Samantha Morton Biography

Fast Facts

• Dropped out of school at age 13 to study acting at the Central Junior Television Workshop in Nottingham
• In her teens, she worked in television and performed with the Royal Court Theatre in London
• Landed breakthrough role playing a teenage prostitute in the television drama Band of Gold
• Made her film debut in 1997's This Is the Sea
• Garnered international acclaim with a provocative role in Under the Skin
• Her performance caught the eye of Woody Allen, who cast her opposite Sean Penn in Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
• Appeared in music videos for U2 and the Horrors
• Revealed that she suffered a stroke after the ceiling in her home collapsed on her in early 2006
• Made her directorial debut in 2009's The Unloved, which is loosely based on her childhood in foster care