Manchester's own Keira Knightley....

As loathed as I am to compare her to the star of "Bend It Like Beckham", the "Pirates Of The Carribean" movies and "The Duchess", Holly Grainger's elevation to movies from TV puts her into the spotlight enough for industry insiders to see her as a Manchester actress rising to A-List stardom within the space of eighteen months. Up until "Awaydays", Miss Grainger's career was firmly attached to small and supporting roles in TV.
Her presence at the 2009 British Independent Film Awards ceremony is the clearest indication that "The Scouting Book For Boys", in which she has the lead female role, is going to be the springboard towards more British movies and could possibly move her towards American films. It is far from certain from happening, but if her second motion picture brings her fully to the attention of multiplex audiences, then it will only be a matter of time before Hollywood comes knocking at her door.

Holly in 'Robin Hood' this coming weekend.....

As you can see above, Holliday Grainger will next be seen on TV in this coming Saturday's episode of the 3rd series of BBC's "Robin Hood". She plays Meg, a young woman who becomes embroiled in the diabolical schemes of Prince John (Toby Stephens) and Lady Isabella, the new Sheriff of Nottingham, having deposed her brother Guy.

Close-up: Holliday Grainger

She's battled vampires; now the young actor is fighting off her uncle...
By Luiza Sauma
Sunday, 8 March 2009


I've died four times in the past year," says Holliday Grainger. "I seem to play a lot of troubled kids." The 20-year-old has also played a maiden in the BBC's Merlin and a vampire-fighting student in ITV's Demons, but is reverting to her "troubled kid" image in her stage debut, as the suicidal Lydia in Athol Fugard's play Dimetos. The play, directed by Douglas Hodge, tells the story of Dimetos (played by Jonathan Pryce), who leaves the city with his niece, Lydia, and housekeeper, Sophia (the former Corrie actress and Victoria Wood favourite Anne Reid), for a quiet life by the sea. While Dimetos fights his desire for his niece, a stranger arrives to tempt him home. Then tragedy strikes.

"Anne got me the job," says Grainger. "She told Douglas he'd be stupid not to see me. I've got mixed feelings of terror and excitement about it. It's so different from the TV style of acting. I feel like I'm going through a five-week crash course in the Douglas Hodge school of acting, as opposed to going to Rada."

Grainger is more than just another rising starlet – she is also slowly working her way through an English degree with the Open University. "To be able to analyse plays and novels is so relevant to acting," she says. When Dimetos finishes, she admits that she will "probably want to fly back to my comfort zone in front of a camera", and is looking forward to the release of two movies this year – Awaydays and The Scouting Book for Boys , with fellow "one to watch" Thomas Turgoose. "I'd love to do more independent films," she adds. Looks as if the degree will have to wait.