Zoë Wanamaker CBE (born 13 May 1949) is an American-British actress who has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Wanamaker was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2001 by Queen Elizabeth II. She has received numerous accolades including a Laurence Olivier Award and nominations for three BAFTA Awards, and four Tony Awards.

A nine-time Olivier Award nominee, she won for Once in a Lifetime (1979) and Electra (1998). She has also received four Tony Award nominations for her work on Broadway; for Piaf (1981), Loot (1986), Electra (1999), and Awake and Sing! (2006).

She has acted in the films Wilde (1997), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), and My Week with Marilyn (2011). She was twice nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress, for Prime Suspect (1991) and Love Hurts (1992–1994). She portrayed Susan Harper in the sitcom My Family (2000–2011), and appeared in the ITV dramas Agatha Christie's Poirot (2005–2013), Mr Selfridge (2015), and Girlfriends (2018).

Zoë Wanamaker was born in New York City on 13 May 1949,^[4][5] the daughter of Canadian actress and radio performer Charlotte Holland and American actor, film director, and radio producer Sam Wanamaker (born Samuel Wattenmacker). Her father was of Ukrainian-Jewish descent, although she had a secular and non-observant upbringing. The BBC series Who Do You Think You Are?, broadcast on 24 February 2009, revealed that her paternal grandfather Maurice Wanamaker (originally Manus Watmacher) was a tailor from Mykolaiv.^[6]

Whilst working in the United Kingdom in 1952, Wanamaker's father found out he had been blacklisted in Hollywood. Her parents therefore decided to remain in the UK.^[4] She was educated at the independent King Alfred School in Hampstead and at Sidcot School, a Quaker boarding school in Winscombe, Somerset. Zoe attended Hornsey College of Art for the Pre-Diploma Course^[7] before she trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.^[4][8]

Wanamaker was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2001 New Year Honours for services to drama. She also received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from the University of East Anglia on 19 July 2012.^[21]

Wanamaker has been a Patron of the UK charity Tree Aid,^[22] since 1997. Tree Aid enables communities in Africa's drylands to fight poverty and become self-reliant, while improving the environment. In 2006 Wanamaker recorded a successful Radio 4 appeal for the charity.^[23]

She is a patron of Dignity in Dying, the Lymphoedema Support Network,^[24] Youth Music Theatre UK^[25] and of the Young Actors' Theatre, Islington. She is also one of the Honorary Patrons of the London children's charity Scene & Heard.^[26] Wanamaker also supports Survival International's campaign to save the threatened native tribes in Brazil.^[27]

In August 2014, Wanamaker was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.^[28]

Wanamaker is one of nine presidents of The Young People's Trust for the Environment.^[29]

Wanamaker lived for many years with fellow Royal Shakespeare Company actor David Lyon.^[30] In November 1994, she married actor/dramatist Gawn Grainger.^[4] Wanamaker holds both British and American citizenship, having become a British citizen in 2000.^[31]

• For her stage work, Wanamaker has been nominated four times for the United States' most prestigious theatre award the Tony and nine times for the most prestigious British theatre award the Olivier, winning two.
• For her screen work, Wanamaker has received three BAFTA nominations.^[38]

Year given is year of ceremony.

• In 2006, Wanamaker and the rest of the cast of Awake and Sing! won a special Drama Desk award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.

• Independent Jewish Voices