Biography
North West London born Karen Bryson is one of the UK’s leading British actresses. Her ubiquitous career continues across various multi media platforms. Karen recently made the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2017. She was awarded an MBE for her services to Drama.
Karen has been gracing our screens for over two decades but in recent years in shows like MotherFatherSon starring Richard Gere for the BBC, Vera final episode of series 10 starring Brenda Blethyn. She can be seen in Harlan Coben’s thriller Safe on Netflix available globally. You will also be able to watch Karen in Nordic Drama White Wall playing Gina Martin (series regular). Also in 3 part drama playing Sister Phillipa in a re-make of Black Narcissus for the BBC and FX channel and more recently the third and final season of The Split for the BBC playing Leonora Hale (series regular) written, produced and directed my Emmy winning Abi Morgan and Elinore Stone in the highly anticipated Zack Snyder’s Justice League for Warner Bros/ HBO Max.
She also starred in Aki Amoshaybi’s debut Independent feature film Real, which saw its premiere at the prestigious London Film Festival 2019 available to watch on Film4 and NOW TV in UK.
Karen made a name for herself for playing lovable rogue Avril Powell in Channel 4’s critically acclaimed drama series Shameless.
The role saw Karen nominated for several awards including ‘Best comedy Performance’ and ‘Best Actress’ at the 2013 MVISA awards. She won ‘Best Actress in TV’ at the Screen Nation Awards 2013. Karen added Best Actress at the BBE Awards 2017 to that list.
A well respected Theatre, Film and TV actress, whose career has spanned over twenty five years. It all began when she auditioned and got into the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Her three years there compounded her need to be an actor. It was there, Karen fell in love with amazing literature and the need to tell stories. Karen received the Michael Warr award for overall outstanding student. However, the real journey to hone her craft, began – on graduating.
After many years performing in theatres all over the country, including RST, The Other Place, The Barbican with the RSC, The Globe, Stratford East to name but a few.
Her big break in TV came when she was cast in ground breaking Bafta winning series Buried for Channel 4. She stars in her first short film directed by Alan Gilsenan ZULU 9 winner of the best short film at The Cork film festival. Her work on screen picks up momentum and she lands her first series regular in Jed Mercurio’s Bodies for BBC a RTS winner and BAFTA nominated drama. With that, her theatre work also continued to thrive with her winning leading roles in On my Birthday and The Dead Wait at The Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre.
Karen adds voice work to her list by narrating a few audio books including award winning writer Zadie Smith’s book NW. Moving into documentaries and factual with the programs Crime and Punishment for Channel 4, One Thousand Years a Slave for Channel 5, Chateau DIY: Living the Dream and recently Destination Wild for National Geographic Channel and Disney Plus TX later this year. Karens hard work pays off and she wins an award at the One Voice Awards. Karen’s voice work extends to the gaming arena in World of Warcraft amongst others and Motion Capture on multi award winning game Baldur’s Gate 3 playing Counsellor Florrick.
Alongside her work in front of the camera Karen produced and starred in a short film called Family Reunion directed by David Kitchen overall winner of the Triforce Short Film Festival “best of the fest” award 2015. She also produced and starred in a drama pilot entitled The Block with DT Films directed by BAFTA winning David Blair which won Best Pilot at the Ramsgate Film festival 2019.
Another string to Karen’s bow saw her write and direct her debut short film Monochromatic starring Kenedy McCallum Martin and Stephanie Levi-John produced by Mono Films and Exec Produced by David Harewood, Rajita Shah and Flying Colours Productions. Multi award winning Monochromatic is still screening at Oscar, Bafta and BIFA qualifying film festivals globally.
Karen is also a proud Ambassador for the charity Solace Women’s Aid.
Karen say’s “I feel humbled and incredibly grateful that I able to do what I love for a living. It’s not just work but a passion. I want to keep learning and growing as an actress, a writer and a director. I have always been a creative soul, as that is what drives me. As long as I can follow my creative heart AND still pay the bills…I am blessed!”