Sally Hawkins
Birthdate: Apr 27, 1976
Birthplace: Dulwich, London, England, UK
Sally Hawkins (birthname: Sally Cecilia Hawkins) is the twice Oscar nominated actor best known for her acclaimed collaborations with British filmmaker Mike Leigh, which launched her big-screen career with a supporting role in All or Nothing (2002), starring Timothy Spall, Lesley Manville and James Corden, and premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, followed by Hawkins reuniting with Leigh for his fine 1950s drama, Vera Drake (2004), earning three Oscar nominations (including Best Actress for Imelda Staunton and Director and Screenplay nods for Leigh) and winning the Gold Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Hawkins joined the vivid ensemble of director/producer Michael Vaughn’s crime thriller, Layer Cake (2004), with Daniel Craig, Colm Meaney, Tom Hardy, Michael Gambon, and Sienna Miller, grossing $12 million for Columbia Pictures. Hawkins stepped aboard the first of two features she acted in with director/writer Woody Allen, the England-set Cassandra’s Dream (2007), starring Colin Farrell, Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell and Tom Wilkinson, earning over $22 million for distributors The Weinstein Company/Optimum Releasing/TFM Disribution after premiering at the Venice Film Festival. Hawkins appeared in a supporting role in the British crime-horror movie, The Killing Game (2007), co-starring Stellan Skarsgård, Selma Blair, and Melissa George, with Tom Hardy and Ashley Walters under Tom Shankland’s direction, and delivering a $10 million theatrical return.
Sally Hawkins delivered her breakout lead performance in her third film with director/writer Mike Leigh in his comedy-drama, Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), written expressly for Hawkins and winning her the Golden Globe and Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear for Best Actress, with Eddie Marsan in the major supporting role, and which grossed over $22 million. Hawkins had a supporting role in another lauded British movie, the coming-of-age drama directed by Lone Scherfig and written by Nick Hornby, An Education (2009), starring Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina, Rosamund Pike, Dominic Cooper, Olivia Williams and Emma Thompson, landing three Oscar nominations (Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress) after premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and earning over $26 million for Sony Pictures Classics/E1 Entertainment.
Hawkins appeared in support alongside stars Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield in screenwriter Alex Garland’s film adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2005 novel, Never Let Me Go (2010), with Charlotte Rampling, Domhnall Gleeson and Andrea Riseborough under Mark Romanek’s direction, produced in part by Film4 and earning $10 million for Fox Searchlight Pictures after premiering at the Telluride Film Festival. Hawkins had her second starring role in another British comedy-drama, Made in Dagenham (2010), with Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson, Geraldine James, Rosamund Pike, and Andrea Riseborough under Nigel Cole’s direction, and grossing over $12 million for Paramount Pictures.
Sally Hawkins was cast in the first of two films by debuting British director/writer Richard Ayoade, the coming-of-age comedy-drama Submarine (2010), based on Joe Dunthorne’s 2008 novel, with Noah Taylor, Paddy Considine, Craig Roberts and Yasmin Paige, and released by The Weinstein Company (U.S.)/Optimum Releasing (U.K.) to a $4.6 million return after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival.
Hawkins had her second starring role in the little-seen New Zealand-made rom-com, Love Birds (2011), and then was cast in a prominent role in director Cary Joji Fukunaga’s and writer Moira Buffini’s well-received feature adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (2011), starring Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell and Judi Dench, and earning $35 million globally for Focus Features/Universal Pictures.
Hawkins appeared in a second consecutive British literary adaptation, Great Expectations (2012), with screenwriter David Nicholls adapting Charles Dickens’s 1861 masterpiece, and with Jeremy Irvine, Helena Bonham Carter, Ralph Fiennes, Robbie Coltrane and Holliday Grainger under Mike Newell’s direction, grossing over $6 million for Lionsgate after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival. Hawkins then joined co-stars Paul Giamatti and Paul Rudd in her first U.S. feature production, All is Bright (2013), with Amy Landecker and Colman Domingo under Phil Morrison’s direction and released by Anchor Bay Films after premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Sally Hawkins’s visibility expanded when she co-starred—and was Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actress with Oscar-winning Best Actress Cate Blanchett playing sisters in Woody Allen’s acclaimed comedy-drama, Blue Jasmine (2013), with Alec Baldwin, Louis C.K., Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Dice Clay, Peter Sarsgaard, and Michael Stuhlbarg, delivering an excellent $99 million return for Sony Pictures Classics.
