
Maxine Peake
Biography
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.
Acting (61 movies)

The 50 Greatest Television Dramas
2007

Where We Used to Meet
2021

Dance First
2023

Words of War
2025

Clubbed
2008

The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister
2010

The Real Anne: Unfinished Business
2022

Christmas Lights
2004

Tish
2023

Wendell & Wild
2022

Edge
2010

Woken
2024

Svengali
2013

Run & Jump
2014

Hancock & Joan
2008

The Theory of Everything
2014

Keeping Rosy
2014

Something Out of Nothing
2022

Surfaces
2020

It's Me
2020

Lapushka!
2022

I Wish For You
2016

Strange Weather
2015

Judy
2019

Red Riding: The Year of Our Lord 1980
2009

The Falling
2015

Hamlet
2015

The Great Mountain Sheep Gather
2020

Generation '66
2016

Faith
2005

Red Top
2016

Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings
2000

Choked Up
2023

Private Peaceful
2012

Bike Squad
2008

All or Nothing
2002

A Midsummer Night's Dream
2016

Hamilton Mattress
2002

Funny Cow
2018

Art Matters
2024

Keeping Up with the Joneses
2013

Best Laid Plans
2012

Frozen
2005

I Swear
2025

Fanny Lye Deliver'd
2019

Peterloo
2018

Men Who Sleep in Cars
2017

Wonders of the Moon
2018

Cake
2017

DeafBlind
2011

Gwen
2018

The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca
2018

The Priest
2017

Dispossession: The Great Social Housing Swindle
2017

The Fear of Trilogy
2006

The Shuttleworths
2015

Bunch of Kunst - A Film About Sleaford Mods
2017

Unseen
2017

Ceremony: The Return of Friedrich Engels
2018

Irvine Welsh: Reality Is Not Enough
2025

The Occupant of the Room
2025
Directing (2 movies)
| Title | Year | Job | 
|---|---|---|
| The Priest | 2017 | Writer | 
| Funny Cow | 2018 | Executive Producer | 
| The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca | 2018 | Producer | 
