Kelly Macdonald, born in 1976, is a Scottish actress from Glasgow.

While working as a barmaid, Macdonald responded to an open-call audition advert for Danny Boyle’s iconic drug-addiction comedy-drama, Trainspotting. Through that, she landed the role of Ewan McGregor’s underage lover, Diane (she was 20 at the time of the film’s release).

From that point on she became a regularly working actress, landing roles in films including Elizabeth in 1998, Finding Neverland, Gosford Park and No Country For Old Men.

Arguably, her biggest role to date is Margaret Thompson in HBO drama, Boardwalk Empire, which ran from 2010 to 2014.

The role saw her recognised and nominated for awards at the Golden Globes, Primetime Emmys and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) awards.

In 2021, she joined the sixth season of Line Of Duty.

Macdonald was previously married to Dougie Payne, the bassist of band, Travis. The pair announced they had split in 2017.

Together they have two children.

In The Radleys, Macdonald plays Helen Radley, a vampire who has managed to acclimate into normal human life without drinking blood.

Proud mum to Rowan and Clara and wife to husband Will (Damian Lewis), to everyone around them they are a nice normal couple.

However, after an incident at the kids’ school and the arrival of Peter’s twin brother Will arrives on the scene (played by Damian Lewis in a dual role), things start to unravel. A proud, practicing vampire who openly embraces his hedonistic, bloodthirsty lifestyle, Will forces the family to face their repressed urges even further. Can the family continue to hold back their hidden bloodlust, or will they give in to their true nature?

Find out more about Damian Lewis here.

Here are just some of Kelly Macdonald’s most notable roles to date.

In this adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel of the same name, Trainspotting centres around a friendship group of heroin addicts in Glasgow, Scotland.

Leading them is Mark ‘Rent Boy’ Renton (Ewan McGregor), whose relationship with the drug sees him falling on and off the wagon on a regular basis.

After a night of clubbing, he sleeps with Diane, only later finding out she is underage and still in school.

Rather than cut off the relationship, Diane threatens to call the police if they don’t continue the romance.

Loosely influenced by French film The Rules Of The Game by Jean Renoir, Gosford Park is a dark satirical comedy taking a stab at the upper class.

The story follows a collection of wealthy elites and their servants as they gather at sprawling estate Gosford Park for a shooting weekend in 1932.

However, things soon go awry when a murder occurs after a dinner party, with the film turning into a whodunnit.

Macdonald plays Mary Maceachran, the maid of Constance, Dowager Countess of Trentham (Dame Maggie Smith).

Set in 1980 West Texas, No Country For Old Men follows three central characters.

Macdonald stars as Carla Jean, the wife of Vietnam War veteran Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) whose luck changes when he comes across the aftermath of a deadly disastrous drug deal in the middle of the desert.

Finding one of the injured has a briefcase with $2million in it, he decides to take the case home.

However, the money has people after it, with hitman Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) hot on their tails to recover the money, while Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), follows leads about the initial drug deal gone wrong.

Woody Harrelson is also in the mix, playing a bounty hunter on a mission to find Moss as well.

No Country For Old Men is available now to stream on Sky Cinema and NOW.

Set in the Prohibition era of the 1920s and 30s, Boardwalk Empire centres on the ascension to power of Enoch ‘Nucky’ Thompson.

A growing political figure in New Jersey, Nucky knows how to play both sides of the law to get what he wants out of life.

Soon he’s establishing himself as someone to fear in both government and criminal underworld circles.

Macdonald is a key character throughout the show’s five seasons as Margaret, a young widow who turns to Nucky for help to get out of her abusive relationship.

Further on in the series, she becomes his wife.

Boardwalk Empire is available now on Sky and NOW. Find out more here.

In a more lighthearted fare to her previous work, Macdonald lends her voice to the fearless Princess Merida of DunBroch in Disney and Pixar’s animation, Brave.

Fiercely independent with no desire to take a husband, Merida finds herself fighting for her family and her kingdom when her mother, Queen Elinor, falls victim to a curse that turns her into a bear.

Now she needs to unlock the curse before it’s too late.