Maxine Peake

Maxine was a student at RADA between 1995 and 1998. Originally from Bolton, Lancashire, Maxine was awarded The Patricia Rothermere Award, which is a bi-annual scholarship for students who otherwise would have no means to finance their place at Drama School.

She has worked extensively in TV, Film and Theatre. TV Credits include Dinnerladies, Shameless, Criminal Justice and The Bisexual. Film Credits include The Theory of Everything, Keeping Rosy, Funny Cow and Fanny Lye Delivered. In Theatre Maxine played the title role of Hamlet in The Royal Exchange Theatre’s 2014 production. In 2018 she was the recipient of The UK Theatre awards Outstanding contribution to theatre. Maxine has written extensively for theatre and radio, her focus has been very much on female voices including The last Testament of Lilian Billoca for Hull City of Culture, Beryl : A love Story on Two Wheels and Queens of the Coal Age for Stage. For Radio Max’s most recent play for BBC Radio 3 was Only Mountains, which focuses on a young woman from the UK who signs up to the YPJ, an all female militia group fighting in Syria.

Maxine is also a Trustee at The Working Class Movement Library in Salford and Vice President of The Marx Memorial Library, Clerkenwell, East London.