British actress Jodie Whittaker grew up in a working-class industrial town in Northern England, discovered a passion for theater in mid-adolescence, and left secondary school at 16 with the intention of becoming an actress. Following a transitional period that witnessed her journeying across the U.K. and taking a series of odd jobs, she applied and was accepted to the elite Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. A spate of minor professional assignments followed, including a few television roles and work on-stage at the legendary Globe Theatre, but she scored her first international success -- the one that catapulted her from unknown ingénue to marquee name -- with Venus, a sweet-natured, slice-of-life comedy drama about a young waif who waltzes into the world of a grizzled old man in his final days (eight-time Oscar nominee Peter O'Toole) and changes them both. Whittaker followed up that assignment with stage work in a Neil LaBute play, then appeared in the comedy remake St. Trinian's (2007) and starred opposite Viggo Mortensen in the disturbing period piece Good (2008), about a well-meaning literature professor in the 1930s (Mortensen) who finds himself suddenly swept up into the ranks of the Nazi party thanks to his willingness to make moral compromises.