Julie Hesmondhalgh studied at LAMDA and won the prestigious Lally Bowers Award for Best Comedy Actress.
She is best known for her award-winning portrayal of Hayley Cropper in Coronation Street, a role she left after 16 years and won multiple awards including: an RTS Award for Best Performance (2013), a National TV Award for Best Serial Drama Performance (2014) and a Best Actress Award at the British Soap Awards (2014).
Her theatre credits include: The Report with Lemn Sissay and God Bless the Child (The Royal Court), Black Roses: The Killing of Sophie Lancaster (Royal Exchange Studio, which she won a Manchester Theatre Award, 2013) Blindsided and Wit at the Royal Exchange, the latter for which she was nominated for a TMA and won a Manchester Theatre Award in 2017.
Television Credits include: Broadchurch 3, Happy Valley 2, Black Roses (RTS Award for Best Actress 2015), Moving On, Inside No. 9, Banana, Cucumber, The Dwelling Place, Pat and Margaret, The Bill and Dalziel and Pascoe.
Radio Credits: Glue, Over Here, Over There, The Fix, Fat Little Thing, Zola: Blood (Drink), Cleaning Up, Queens of the Coal Age, Deadheading, Dead Clever, Dead Pan, Glue, Pick of the Week (Radio 4); Exile, The Verb, Torchbearers, Exile (BBC Radio 3)
Hesmondhalgh has recently been awarded an Honorary MA in Performing Arts from the University of Chichester and The Freedom of the Borough of Hyndburn. She is a speaker for Arts Emergency and founder of Take Back, an award-winning political theatre collective in Manchester.
She has just finished filming Peterloo with Mike Leigh.