Hawkins appeared in a cameo in director/co-writer Richard Ayoade’s black comedy, The Double (2013), adapted from Dostoevsky’s novella of the same title and co-starring Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn, Noah Taylor, Cathy Moriarty, and James Fox. Then Hawkins took on a role (as Dr. Vivienne Graham) in her first Hollywood studio franchise vehicle care of Warner Bros./Toho/Legendary Pictures, Godzilla (2014), with a distinguished cast including Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, Bryan Cranston, Juliette Binoche, David Strathairn and T.J. Storm (in motion-capture performance as Godzilla) under Gareth Edwards’s direction $529.
Hawkins returned in director/co-writer Michael Dougherty’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), with new cast members Kyle Chandler, Vera Farmiga, Millie Bobby Brown, Bradley Whitford, Charles Dance, O’Shea Jackson Jr,. and Zhang Ziyi, with both features grossing a combined $916 million globally. Hawkins co-starred in the British drama A Brilliant Young Mind (2014), with Asa Butterfield, Rafe Spall, Eddie Marsan, and Jo Yang under Morgan Matthews’s direction, premiering at the Toronto Film Festival and earning over $1 million for Koch Media.
Hawkins joined another extremely successful franchise as co-star in director/writer Paul King’s beloved comedy-adventure, Paddington (2014), with Hugh Bonneville, Julie Walters, Jim Broadbent, Peter Capaldi, Nicole Kidman and Ben Whishaw (doing the voice of Paddington Bear); and Hawkins returned in King’s well-received sequel, Paddington 2 (2017), with new cast members Brendan Gleeson and Hugh Grant, both grossing a combined $602.4 million for producer Heyday Films and distributor StudioCanal.
Sally Hawkins shifted into starring roles, first in the title role of the Irish-Canadian biopic, Maudie (2016), co-starring Ethan Hawke under Aisling Walsh’s direction, earning over $9 million for distributors Sony Pictures Classics/Mongrel Media after premiering at the Telluride Film Festival. Hawkins then starred in one of her most indelible roles (written expressly for her, and earning her second Oscar nomination) in Guillermo del Toro’s Best Picture-winning romantic fantasy, The Shape of Water (2017), with Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg and Octavia Spencer, nabbing 13 Oscar nominations and four wins after winning the Golden Lion in its Venice Film Festival premiere, and delivering over $195 million for Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Hawkins starred again, this time in director/writer Craig Roberts’s British comedy, Eternal Beauty (2019), with David Thewlis, Alice Lowe, Billie Piper and Penelope Wilton and premiering at the London Film Festival, and then Hawkins reunited with director Roberts in a co-starring role with Mark Rylance in the BFI/BBC-backed comedy-drama biopic, The Phantom of the Open (2021), written by Simon Farnaby and with Rhys Ifans and Mark Lewis Jones, also premiering at the London Film Festival.
Hawkins took on a supporting role in Pablo Larrain’s stylized account of Princess Diana, Spencer (2021), starring Oscar-nominated Kristen Stewart, Jack Farthing, Timothy Spall and Sean Harris, and premiering at the Venice Film Festival but losing money ($25 million on $18 million costs) for its many global distributors including Neon. Sally Hawkins returned to starring roles in her first collaboration with British filmmaker Stephen Frears for the biopic, The Lost King (2022), co-written and co-starring Steve Coogan, and with Harry Lloyd and Mark Addy, and premiering at the Toronto Film Festival before earning $4.5 million for Warner Bros.
