Jo Hartley


Joanne Victoria Hartley is an English actress born in Oldham, Lancashire who has appeared in many British television series such as This is England, Not Safe For Work, After Life, and Bliss, as well as in films, The Young Victoria, Eddie the Eagle, Slaughterhouse Rulez, and Torvill & Dean.

Early life

Hartley was brought up in a working-class family, attending North Chadderton School in Chadderton, in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England. She started acting at the age of 11 in her school production of 'The Sound of Music' as Gretel Von Trappe. She then joined Oldham Theatre Workshop, developing her acting skills until the age of 17 when she stopped acting to work at British Aerospace on a Youth Training Scheme. Jo worked as a secretary in the office for two years until leaving to join Japan Airlines as an air hostess.
In her mid-twenties, Jo left the aviation industry to pursue her dream of being an actor.
Hartley returned to England, in London studying at the Questors Theatre in Ealing, where she studied method acting and Stanislavski's system until landing her first movie role in the 2004 Shane Meadows directed Crime Drama Thriller film Dead Man's Shoes as 'Marie'.

Career

Hartley has made appearances in many British productions including short films such as Northern Soul and Me and Her both in 2004, Terra Firma and Flushed in 2008, The Crossing, Janet and Bernard and I Don't Care in 2014. Hartley has been a character actor in many TV films and TV series since 2004, with her most notable roles in This Is England '86, 88 and 90, the follow-on TV mini-series to the film.
In movies Hartley has appeared in This Is England as Cynthia, and the feature film The Young Victoria in 2009, where she appeared with Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend.
In 2016 Hartley starred as Janette in the movie Eddie the Eagle appearing alongside Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman. She co-starred in the David Cross series Bliss, where she plays opposite Heather Graham as one of two partners of a fraudulent travel writer. Hartley also appeared in the comedy horror film Slaughterhouse Rulez, alongside Asa Butterfield and Simon Pegg.
After a successful pilot episode, Hartley played the role of Bethan's mum `Katrina' who suffers from bipolar disorder in the BBC series In My Skin which aired on BBC1 in 2020. In April 2020, Hartley returned as June in a second series of After Life alongside Ricky Gervais and Tony Way.

Filmography

Film

TV