Stevenson was born in Kelvedon, Essex, England, the daughter of Virginia Ruth (née Marshall), a teacher, and Michael Guy Stevenson, an army officer. Stevenson's father was assigned a new posting every two and a half years.1 When Stevenson was nine, she attended Berkshire's Hurst Lodge School in Ascot,2 and she was later educated at the independent St Catherine's School in Bramley, near Guildford, Surrey, and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).3 Stevenson was part of the 'new wave' of actors to emerge from the Academy. Others included Jonathan Pryce, Bruce Payne, Alan Rickman, Anton Lesser, Kenneth Branagh, Imelda Staunton and Fiona Shaw. She started her stage career in 1978 with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Although she has gained fame through her television and film work and has often undertaken roles for BBC Radio, she is known as a stage actress. Significant stage roles include her performances as Isabella in Measure for Measure, Madame de Tourvel in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Anna in the UK premiere of Burn This in 1990 and Paulina in Death and the Maiden at the Royal Court theatre and the West End (1991–92). For the last she was awarded the 1992 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress.4
In the 1987 TV film Life Story, Stevenson played the part of scientist Rosalind Franklin, for which she won a Cable Ace award.5 She played the leading role in the Anthony Minghella film Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991) and her roles in The Secret Rapture (1993), Emma (1996), Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Mona Lisa Smile (2003). She has more recently starred in Pierrepoint (2006), Infamous (2006) as Diana Vreeland and Breaking and Entering (2006) as Rosemary, the therapist. In 2003, she played the mother of an autistic child in the television film Hear the Silence, a film promoting the now debunked claims of Andrew Wakefield that the MMR vaccine was responsible for autism in children.6 The film makers and Stevenson were criticised as Wakefield's professionalism was already seriously in doubt.78
In 2009, she starred in ITV's A Place of Execution. The role won her the Best Actress Dagger at the 2009 Crime Thriller Awards.9 She performs as a book reader, and has recorded all of Jane Austen's novels as unabridged audiobooks, as well as a number of other novels, such as Lady Windermere's Fan, Hedda Gabler, Stories from Shakespeare, and To the Lighthouse. She received lifetime achievement prize at Women in Film And TV awards.10
In 2024, she played Mary, the mother of a returning missing child in the British psychological thriller film Reawakening, alongside Erin Doherty and Jared Harris.11
Stevenson married her long-time partner, British anthropologist Hugh Brody, in 2021. They have a daughter and a son and live in Suffolk, but she also has an apartment in New York.1213
She is an atheist but considers herself a spiritual and superstitious person.1415
In 1992 she appeared in a political broadcast for the Labour Party.1617
In 2008 she campaigned on behalf of refugee women18 with a reading of "Motherland" at the Young Vic. She is patron of the UK registered charity LAM Action, which provides support, information and encouragement to patients with Lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM) and their families, and raises funds to advance research into LAM.19 Stevenson is an Amnesty Ambassador.20 She is patron of two charities: Young Roots, a charity for young refugees; and Antenatal Results and Choices,21 which supports parents who have had a diagnosis of fetal anomaly.
On 12 September 2016, Stevenson, as well as Cate Blanchett, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Peter Capaldi, Douglas Booth, Neil Gaiman, Keira Knightley, Jesse Eisenberg, Kit Harington and Stanley Tucci, featured in a video from the United Nations' refugee agency UNHCR to help raise awareness of the global refugee crisis. The video, titled "What They Took With Them", has the actors reading a poem written by Jenifer Toksvig and inspired by primary accounts of refugees, and is part of UNHCR's #WithRefugees campaign, which also includes a petition to governments to expand asylum to provide further shelter, integrating job opportunities and education.2223
Stevenson's friends and frequent collaborators include director Robert Icke,242526 comedian and feminist broadcaster Deborah Frances-White,2728 poet Aviva Dautch293031 and concert pianist Lucy Parham.3233
Stevenson is also a painter and has talked about how her art has helped her through difficult moments such as the COVID-19 lockdown and the death of her stepson.34
Stevenson regularly attends protests in support of the people of Palestine. On 30th November 2024 she spoke at the National March for Palestine in London, highlighting the difference in the way the plight of the Palestinian people is portrayed in comparison to other people, and saying: As artists we cannot remain silent in the face of such gross violations. Violations of human rights and of international law. Violations of the truth and of every human instinct.
A partial list of Stevenson's audio recordings:
In the 1999 Queens Birthday Honours, Stevenson was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).
She is a patron of the London International Festival of Theatre.42
https://www.indcatholicnews.com/news/51237
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According to Who's Who on Television (1982 edition) ↩
[1] Archived 11 June 2009 at archive.today http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/olivier_awards/view/item98526/Olivier-Winners-1992/ ↩
Awards for Juliet Stevenson at IMDb https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0828980/awards ↩
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"Reawakening". westendfilms.com. 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2024. https://westendfilms.com/programme/reawakening ↩
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Dugan, Emily (22 May 2011). "Juliet Stevenson: 'I'd much rather live a useful life than be rich'". Independent. London. Retrieved 10 March 2022. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/juliet-stevenson-id-much-rather-live-a-useful-life-than-be-rich-2287448.html ↩
Dodd, Celia (14 March 2008). "Actress Juliet Stevenson reveals that her toughest role is being an older mother". The Times. Archived from the original on 21 November 2008. Retrieved 7 May 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20081121022854/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article3553335.ece ↩
Sign Up (25 July 2008). "National Secular Society – Coming out as atheist – Billy Connolly, Juliet Stevenson and Peter O'Toole". Secularism.org.uk. Archived from the original on 13 February 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2012. http://www.secularism.org.uk/comingoutasatheistbillyconnollyj.html ↩
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"What They Took With Them – #WithRefugees". 7 September 2016. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 14 September 2016. http://www.unhcr.org/refugeeday/what-they-took-with-them/ ↩
"The Doctor review – Robert Icke offers brilliant diagnosis of modern ills". The Guardian. 21 August 2019. Archived from the original on 19 May 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2019/aug/21/the-doctor-review-robert-icke-juliet-stevenson-almeida ↩
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"The Guilty Feminist: 105. Mothers and Daughters with Juliet Stevenson and Rosalind Brody". guiltyfeminist.libsyn.com. Archived from the original on 19 May 2021. Retrieved 19 May 2021. https://guiltyfeminist.libsyn.com/105-mothers-and-daughters-with-juliet-stevenson-and-rosalind-brody ↩
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