Hawkins then reunited with director Paul King and joined the ensemble of the musical fantasy, Wonka (2023), a prequel to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), starring Timothée Chalamet, Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key, Rowan Atkinson, Olivia Colman and Hugh Grant, and grossing an excellent $634.5 million worldwide for Warner Bros. Hawkins made an interesting turn by starring in her first horror movie, directors/writers Danny and Michael Philippou’s Australian-produced Bring Her Back (2025), with Billy Barratt, and released wide by Stage 6 Films via Sony Pictures Releasing.
Personal life
Sally Hawkins was born in the London borough of Lewisham and raised in the southeast London community of Blackheath by parents Jacqui and Colin Hawkins (children’s book authors). Hawkins has a brother, Finbar, a producer with Aardman Animations. Hawkins attended James Allen’s Girls’ School and graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1998. Hawkins’s height is 5’ 2”. Hawkins’s estimated net worth is $4 million.
Known For
Sally Hawkins Movies
actor
Previous (29)
- 2025 |
Bring Her Back
A brother and sister uncover a terrifying ritual at the secluded home of their new foster mother.
- 2024 |
Kensuke’s Kingdom
Young Michael, shipwrecked on a remote island, must adapt to life alone. Over time, he feels another presence, learning that this world is home to both unimaginable danger and beauty.
- 2023 |
The Lost King
asPhilippa Langley
An amateur historian defies the stodgy academic establishment in her efforts to find King Richard III's remains, which were lost for over 500 years.
- 2022 |
The Phantom of the Open
asJean Flitcroft
Maurice Flitcroft, a dreamer and unrelenting optimist, manages to gain entry to the 1976 British Open Golf Championship qualification round despite being a complete novice.
- 2021 |
- 2019 | Eternal Beauty
- 2019 |
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
asDr. Vivienne Graham
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
The crypto-zoological agency Monarch faces off against a battery of god-sized monsters, including the mighty Godzilla, who collides with Mothra, Rodan, and his ultimate nemesis, the three-headed King Ghidorah.
- 2018 |
Paddington 2
asMary Brown
Paddington, now happily settled with the Brown family and a popular member of the local community, picks up a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy's 100th birthday, only for the gift to be stolen.
- 2017 |
The Shape of Water
asElisa Esposito
At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity.
- 2017 |
- 2014 | A Brilliant Young Mind
- 2015 |
Paddington
asMary Brown
A young Peruvian bear travels to London in search of a home. Finding himself lost and alone at Paddington Station, he meets the kindly Brown family, who offer him a temporary haven.
- 2014 |
- 2012 | Great Expectations
- 2013 | All Is Bright
- 2013 | Blue Jasmine
- 2011 | Love Birds
- 2010 | Submarine
- 2011 | Jane Eyre
- 2010 | Made in Dagenham
- 2010 | Never Let Me Go
- 2009 | Desert Flower
- 2009 | Happy Ever Afters
- 2008 | Happy-Go-Lucky
- 2007 | Cassandra's Dream
- 2007 | The Killing Gene
- 2006 | The Painted Veil
- 2005 | Buried Alive
- 2004 | Layer Cake
Facts About Sally Hawkins
Conditions: Sally Hawkins noted in 2018 that she has the condition known as lupus, and that she is also dyslexic.
Childhood Home: Hawkins grew up in a gingerbread-style home near the Greenwich Observatory, which is listed on Britain’s National Trust and designed by Patrick Gwynne.
Children’s Lit Family: Sally Hawkins’ parents and brother are both children’s literature authors.
Theatre Glory: Hawkins has a distinguished British stage career stretching back to 1998, including major roles in such plays as Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist (1998); as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (1998); The Dybbuk (1999); Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard (1999); as Hermia and Hero in Open Air Theatre’s Shakespeare duo, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Much Ado About Nothing (2000); in Royal Court Theatre productions of Country Music (2004), Federico Garcia Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba (2005), The Winterling (2006) and Nick Payne’s Constellations (2012); and the title role in George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession (2010).
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