Julia Charlotte L. Davis (born 25 August 1966) is an English actress, comedian, director and writer. She is known for writing and starring in the BBC Three comedy Nighty Night (2004–2005) and the comedies Hunderby (2012–2015) and Camping (2016), which she also directed. Davis has been noted by critics for creating boundary-pushing black comedy that centres female anti-hero characters.
A nine-time BAFTA TV Award nominee, she won Best Comedy Writing for Hunderby in 2013 and the 2018 British Academy Television Award for Best Scripted Comedy for Sally4Ever. She has also received two RTS Awards and three British Comedy Awards. In addition to acting in her own works, she has appeared in a variety of other British television comedies, most notably portraying Dawn Sutcliffe in Gavin & Stacey (2007–2009, 2019). Her film roles include Love Actually (2003), Cemetery Junction (2010), Four Lions (2010) and the critically acclaimed Phantom Thread (2017).
Early life
Davis was born on 25 August 1966 in Lambeth, London, to a secretary mother and a civil servant father, and grew up in Guildford, Surrey, before moving at the age of 14 to Bath in Somerset. She was raised in the Church of England. After studying for a degree in English and Drama at the College of Ripon and York St John, she returned to Bath working "dead-end jobs", starting a comedy double-act The Sisters of Percy with her friend Jane Roth at a local theatre group. It grew into an improv troupe with Welsh radio DJ Rob Brydon and Ruth Jones.
Career
1998–2006: Career beginnings, Human Remains and Nighty Night
Davis secured her first comedy commission, Five Squeezy Pieces, from BBC Radio 4 in 1998. The series was an all-female sketch comedy show, with Meera Syal, Arabella Weir, Maria McErlane and Claire Calman.
During their radio sketch series, Five Squeezy Pieces, Arabella Weir introduced Davis to Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan who cast her as a regular cast member in the television sketch show Big Train (1998). Her career gained a further boost in 1998 after she sent a tape of various characters to Steve Coogan, who invited her to write for and participate in his shows during his 1998 national tour. Chris Morris, director of the Big Train pilot, cast her for his 1997–1999 radio series Blue Jam, its successor March–April 2000 TV show Jam, and Brass Eye. Davis went on to appear in many comedy television shows including I'm Alan Partridge, I Am Not an Animal, Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible, Ideal and Nathan Barley.
In November 2000, Human Remains, a dark comedy television series, co-written by and co-starring Rob Brydon and Davis, debuted on BBC Two. In the six-part series, Brydon and Davis played six different couples talking to camera about their unusual relationships. The last episode of The Office features Davis, who is heard on the phone as the voice of a woman from a dating agency in conversation with David Brent. Davis also appeared in 2003 film Love Actually.
In 2004 and 2005, Davis wrote and starred in two series of the BBC Three dark comedy Nighty Night. The show is centred on her character of peroxide "blonde" sociopathic beauty therapist Jill Tyrell.
2007–2010: Gavin & Stacey and Lizzie & Sarah
From 2007 to 2009, she played Dawn Sutcliffe in Gavin & Stacey, a role which she reprised in 2019 for a Christmas special. In 2008, she appeared on Little Britain Abroad as a sexy Russian mail-order bride called Ivanka.
In 2009 Davis appeared, in the guise of Steve Coogan's personal assistant Debbie Bidwoden, in the TV film Steve Coogan – The Inside Story.
In 2010, she co-wrote and co-starred in Lizzie and Sarah with Jessica Hynes. The pilot aired on 20 March 2010 on BBC Two. It was made by Baby Cow Productions, and was considered even darker than Davis's previous work; when the BBC did not commission a series, despite a Facebook campaign.
2011–2014: Black Mirror, Psychobitches and Hunderby
Davis has also starred in productions such as the BBC's For the Love of God, The Alan Clark Diaries, Fear of Fanny, in which she played the original celebrity chef Fanny Cradock, and Persuasion, an adaptation of the Jane Austen novel. In December 2011, Davis appeared in "Fifteen Million Merits", an episode of the anthology series Black Mirror, as Judge Charity on the fictional talent show Hot Shot.