Loo Brealey

Infobox Actor
name = Loo Brealey


caption = Loo Brealey in 2007
birthname =
birthdate = birth year and age|1979
birthplace = Bozeat, Northamptonshire, England
deathdate =
deathplace =
othername =
occupation = Actress
yearsactive = 2001ndashpresent
spouse =
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website =

Loo Brealey (born 1979) is an English actress.

Born in Bozeat [cite web |url=http://www.holby.tv/db/index.php?id=38,35,0,0,1,0 |title=Loo Brealey |publisher=Holby.tv |accessdate=2008-08-16] , Northamptonshire, England. She read history at Cambridge University before training at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City and studying with clown guru Philippe Gaulier.

Career

Brealey is currently appearing with Jeff Rawle ("Drop The Dead Donkey") and Sheila Reid ("Benidorm") in the sell-out Edinburgh Festival premiere of Simon Stephen's "Pornography". ["Sean Holmes' superb, beautifully acted production" - "The Guardian" ****; the "excellent ensemble cast" - "The Times"; "beautifully played by the ensemble" - "Evening Standard" ****.]

Earlier this year she played Sonya in Peter Hall's critical and box-office smash-hit "Uncle Vanya". "The Telegraph" declared that "Loo Brealey is a name to watch..." "The Sunday Telegraph" praised "a stand-out performance by Loo Brealey who simmers with suppressed emotion as a wan, bird-like Sonya." "The Daily Express" said "But it is Loo Brealey who stands out... [Brealey's endurance is] utterly heart-rending, and it is here the play triumphs most." "The Independent" admired a "beautifully-acted production", and compared Brealey to Joan Fontaine in Hitchcock's "Rebecca".

Lloyd Evans wrote in "The Spectator" that "The besotted Sonya, Loo Brealey, is the only performer who uncovers the pathetic poetry beneath the indolent superficialities. Her big disadvantage is that she is too attractive for 'plain' Sonya, but she disguises this by suggesting a lack of sexual allure with awkward giggles, squirrelly movements and a stupified beaming naievty. All brilliantly done. It was only during her brief final speech (a miracle of rhetorical compression that starts as a celebration of toil and becomes a sublime and mystical appeal for endurance) that the production reached out and imprisoned my heart."

Brealey made her acting debut in 2001 as 14-year-old cybergeek Sophie in Max Stafford-Clark's production of Judy Upton's "Sliding With Suzanne" at the Royal Court. "The Telegraph", described her first stage appearance as "a perfect, poignant, study of adolescent curiosity and sexual confusion." The "Financial Times" said: "Bryan Dick as Luka and Loo Brealey as Sophie give the kind of performances when you hang on everything they do."

Brealey then beat 300 hopefuls to play Student Nurse Roxy Bird for two series of BBC drama "Casualty". On leaving the show, she won the "Doctor Who"-fan poll for the new assistant on "Outpost Gallifrey", ranked within the top 300 most active message boards on the Internet, but lost out to Billie Piper.

She next played Judy Smallweed in the 2005 BBC Television adaptation of "Bleak House". Terry Wogan took Judy and her snaggle-toothed grandfather Smallweed (Phil Davis) to heart, regaling listeners to his Radio 2 show with a daily rendition of Davis' catchphrase "Shake me up, Judy!"

Brealey followed this with a comic turn as Anorak, Alistair MacGowan's black-bobbed sidekick, in cult detective comedy-drama "Mayo", canned by the BBC after just one series despite support from London's "Time Out" magazine, who described the show as "David Lynch does Agatha Christie." The show fared better on its US release in 2007, with "The Hollywood Reporter" comparing it favourably to "Moonlighting".

On stage, her turn as child math prodigy Thomasina in a box-office breaking production of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" at the Bristol Old Vic in 2005 was described as "excellent" by "The Mail on Sunday". "The Telegraph" declared that "the evening belongs to Loo Brealey's Thomasina." She next took the lead in Dennis Kelly's dark thriller "After The End". The show toured Russia before a hit Off-Broadway run. "Showbusiness Weekly" called Brealey's performance "stunning... [an] unparalleled talent..."

In 2007 Brealey starred opposite Michael Pennington and Tim Pigott-Smith as Nell in Sir Peter Hall's premiere of Simon Gray's "Little Nell", based on "The Invisible Woman", Claire Tomalin's award-winning biography of Charles Dickens' mistress Ellen Ternan. Critics dubbed her performance "excellent" ("The Mail"), "impressive" ("The Stage"), "highly compelling" ("Independent"), "captivating" and "astounding" ("British Theatre Guide").

TV & film

* "Hotel Babylon"... Chloe (dir Sam Miller)
* "Green"... Abi (dir Alex Hardcastle)
* "Bleak House"... Judy "Shake me up!" Smallweed (dir Justin Chadwick)
* "Mayo"... Anorak (dir Metin Huseyin)
* "Casualty"... Roxy Bird (dir Various)
* "I Want You"... Lead (dir Alex Norris)

Stage

* "Pornography"... (dir Sean Holmes, Traverse Theatre Edinburgh and Birmingham Rep)
* "Uncle Vanya"... Sonya (dir Peter Hall, Rose Theatre Kingston and ETT tour)
* "Little Nell"... Nell (dir Peter Hall, Theatre Royal Bath)
* "After The End"... Louise (dir Roxana Silbert, UK and Russian tour, Off-Broadway)
* "Arcadia"... Thomasina (dir Rachel Kavanaugh, Bristol Old Vic, Birmingham Rep)
* "Sliding With Suzanne"... Sophie (dir Max Stafford-Clark, Royal Court Theatre and UK tour)

References

External links

*
* Brealey's CV at United Agents [http://unitedagents.co.uk/film/loo-brealey/]
* Brealey at the BBC's [http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/casualty/actors/biogs/index.shtml?content/_loobrealey/page1 Casualty] site
* Brealey favourite for "Dr Who" assistant [http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0900entertainment/onthebox/tm_objectid=15559967&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=charlotte%2din%2drunning%2dfor%2ddr%2dwho%2drole-name_page.html]