Julia Charlotte L. Davis is an English actress, comedian, director and writer. A nine-time BAFTA TV Award nominee, she won Best Comedy Writing for Hunderby in 2013 and the 2018 British Academy Television Award for Best Scripted Comedy for Sally4Ever. She has also received two RTS Awards and three British Comedy Awards. In addition to acting in her own works, she has appeared in a variety of other British television comedies, most notably portraying Dawn Sutcliffe in Gavin & Stacey (2007–2009, 2019, 2024). Her film roles include Love Actually (2003), Cemetery Junction (2010), Four Lions (2010), and Phantom Thread (2017).
Julia Davis was born in Guildford, Surrey on August 25, 1966 Her mother was a secretary, and her father a civil servant. She grew up in Guildford, Surrey, before moving at the age of 14 to Bath in Somerset. She was raised in the Church of England.
After studying for a degree in English and drama at the College of Ripon and York St John, she returned to Bath working "dead-end jobs", starting a comedy double-act The Sisters of Percy with her friend Jane Roth at a local theatre group. It grew into an improv troupe with Welsh radio DJ Rob Brydon and Ruth Jones.
Davis decided to become a comedian after a long illness. She secured her first comedy commission, Five Squeezy Pieces, from BBC Radio 4 in 1998.
The series was an all-female sketch comedy show, with Meera Syal, Arabella Weir, Maria McErlane, and Claire Calman.
She first appeared on television in 1998 in the BBC sketch show Comedy Nation. During their radio sketch series Five Squeezy Pieces, Arabella Weir introduced Davis to Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan who cast her as a regular cast member in the television sketch show Big Train (1998). Her career gained a further boost in 1998 after she sent a tape of various characters to Steve Coogan, who invited her to write for and participate in his shows during his 1998 national tour. Chris Morris, director of the Big Train pilot, cast her for his 1997–1999 radio series Blue Jam, its successor March–April 2000 TV show Jam, and Brass Eye. Davis went on to appear in many comedy television shows including I'm Alan Partridge, I Am Not an Animal, Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible, Ideal and Nathan Barley.
In 2004 and 2005, Davis wrote and starred in two series of the BBC Three dark comedy Nighty Night. The show is centred on her character of peroxide "blonde" sociopathic beauty therapist Jill Tyrell.
In 2015, Davis and Marc Wootton created and starred in BBC Radio 4 comedy series Couples, about couples in therapy. It was reported in 2015 that Davis had been commissioned for a new series, Robin's Test, which was later renamed Camping.
In 2016, Davis wrote, directed and starred as shallow nymphomaniac "Fay" in Camping on Sky Atlantic. This was her directorial debut. At the 2017 BAFTA TV Awards, Camping was nominated for Best Scripted Comedy. In 2017, Davis was featured in the Paul Thomas Anderson film Phantom Thread as Lady Baltimore.
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Recorded live at The Palace Theatre in Manchester. All his favourite characters appear - Alan Partri...
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A hapless parole officer is framed for murder by a crooked police chief. To prove his innocence he m...
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The strange comedy film of two close brothers; one, Wilbur, who wants to kill himself, and the other...
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Eight very different couples deal with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all se...
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Two lowlifes with active fantasy sex lives deliver potatoes to various restaurants and grocers....
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An all-singing, all-dancing, star-spangled musical leap around the biblical story of the Nativity, s...
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Shaun lives a supremely uneventful life, which revolves around his girlfriend, his mother, and, abov...
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The rebirth of Amnesty International's legendary SECRET POLICEMAN'S BALL at the Royal Albert Hall on...
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The bizarre tale of Fanny Cradock, Britain's famous and maligned TV chef from 50s to the 70s....
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'For the Love of God' is the wickedly irreverent tale of Graham (Coogan); an over-grown man-child st...
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Anne Elliot was once in love with Frederick Wentworth, a commander in the Royal Navy who was rejecte...
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As Nessa and the Wests head to Essex to spend Christmas with the Shipmans, Gavin and Stacey have a s...
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Spoof documentary about the career of comedian Steve Coogan....
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In 1970s England, three blue-collar friends spend their days joking, drinking, fighting and chasing ...
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Four Lions tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory t...
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Lizzie and Sarah are two fiftysomething suburban housewives, perpetually mistreated and ignored by u...
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One summer, mother and ex dancer Eileen lapses back to a troubled past as she starts a new relations...
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For hundreds of years, the Claus family has delegated the title "Santa" to a chosen few of its membe...
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Morning Has Broken sees Julie Davis play a monstrous presenter struggling to cope with the decline o...
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In 1950s London, a renowned dressmaker's meticulous lifestyle begins drastically changing as his rel...
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Born into a tight-knit wrestling family, Paige and her brother Zak are ecstatic when they get the on...
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Battling against the wilderness and his own ego, Bill struggles to impress Deb with below-par outdoo...
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When middle-aged suburban couple, Laura and Bruno are gifted a remote couples’ retreat for their ann...
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Sarah is a fertility doctor with a firm understanding of the cycle of life. When she is forced to ma...
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When a downtrodden janitor, Winston Gooze, is exposed to a catastrophic toxic accident, he’s transfo...
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Recent movies
| # | Name | Character | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Toxic Avenger Unrated (2025) | Kissy Sturnevan, his Associate | - | - |
| 2 | Run Rabbit Run (2024) | Gail | 5 | |
| 3 | Nude Tuesday (2022) | Director / Writer | - | - |
| 4 | The Clearing (2021) | Deb | - | - |
| 5 | Sing 2 (2021) | Linda Le Bon (voice) | 7.7 | |
| 6 | Fighting with My Family (2019) | Daphne | 7.7 | |
| 7 | Phantom Thread (2017) | Lady Baltimore | 7.3 | |
| 8 | Morning Has Broken (2014) | Director / Writer | - | - |
| 9 | Bad Sugar (2012) | Daphne Cauldwell | 10 | |
| 10 | Arthur Christmas (2011) | UNFITA OPS (voice) | 7.1 | |
| 11 | Cemetery Junction (2010) | Mrs. Taylor | 7 | |
| 12 | Four Lions (2010) | Alice | 6.9 | |
| 13 | Lizzie and Sarah (2010) | Director / Writer | - | - |
| 14 | Come on Eileen (2010) | Dee | 4 | |
| 15 | Steve Coogan: The Inside Story (2009) | Director / Writer | - | - |
| 16 | Gavin & Stacey Christmas Special 2008 (2008) | Dawn Sutcliffe | 7 | |
| 17 | For the Love of God (2007) | Mother | 6 | |
| 18 | Persuasion (2007) | Elizabeth Elliot | 6.5 | |
| 19 | Confetti (2006) | Counsellor | 3 | |
| 20 | The Secret Policeman's Ball: The Ball in the Hall (2006) | Self | - | - |
| 21 | Fear of Fanny (2006) | Fanny Cradock | 6 | |
| 22 | Sex Lives of the Potato Men (2004) | Shelley | - | - |
| 23 | AD/BC: A Rock Opera (2004) | Ruth | 7 | |
| 24 | Shaun of the Dead (2004) | News Reporter (voice) (uncredited) | 8 | |
| 25 | Love Actually (2003) | Nancy the Caterer | 7.4 | |
| 26 | Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002) | Moira | 8 | |
| 27 | The Parole Officer (2001) | Insinuating Wife | 4.7 | |
| 28 | Steve Coogan: The Man Who Thinks He's It (1999) | - | 6 |

