Philippa "Pippa" Bennett-Warner (born 23 July 1988) is a RADA trained British actress.

Biography

Bennett-Warner was brought up in Northamptonshire and was educated at St Edward's School in Oxford, where she boarded from the age of 13 to 18. She started her acting career in 1999, beating over 3,000 other hopefuls to be cast as one of the original young Nala's in Julie Taymor's London production of The Lion King.

In 2006 she secured a place at RADA and also won the role of Emmie Thibodeaux in the musical Caroline, or Change, for which she was nominated for the Whatsonstage.com Stuart Phillips London Newcomer of the Year award for 2007, alongside Andrew Garfield and Chris New. Once finished on the South Bank she starred as the lead role in Athol Fugard's UK premiere of Victory for the Peter Hall Company and then took her place at RADA in September 2007.

Bennett-Warner graduated from RADA in the summer of 2010, but left early to take on the role of Sophie in Lynn Nottage's play Ruined at the Almeida Theatre. Before completing the course she was awarded the prestigious Carleton Hobbs Radio Award. However, due to another job commitment she was unable to join the radio rep.

After finishing Ruined she went on to star in a two-hander with Sinéad Cusack for Sky Arts. Called Crocodile, the play was written by Frank McGuinness. During this time Bennett-Warner was cast in Michael Grandage's award-winning King Lear as Cordelia, with Derek Jacobi in the title role. Before rehearsals started for King Lear in October, she filmed small parts in Come Fly With Me with David Walliams and Matt Lucas and also in Case Histories alongside Jason Isaacs.

After having played Cordelia for almost eight months and receiving an Ian Charleson commendation, she starred in D. C. Moore's new play The Swan — in a role that had been written for her — at the National Theatre, which was followed by a role in Lewis. She then played Queen Isabel in Michael Grandage's swan song Richard II at the Donmar Warehouse with Eddie Redmayne in the title role and Andrew Buchan as Bolingbroke. She received positive reviews from the critics, with Kate Bassett from The Independent saying: "Both of them (Redmayne and Buchan) are, in fact, outshone by Pippa Bennett-Warner in the cameo role of Isabel, Richard’s devoted, fiery queen."

In 2012 she played the lead role in Vivienne Franzmann's second play The Witness,at the Royal Court Theatre. She received rave reviews and went on to secure a nomination for Best Actress at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2012, alongside Cate Blanchett and Dame Eileen Atkins.

Bennett-Warner was named as one of the 1000 Most Influential Londoners in 2012 in the category "Generation Next" by The Evening Standard.

In 2013 she filmed the role of Ziggy Brown in Sky 1's The Smoke and Rosie Curloo in Death in Paradise.

In 2014 she filmed the roles of Saibra in Doctor Who and Lorna in The Secrets and Zana Washington in Law and Order: UK.