Background and career
Miriam Margolyes ( MAR-gə-leez; born 18 May 1941) is a British and Australian actress and comedian. Known for her work as a character actor across film, television, and stage, she received the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs Mingott in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993), and achieved international prominence with her portrayal of Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series (2001–2011). Margolyes was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 New Year Honours for Services to Drama. After starting her career in theatre, Margolyes made the transition to film with a small part in the British comedy A Nice Girl Like Me (1969). Subsequent credits include Yentl (1983), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Little Dorrit (1988), I Love You to Death (1990), Immortal Beloved (1994), Balto (1995), Different for Girls, Romeo + Juliet (both 1996), Magnolia, End of Days (both 1999), Being Julia, and Ladies in Lavender (both 2004). She voiced roles in Babe (1995), James and the Giant Peach (1996), Mulan (1998), Happy Feet (2006), Flushed Away (2006), and Early Man (2018). Margolyes appeared in the television films Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story (1987), Orpheus Descending (1990), Stalin (1992), Cold Comfort Farm (1995), and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004). Her other credits include Blackadder (1983–1988), Vanity Fair, Supply & Demand (both 1998), and Doctor Who (2023), as well as the recurring roles of Prudence Stanley in the Australian drama series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012–2015), and Sister Mildred in the BBC1 drama series Call the Midwife (2018–2021). On stage, Margolyes toured her one-woman show, Dickens' Women, between 1989 and 2012, which earned her an Olivier Award nomination; starred as Sue Mengers in the Australian premiere of I'll Eat You Last (2014); and originated the role of Madame Morrible in Wicked (West End, 2006; Broadway, 2008). In 2025, she starred in the short film A Friend of Dorothy, which was nominated for the Best Live Action Short Film at the 98th Academy Awards. Outside of acting, she has fronted various travelogue series and written three memoirs: This Much Is True (2021), Oh Miriam! (2023), and The Little Book of Miriam (2025).
Miriam Margolyes was born on 18 May 1941 in Oxford, England, into an Ashkenazi Jewish family of Russian-Jewish and Belarusian-Jewish origins. She is the only child of Joseph Margolyes (1899–1995), a Scottish-born physician and general practitioner from the Strathbungo area of Glasgow, and property developer Ruth (née Sandeman; 1905–1974), daughter of a second-hand furniture dealer and auctioneer at Kirkdale, Liverpool, who later relocated to London. The maternal family surname changed from Sandeman to Walters before Margolyes' birth. Her maternal great-grandfather, Symeon Sandmann, was born in the Polish town of Margonin, then part of the Kingdom of Prussia, which Margolyes visited in 2013. Her paternal grandfather, Philip Margolyes, was born in the small Belarusian shtetl of Amdur, then in Grodno Governorate, Russian Empire. Margolyes attended Oxford High School and Newnham College, Cambridge. There, in her 20s, she began acting and appeared in productions by the Cambridge Footlights. She represented Newnham College in the first series of University Challenge, where she may have been one of the first people to say "fuck" on British television; she claims to have used the word in frustration on the show in 1963. The word was "bleeped out" for transmission.
With her versatile voice, Margolyes first gained recognition as a voice artist. In the 1970s, she recorded a soft-porn audio titled Sexy Sonia: Leaves from my Schoolgirl Notebook. In 1972, she played alongside Tony Robinson in the educational TV show Sam on Boffs' Island. She performed most of the supporting female characters in the dubbed Japanese action TV series Monkey. She also worked with the theatre company Gay Sweatshop and provided voiceovers in the Japanese TV series The Water Margin. In 1974, she appeared with Kenneth Williams and Ted Ray in the BBC Radio 2 comedy series The Betty Witherspoon Show. Margolyes's first major film role was as Elephant Ethel in Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers (1977). In the 1980s, she made appearances in Blackadder opposite Rowan Atkinson: these roles include the Spanish Infanta in The Black Adder, Lady Whiteadder in Blackadder II, and Queen Victoria in Blackadder's Christmas Carol. In 1986, she played a major supporting role in the BBC drama The Life and Loves of a She-Devil. She won the 1989 LA Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Flora Finching in the film Little Dorrit (1988). On American television, she headlined the short-lived 1992 CBS sitcom Frannie's Turn. In 1994, she won the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mrs Mingott in Martin Scorsese's The Age of Innocence (1993). Margolyes played the dental nurse to Steve Martin's dentist in the 1986 film Little Shop of Horrors. In her 2023 memoir Oh Miriam: Stories from an Extraordinary Life, Margolyes said Martin was "undeniably brilliant, but horrid to me" during the film. Martin responded that "My memory is that we had a good communication as professional actors. But when it is implied that I harmed her or was in some way careless about doing the stunts, I have to object". In 1989, Margolyes co-wrote and performed a one-woman show, Dickens' Women, in which she played 23 characters from Dickens' novels. In 2005, she hosted a ten-part BBC Four documentary, Dickens in America, which retraced Dickens's 1842 journey across the United States of America. Margolyes played Aunt Sponge and voiced the Glow-Worm in James and the Giant Peach (1996). She played the Nurse in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996). She voiced the rabbit character in the animated commercials for Cadbury's Caramel bars and provided the voice of Fly the dog in the Australian-American family film Babe (1995). She played Professor Sprout in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and again in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 (2011). In a 2011 