Scotland isn’t short of acting talent, with Scottish-born and Scottish-trained thespians making their way on both sides of the Atlantic, or in home-grown productions in film and TV. As the autumn settles in and the streaming companies and terrestrial broadcasters put the finishing touches to the all-important autumn television schedules, here’s our survey of some of the most exciting Scottish actresses currently on our screens – or soon to be enlivening them.
Hiftu Quasem
Hiftu Quasem stars in Netflix's political thriller Hostage (Image: PR) Currently to be seen starring alongside Suranne Jones and French movie legend Julie Delpy in Netflix’s smash hit political thriller Hostage, Aberdeen-born Quasem followed her studies at the University of Glasgow with a three-year stint working behind-the-scenes on BBC Radio 4’s flagship news programme, Today. Eventually the lure of acting proved too hard to resist, however.
After appearances in a range of short films and smaller parts in dramas such as Killing Eve she landed a lead role in Ten Percent, Amazon’s remake of French hit Call My Agent. Further parts followed in BBC Scotland’s Aberdeen-set crime drama Granite Harbour and Emmy Award winning fantasy series The Witcher. This year has been a bumper one for Quasem: as well as her role as unflappable Downing Street aide Asyesha in Hostage she has notched up appearances in the second series of Amazon’s The Rig, and Lockerbie: The Search For Truth.
Freya Mavor
Freya Mavor has landed a plum role in season two of Marie Antoinette, the BBC and Canal+ co-production (Image: PR) The Edinburgh-raised actress is best known for her starring role in Sunshine On Leith, Dexter Fletcher’s big screen adaptation of Stephen Greenhorn’s hit musical featuring the songs of The Proclaimers. But alongside her film work she has found roles in TV shows such as Industry, the award-winning drama about a group of wannabe investment bankers in the dog-eat-dog world of the City of London.
This year she landed a plum role in season two of Marie Antoinette, the BBC and Canal+ co-production telling the story of the doomed French queen (while tipping its hat ever so slightly to Sofia Coppola’s now cult 2006 film version). Mavor plays celebrated courtier Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy, described variously as “a notorious adventuress and thief” and as a “conniving minor noblewoman.” Keeping the period feel (and the frocks) though not the dubious morals, she can next be seen in Netflix’s big budget adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride And Prejudice, which is currently filming. Mavor plays Jane Bennet alongside Emma Corrin as sister Elizabeth, while fellow Scot Jack Lowden plays the dashing Mr Fitzilliam Darcy. No surprises there, then.
Anna Russell-Martin
Anna Russell Martin says: 'While English people in a room are being polite, I’m bolder and more ballsy' (Image: PR) A graduate of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the Coatbridge-born actress has already made her mark on the stage and the big screen, featuring in productions by the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre of Scotland as well as landing a role in German film-maker Aylin Tezel’s award-winning 2023 film Falling Into Place. On the small screen she followed parts in Casualty and Anneka with a role in Karen Pirie, ITV’s well-received adaptation of Val McDermid’s series of Fife-set crime novels.
“Loads of the strong women that I know are Scottish and have this quiet confidence and a little gallus nous about them that I like to think I have as well,” Russell-Martin told Screen International last year when she was named on the prestigious Rising Stars Scotland list. “It’s not a rudeness. But while English people in a room are being polite, I’m bolder and more ballsy. That’s who I am.”
Julia Brown
Julia Brown as Cat Grant in Karen Pirie (Image: PR) The Edinburgh-born actress is no stranger to TV having cut her teeth in CBBC productions such as MI High and Eve before landing a role as Neve McIntosh’s teenage daughter Molly in BBC Scotland crime drama Shetland. That was followed by a lead role in Peter Bowker’s sprawling Second World War epic World On Fire, in which she played factory worker and singer Lois Bennet. Crossing the Pond she was cast in Paramount’s New York-set 19th century crime series The Alienist then swapped the 1890s for the far future with a part in Foundation, Apple TV’s adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s cult sci-fi trilogy. This year she took on another lead role in season two of Karen Pirie, playing oil heiress Catriona Grant, and she can currently be seen playing Amy McCallum in hit Channel 4 thriller In Flight.
Mirren Mack
Mirren Mack in Miss Austen (Image: PR) When actor Billy Mack was interviewed by the Evening Times in 2013, he mentioned the help daughters Mirren and Molly provided when it came time to learn his lines. “They’re both saying they’d like to go into acting,” he added. “Here’s me thinking they’d be lawyers or whatever and keep me comfy in my old age.”
He wasn’t wrong about the choice of career: both girls became actresses. Now 27, Stirling-born Mirren has half a decade of TV appearances behind her, including roles in the award-winning Netflix hit Sex Education (also the leaping off point for Ncuti Gatwa), as well as in BBC One drama The Nest, where she starred alongside a roster of top acting talent led by Martin Compston. That was followed by a part in The Witcher: Blood Origin, prequel to the popular fantasy series, and last year she landed a lead role in season six of Strike, the TV adaptation of JK Rowling’s Soho-set crime novels.
She also played the Duchess of Buckingham in Sky’s boisterously bawdy 2024 historical drama Mary & George and rolled into 2025 with a part in Miss Austen, Andrea Gibb’s look at the life of Jane Austen through the eyes of her elder sister, Cassandra.
