Call the Midwife Wiki
Register
Advertisement


Jessica Raine (born Jessica Helen Lloyd; 20 May 1982) is an English actress who portrayed the role of Nurse Jennifer Lee in Call the Midwife.

Early Life[]

Jessica Helen Lloyd was born on 20 May 1982 in Eardisley, Herefordshire, England. She is the younger daughter of Allan Lloyd, a farmer and Sue Lloyd, a trained dancer and nurse. She has an older sister. Her father is a descended from the Lloyd family of Baynham Hall, who were well known for generations as bonesetters alongside their farming activities. She study at Kington School in Herefordshire, England.

In sixth form she studied theatre at A-Level and a Business and Technology Education Council in photography at the Hereford College of Arts and studied drama and cultural studies at the University of the West of England, Bristol. After graduating, she was turned down by every drama school she applied to, so went to Thailand and taught English as a second language.

Career[]

She wanted to be an actress from the age of 13, as her father starred in amateur dramatics with the Eardisley Little Theatre.

Returning home after a year, she applied to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art a second time and was accepted. Moving to London in anticipation of starting her course, she worked part-time as a waitress and for the company British Telecom Group.

After graduating in 2008, Raine began a successful stage career, initially cast as Lesley Sharp goth daughter in Simon Stephens, Harper Regan. She played Tamsin Greig's 16-year-old daughter in David Hare, Gethsemane play.

Raine played at the National Theatre in Mike Bartlett's Earthquakes in London as teenage wild-child Jasmine; and then as a secretary in the revival of Clifford Odets's Rocket to the Moon.She has also appeared in Ghosts and Punk Rock, for which she won the Manchester Evening News Award for Best Supporting Actress. She played a role in the Young Vic's revival of Middleton and Rowley's 17th-century tragedy, The Changeling. In 2012 Raine starred in Beyond Ballets Russes at the London Coliseum

Raine's first screen credits were an appearance in a 2009 episode of Garrow's Law and a small role in the 2010 film Robin Hood.

In radio, she has played Felice in the Murray Gold play Kafka the Musical, broadcast in April 2011 on BBC Radio 3. She also played the part of Kasey in Ed Harris' radio play The Wire, the Wall, first broadcast in February 2011.

Raine was cast in the role of Jennifer Lee in the first three series of the BBC One series Call the Midwife, she was trained in the medical techniques of the 1950s, including how to deliver a baby. On 9 March 2014, it was announced that Raine was leaving the show at the end of series 3 to pursue a career in film in the United States.

In February 2014, Raine joined the cast of the BBC Two police drama Line of Duty for series 2 as Detective Constable Georgia Trotman working for the AC12 anti corruption unit.

In July 2015, Raine played Tuppence Beresford in the series Partners in Crime based on Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence stories, though the series is set in the year 1952 rather than the 1920s.

In 2017, Raine played Alison Laithwaite in The Last Post, which she has described as "My favourite character I’ve played so far, ever. It was a real transformation.... She’s kind of self-destructive, witty and she’s climbing the walls with frustration and boredom, but she just wants to have fun.” This was seen as a very different role to her Call the Midwife character.

In 2019, Raine played Genevieve Taylor, a British liaison officer for Europol in the Netherlands, in the BBC One drama series Baptiste.

She was cast in The worst witch next generation as Miss Crochet for Season 3.

Personal Life[]

On 30 August 2015 she married the English actor, Tom Goodman-Hill, whom she met while appearing in a play in 2010. In 2019, she gave birth to the couple's first child, a boy. Raine is the stepmother of Tom Goodman-Hill two children from his previous marriage with Kerry Bradley.

References[]

[1]

Advertisement