Hannah Waddingham

Hannah Waddingham was born in Wandsworth, London, and grew up around the musical theater: both of her maternal grandparents were opera singers and her mother, Melodie Kelly, sang with the English National Opera for 27 years. Despite never having had any formal singing lessons, Waddingham has a four-octave vocal range and studied at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in South London. She has had a long and distinguished career in musical theatre, including three nominations for Best Actress in a Musical at London’s Olivier Awards: in 2007 for Spamalot, in 2010 for A Little Night Music and in 2013 for Kiss Me, Kate.  Her film credits include How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2008), Les Misérables (2012), Winter Ridge (2018), and the upcoming sequel to 1993s Hocus Pocus, Hocus Pocus 2 (2022). In 2015, she joined the cast of the fifth season of Game of Thrones as the “Shame Nun” Septa Unella, and her other TV credits include 12 Monkeys (2017), Midsomer Murders (2021) and a recurring role in the Netflix series, Sex Education. In Ted Lasso, she plays football team owner Rebecca Welton.