Combo is still in prison. But things slowly change. This is the year 1990 and This is England.
This Is England '90
It's 1986 - the year Maradona ends England's World Cup dreams in Mexico; the year Top Gun is the highest grossing film; the year over 3.4 million Brits are unemployed and the year Shaun is leaving school.
This Is England '86
Coming-of-age story of 16-year-old Bethan, who we follow as she deals with the comical but painfully real anxieties and insecurities of teenage life, along with the stark reality of a home life that is far removed from what she projects to her friends.
In My Skin
The Mimic is a British shown on Channel 4, starting 13th March 2013. The series centers on the fortunes of Martin Hurdle, an everyday maintenance man with an uncanny ability to mimic voices and stars Terry Mynott in the lead role.
The Mimic
As the only legitimate heir of England's King William, teenage Victoria gets caught up in the political machinations of her own family. Victoria's mother wants her to sign a regency order, while her Belgian uncle schemes to arrange a marriage between the future monarch and Prince Albert, the man who will become the love of her life.
The Young Victoria
An illustrious British boarding school becomes a bloody battleground when a mysterious sinkhole appears at a nearby fracking site unleashing unspeakable horror.
Slaughterhouse Rulez
Set during Christmas 1988, Lol is haunted by the devastating events that took place two and a half years before. She and Woody both find themselves struggling to cope with their lives without each other after he leaves the gang. Lol is carrying the burden of her guilt, whilst Woody is trying to build a domestic life with a new girlfriend and a potential promotion at work. Shaun has started drama college and, although still in a relationship with Smell, he has grown close to a girl performing in his Christmas play.
This Is England '88
Not Safe for Work is a 2015 British comedy-drama series created and written by D.C. Moore for Channel 4. A group of disillusioned Londoner civil servants are forced to relocate to Northampton after public sector cuts, focusing on their personal and professional struggles as they navigate a new, less glamourous office environment.