interview on The Graham Norton Show, Margolyes said she got on well with Maggie Smith, but bluntly admitted that she "didn't like the one that died", referring to Richard Harris. In 2024, she enraged adult Harry Potter fans by stating, "I worry about Harry Potter fans because they should be over that by now. It was 25 years ago, and it's for children." Fans responded on X, one saying "Nobody has a right to try and shame people into not enjoying something they harmlessly enjoy." Louis Chilton wrote in The Independent that "Margolyes does have that right. Don't we all? And what's a bit of shame every now and then between friends?" In 2004, Margolyes played Peg Sellers, the mother of Peter Sellers, in the Golden Globe-winning film The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. Margolyes was one of the original cast of the London production of the musical Wicked opposite Idina Menzel in 2006, playing Madame Morrible, a role she reprised on Broadway in 2008. In 2009, she appeared in a new production of Endgame by Samuel Beckett at the Duchess Theatre in the West End. Margolyes voiced Mrs Plithiver, a blind snake, in the 3D-animated-epic film Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010). In 2011, she recorded a narrative for the album The Devil's Brides by klezmer musician-ethnographer Yale Strom. Margolyes played the recurring character Prudence Stanley in the Australian-based TV series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries from 2012 to 2015. In 2014, she voiced Nana in the Disney Junior animated series Nina Needs to Go! In January 2016, Margolyes appeared in The Real Marigold Hotel, a travel documentary in which a group of eight celebrities travelled to India to see whether retirement would be more rewarding there than in the UK. The series was reprised for two Christmas Specials, The Real Marigold On Tour, from Florida and Kyoto. She narrated the 2016 ITV documentary about Lady Colin Campbell entitled Lady C and the Castle. In December 2017, Margolyes appeared in the second season of The Real Marigold On Tour to Chengdu and Havana. She appeared in the first episode of the third series, in which she travelled to St Petersburg with Bobby George, Sheila Ferguson and Stanley Johnson.
In January 2018, Margolyes hosted a three‑part BBC series titled Miriam's Big American Adventure, highlighting citizens of the United States and the issues facing the country. She voiced Queen Oofeefa in the film Early Man. Margolyes portrayed Mother Mildred in the BBC One drama Call the Midwife from 2018 until 2021. She played Miss Shepherd in a 2019 production of The Lady in the Van for the Melbourne Theatre Company in Melbourne in Australia. In October 2021, she played Lillian opposite Helen Monks in the BBC Radio 4 sitcom Charlotte and Lillian, where she introduced her autobiography This Much Is True. On 5 November, she appeared on BBC One's The Graham Norton Show, where she discussed the book, explaining that it was written only because she "was paid an enormous amount of money". On 16 September, the book was published by Hachette Books. In April 2022, Margolyes was the subject of the BBC documentary Miriam Margolyes: Up for Grabs in the Imagine... series, where she was interviewed by Alan Yentob. She appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Museum of Curiosity in February 2023. Her hypothetical donation to this imaginary museum was "Charles Dickens and all his works". In November 2023, Margolyes appeared as the voice of The Meep in "The Star Beast", the first of three Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials. In 2025, she performed as a solo entertainer in her show Margolyes and Dickens: More Best Bits at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. That same year, she starred in A Friend of Dorothy, which was nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the 98th Academy Awards.
Margolyes spent many years living for long periods in Australia, and became an Australian citizen on Australia Day 2013 while retaining her British citizenship. She identifies as lesbian, and referred to herself as a "dyke" live on national television and in front of Australian prime minister Julia Gillard in 2013. Since 1968, she has been in a relationship with Heather Sutherland, an Australian retired professor of Indonesian studies. On 26 June 2013, Sutherland and Margolyes entered into a civil partnership. As of 2012, they were dividing their time between homes in London and Kent in England, Robertson, New South Wales in Australia, and Montisi in Italy. In November 2023, Margolyes revealed on The Graham Norton Show that she and Sutherland had never lived together but she wanted to do so as they were now both old and did not have much time left. She had been living in London and Sutherland had been living in Amsterdam for a while.
Margolyes has spoken openly about several health challenges in later life. She has been diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a condition that causes narrowing of the spinal canal and affects mobility. As a result, she uses mobility aids, including walking sticks, a walker, and a mobility scooter, and is registered as disabled. She also suffers from osteoarthritis, which contributes to chronic pain in her legs, hands, and back, and has undergone knee replacement surgery on her left knee. In May 2023, she underwent a transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), a minimally invasive heart procedure in which her aortic valve was replaced with one made from the tissue of a cow's heart. In July 2025, Margolyes responded to renewed media speculation about her health, following earlier claims that she had said in an interview she was "probably going to die within the next five or six years, if not before". In a video message, she dismissed claims that she was "at death's door" as "bollocks", affirming she was "very much alive" and preparing to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In August 2025, during an interview with the Daily Mail's Weekend magazine, Margolyes expressed support for assisted dying, stating she would consider it if a stroke left her unable to speak, doubly incontinent or cognitively impaired.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
