Name	Jane Horrocks
Height	5' 2"
Naionality	British
Date of Birth	18 January 1964
Place of Birth	Rossendale Valley, Lancashire, England, UK
Famous for

A new graduate of RADA, Jane Horrocks worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company for a year and in 1986, Jim Cartwright cast her for a part in the play “Road” at the Royal Court Theater. The director was so affected with Horrocks' singing performance of Judy Garland, Edith Piaf, Dame Shirley Bassey and Ethel Merman, among others, that he promised to write a play around her talents. “Road” was filmed for broadcast on British television in the following year. In 1988, Horrocks made the leap to the big screen when she landed a supporting role in the independent film The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and went up to a big part in the based-on-novel The Dressmaker (also 1988). She appeared with Anthony Hopkins in the BBC film Heartland (1989).

Horrocks went on to have supporting roles in such high-profile movies as The Witches (1990, starred Anjelica Huston) and Memphis Belle (1990), opposite Matthew Modine and Eric Stoltz, before hitting it big as anorexic teen Nicola in writer-director Mike Leigh's comedy Life Is Sweet (1991). For her outstanding performance, she was handed a Los Angeles Film Critics Association and a National Society of Film Critics for Best Supporting Actress. The capable actress furthered her fame on the stage when she rejoined Cartwright for “The Rise and Fall of Little Voice” (1991). There she starred as Little Voice, a child-like, distressingly bashful girl who finds salvation in impersonating such divas as Judy Garland and Shirley Bassey. Though she had collected some degree of prominence, Horrocks was not permitted by Actors Equity in the USA to reprise the role on Broadway. Undaunted, she continued to demonstrate her versatility on stage and earned critical praise as Sally Bowles in the Sam Mendes-helmed environmental staging of “Cabaret” in London in 1994. She also had title role in the stage production of “Macbeth” (1996).

The victory she earned from Life Is Sweet opened doors for Horrocks to enter the Hollywood scene, but she refused to do so. Instead, she actively performed in British films like the black comedy Deadly Advice (1993), where she took home a Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival for Best Actress, and Second Best (1994), opposite William Hurt and Alan Cumming. She also made a cameo appearance in Cumming's short movie, Butter (1994). On the small screen, she worked in a number of television projects, including memorably playing the recurring role of Bubble in the popular series “Absolutely Fabulous” (1992-1995), starring in her own British TV special Never Mind the Horrocks (1996) and providing the vocals of the characters on the cartoon British children's series “The Blobs” (1997).

In 1998, Horrocks once again enjoyed massive victory when she recreated her breakthrough stage role as the pathetically shy LV in the movie Little Voice, directed and scripted by Mark Herman. Although the script of the film was negatively received by some critics, they hailed the cast, especially crediting Horrocks' lead performance. As a result, she picked up numerous nominations such as a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical, a BAFTA nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, a British Independent Film and a Chicago Film Critics Association nomination for Best Actress, and a SAG nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.

Entering the new millennium, Horrocks could be seen acting with Craig Ferguson and Ian Hart in the ensemble comedy-drama Born Romantic (2000) and her voice could be heard as Wimzik in Lion of Oz (2000) and as a dim-witted hen in the box office Claymation film Chicken Run (2000). Next, she did voice-overs for the television series “Little Big Mouth” (2001), the films Christmas Carol: The Movie (2001), Last Rumba in Rochdale (2003) and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005, opposite Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter), and the TV films Ivor the Invisible (2001), Legend of the Lost Tribe (2002) and Happy Birthday, Peter Pan (2005). Besides, she reprised her role as Bubble in the new “Absolutely Fabulous” (2001-2005) and appeared as Roberta Howe in the musical film Brothers of the Head (2005).

In 2006, Horrocks starred in the short-lived comedy series “The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard.” The same year, she also provided the voices of Little Princess in the favorite animated series of the same name as well as Meenie in the movie sequel Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties (2006). She will star alongside John Hurt, Gillian Anderson and Brenda Blethyn in the upcoming comedy film No One Gets Off in This Town (2008), directed by Richard Kwietniowski and written by Colin Bytheway.