Eve Myles

Eve Myles
Eve Myles at the Bafta Cymru award ceremony in 2007.
Born	Eve Myles (1978-07-26) 26 July 1978 Ystradgynlais, Wales, United Kingdom
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1999–present
Partner(s)	Bradley Freegard
Children	Matilda Myles Freegard

Eve Myles (born 26 July 1978) is an award-winning actress. She portrayed Gwen Cooper in the Doctor Who television spin-off show Torchwood, Ceri Owen in the BBC Wales drama Belonging and Lady Helen of Mora in the BBC fantasy drama series Merlin.

Early life and training

Eve Myles was born on 26 July 1978, at Ystradgynlais. She attended Ysgol Maes Y Dderwen, where she was in the same class as fellow actor Richard Corgan, and the year below Steve Meo. She grew up with a strong interest in boxing, although she gave up the sport after breaking her knuckle by punching a wet sand bag.^[1] After training as an actress and gaining a Bachelor of Arts degree in acting at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff in 2000,^[2] Myles moved to London.

Career

In 2000 Myles took on the central role of Ceri Owen (Née Lewis) in the BBC Wales drama Belonging. Her longest role to date, Myles played Ceri from the series' first episode through to its final series in 2008; returning for a one off special in 2009.^[3] In 2001, Myles undertook a role in the television film Score and the TV mini-series Tales from Pleasure Beach. From 2003, Myles based herself in Stratford upon Avon, initially playing Lavinia in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Titus Andronicus, for which she received the Sunday Times Ian Charleson award in 2004.^[4] She has also played Bianca in The Taming of The Shrew^[5] and in 2005, appeared opposite Michael Gambon in Henry IV, Part I and II at the National Theatre.^[3] Myles appeared in the ITV drama Colditz in 2005.

She took a supporting role in the Doctor Who episode "The Unquiet Dead", playing servant girl Gwyneth. This brought her to the attention of Lead Writer Russell T Davies, who would progress to create and produce Torchwood. Considering her to be "one of Wales' best-kept secrets",^[6] Davies wrote the role of Gwen Cooper in Torchwood specifically for Myles.^[7] Speaking on her casting, Myles stated that having the part written for her was like having her "own personal Oscar."^[8] An audience surrogate^[9] Myles characterises Gwen as Torchwood's "Social Worker" who "can run and fight and stand in her own corner and win." Her role in Torchwood also led to Myles making a second appearance in Doctor Who, for its Fourth series' finalé, alongside Torchwood co-stars John Barrowman and Gareth David-Lloyd.^[10] Myles has appeared in every episode of Torchwood to date and returned for Torchwood's Fourth series; Torchwood: Miracle Day airing on BBC One and US premium television network Starz.^[11][12]

Myles also appeared in the premiere episode of Merlin, called "The Dragon's Call" where she played Lady Helen of Mora and Mary Collins, a witch who impersonated her. Her performance in this role was described positively by Anthony Head, who said that 'she did it dead straight and very scarily. There was one moment she was delivering a speech to me in full prosthetic make-up... The French background artists didn’t speak English but burst into applause at the end because they were moved by the emotion of it.'^[13]

She portrayed the character of Maggy Plornish in Andrew Davies' 2008 adaptation of Little Dorrit, which later went on to win seven Emmy awards.^[14] Early 2008 also saw the actress host a radio show centred around Welsh boxer Joe Calzaghe^[1] and narrate a short story, Sorry for the Loss by Bridget Keehan, both airing on BBC Radio Wales.^[15]

2009 saw her star in the award winning independent Welsh film A Bit of Tom Jones as well as the one-off Drama, Framed, for BBC Wales, alongside Trevor Eve. In July 2010, Myles announced she would appear in an original BBC Cymru Wales TV series, Baker Boys, co-written by Helen Raynor and Gary Owen and airing in early 2011.^[16][17] 2011 also saw Myles provide the voice of the Dalish elf Merrill in the Bioware video game Dragon Age 2.^[18] In July 2011, to coincide with Torchwood's fourth series Myles presented part of a BBC Wales Documentary entitled Wales and Hollywood, which featured the actress travelling to the Hollywood Walk of Fame to find the Welsh talent honoured there.^[19][20]

In 2012 Myles returned to the stage in Zach Braff's play All New People, ran for ten consecutive weeks at the West End's Duke of York's Theatre following runs at the Manchester Opera House (8–11 February 2012) and the King's Theatre in Glasgow (14–18 February).^[21] In 2013 she took the title role in the BBC1 drama Frankie, filmed in Bristol, which follows the life of a district nurse who cares more about her patients than her own life.^[22]

Awards and recognition

Myles has been nominated for a total of six BAFTA Cymru awards, winning one. In 2002,^[23] 2003,^[24] and 2009,^[25] Myles was nominated for Best Actress in the BAFTA Cymru Awards for her role as Ceri on the BBC Wales drama Belonging. In 2007, Eve Myles won the BAFTA Cymru Best Actress award for her portrayal of Gwen Cooper in Torchwood's first series,^[26] a role she also received Best Actress BAFTA Cymru nominations for in 2008^[27] and 2010.^[28] In 2010, Myles won the Best Actress award in the SFX Reader's awards poll,^[29] and was crowned best actress in the 11th annual Airlock Alpha Portal Awards.^[30] For her role as Gwen Cooper in Torchwood: Miracle Day, Myles was nominated for a Satellite Awards in the Best Television Actress category.^[31] and reached the shortlist for the 2012 UK National Television Awards.^[32]

In 2006, Wales on Sunday named Myles as its "Bachelorette of the Year".^[33] Myles also regularly ranks highly in The Western Mail's annual list of the 50 sexiest women in Wales. In 2005, The Western Mail ranked Myles seventh^[34] whilst she ranked fifth in 2008,^[35] 7th in 2009,^[36] 8th in 2010^[37] and 10th in 2011.^[38]

In June 2010, Myles was honoured with a fellowship from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.^[39]

Personal life

Myles currently resides with her long-time partner Bradley Freegard, whom she met at the National Youth Theatre in 1994.^[40] On 10 November 2009, Myles gave birth to the couple's first daughter, Matilda Myles Freegard,^[41] after being in labour for 33 hours.^[42][43] Filming Torchwood's fourth series in 2011 saw Myles relocate with her family to the United States of America and Hollywood Hills, living "literally underneath the Hollywood sign".^[44] Myles has described California as the "land of dreams", and her experience filming the fourth series of Torchwood as the best year of her life, adding that she would love to spend more time there as an actress if possible.^[43]

Filmography

Film & television

Radio

Theatre

Audio Book Narrator

^[47]

Video games

References

External links

• Eve Myles at the Internet Movie Database
• Eve Myles at AllRovi
• Bio of Myles at BBC Wales