Bird College graduate and patron, Lara Pulver is an esteemed musical theatre and screen actress. Lara is probably best known for her portrayals of Erin Watts in the popular BBC spy drama Spooks and Irene Adler in BBC’s TV adaptation Sherlock, for which she was nominated for a Critic’s Choice Television Award for Best Movie/Mini Series Actress in 2012.

In the 2016 Olivier Awards ceremony, the musical Gypsy collected 4 awards, including Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for Lara. The Olivier Awards are the most prestigious theatrical awards in the UK and Lara had been previously nominated in 2008 for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as Lucille Frank in Parade. She later reprised the role in the Los Angeles production at the Mark Taper Forum.

Lara most recently played Sarah Brown in Stephen Mear’s production of Guys and Dolls at the Royal Albert Hall.

Lara first appeared on TV as Isabella in BBC’s Robin Hood and went on to join the cast of HBO’s True Blood as Sookie Stackhouse’s fairy godmother, Claudine Crane. Her other TV credits include Clarice Orsini in Fox’s TV series Da Vinci’s Demons, Anne O’Neill in Sky Atlantic’s series Fleming which starred Dominic Cooper, Channel 4’s Electric Dreams and BBC’s The City and The City where she starred alongside David Morrissey. Lara also appeared as Karen Lord in the 2014 Sci-Fi Action Blockbuster Edge of Tomorrow, alongside Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt.

She has most recently booked a recurring role The Alienist sequel, ‘The Angel of Darkness’, which is being aired in 2020.

Lara is a valued patron of Bird College and we are very proud of her achievements.