With an expansive range that stretches from Shakespeare to Chicken Run and reaches wide enough to cover just about everything in between, it's no wonder that actress Imelda Staunton has become one of the most highly respected actresses working in the U.K. If her penchant for playing what many would consider to be mundane, everyday characters found Staunton criminally overlooked in the early years of her career, it was her keen ability to inject those characters with a remarkable sense of empathetic complexity that eventually earned the stage mainstay-turned-small-screen powerhouse into one of Britain's most sought after talents. A London native and graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Staunton wasted no time launching her career following graduation. Opting for a steady-building, more enduring career rather than flash-in-the-pan overnight success, the determined actress would soon become associated with such prestigious venues as The Old Vic and the National Theatre. A trio of productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company gained her numerous critical accolades, and in 1986 Staunton made an impressive television debut in the BBC production of Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective. Increasingly busy throughout the 1990s, Staunton continued to gain momentum on-stage while earning three Oliviers for her performances in the The Corn Is Green, A Chorus of Disapproval, and Stephen Sondheim's Into the Woods. As Staunton's numerous stage roles continued to earned her critical success, frequent television and film roles made her a familiar and endearing face to the general public — offering the near-perfect formula for enduring success. Though many of her U.K. television roles were never seen by stateside audiences, supporting roles in such features as Much Ado About Nothing, Sense and Sensibility, and Shakespeare in Love found Staunton slowly working her way into the conscience of U.S. film buffs as well. Moving into the new millennium, Staunton's roles in such films as Chicken Run (for which she provided the voice of Bunty), Crush, Bright Young Things, and I'll Be There seemed to find the established television actress actively distancing herself from the small screen in favor of feature films. Regardless, Staunton still essayed the occasional small-screen role, and by the time she portrayed none other than the Queen Mother in the 2003 U.K. miniseries Cambridge Spies, any questions as to her ability to reach beyond the down-to-earth characters which built the foundation of her screen career were emphatically silenced. Of course, every actor dreams of the breakthrough role that will make him or her an international star, and for Imelda Staunton that role was of a 1950s era abortionist caught in a downward spiral in director Mike Leigh's 2004 drama Vera Drake. Her undeniably affecting portrayal as a selfless housewife and cleaning woman who makes a name for herself performing abortions on girls with no one else to turn to found the humble actress in the center of a near whirlwind of critical praise, and after earning accolades from both The Venice Film Festival and The New York Film Festival as well as the Los Angeles and Chicago film critic associations, Staunton had undeniably arrived when the role earned her a Best Actress nomination for the 77th Annual Academy Awards.