Sophie Anna Ward (born 30 December 1964)[1] is an English stage and screen actress, and a writer of non-fiction and fiction. As an actress, she played Jocelyn Sheffield in The Nanny, she also played Elizabeth Hardy, the female lead in Barry Levinson's Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), and in other feature film roles including in Cary Joji Fukunaga's period drama Jane Eyre (2011), and Jane Sanger's horror feature, Swiperight (2020). In 1982 she had a role in the Academy Award-winning best short film, A Shocking Accident. On television she played Dr Helen Trent in British police drama series Heartbeat from 2004 to 2006, the character Sophia Byrne in the series Holby City from 2008 to 2010, the role of Lady Ellen Hoxley in the series Land Girls from 2009 to 2011, and that of Lady Verinder in the mini-series The Moonstone (2016). She has had a variety of other roles on stage and in short and feature films.
Ward returned to higher education, earning a PhD from Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2019, in English and Comparative Literature, focusing on the intersection between literature and philosophy, including the use of narrative and thought experiments in philosophy, the philosophy of mind in particular. She has written for The Guardian, The Times, and The Spectator, won the 2018 Royal Academy Pin Drop Award for her short story "Sunbed", and had her first novel, Love and Other Thought Experiments (2020), longlisted for both the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Booker Prize in its publication year. She and her wife, Korean-American poet and writer, Rena Brannan, divide their time between England and the United States.[2]
She returned to higher education, earning a PhD in English and Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London in 2019, where, according to Ward, her research focused on "thought experiments in philosophy of mind and the use of narrative in philosophy, looking at issues of consciousness and AI, and the meeting between literature and philosophy."[7][8]
Ward started work as an actress when she was aged 10,[9] and has worked in film, television and theatre.[10][11] She trained as a dancer under ballerina Merle Park. In 1983, at the age of 19, she had a brief, non-speaking role at the very end of the Tony Scott vampire movie The Hunger; in the credits, her character is listed as "Girl In London House".[10] Another of Ward's early film roles was in the film Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), directed by Barry Levinson.[10] Other early films included Full Circle (1977), Return to Oz (1985) playing beautiful princess Mombi II, Little Dorrit (1987) and A Summer Story (1988), and she also portrayed a dancer in Roxy Music's 1982 music video "Avalon".[12][13]
Her television work includes the mini-series A Dark-Adapted Eye with Helena Bonham Carter and the fantasy Dinotopia.[17] From 2004 until 2006, Ward had the recurring role of Dr Helen Trent in long-running ITV drama Heartbeat.[18] In 2008, Ward joined the cast of Holby City in a recurring role as Sophia Byrne.[19][20] She appeared in the BBC series Land Girls from 2009 to 2011.[21]
Ward had long been considered a "Face of the 1980s" as a Vogue model.[22]
This section needs expansion with: nominations and awards, with source citations, for her screen and stage (acting) work. You can help by adding to it. (December 2021)
Especially since beginning her advanced academic work, Ward has been writing professionally, including for newspapers The Guardian, The Times, and The Spectator, and the online journalism network, The Conversation.[6][third-party source needed] While undertaking her post-graduate study, Ward wrote a short work, "Sunbed", which won the 2018 Royal Academy Pin Drop Award for new writers, in the short story category.[7]
Ward has become known as an LGBT activist,[20] and her 2014 long-form essay, a strong statement regarding equality of marriage rights, was published by Guardian Shorts, The Guardian's e-book publishing house. It later appeared in serialised form in issues of the newspaper.[32] Ward has hosted several of the annual European Diversity Awards, including in 2016, 2019, and 2021.[33][34][35][36]
Ward married veterinary surgeon Paul Hobson in 1988, and the couple have two sons, born in 1989 and 1993.[37] After Ward became involved with Korean-American poet and writer Rena Brannan[2] and came out as a lesbian in 1996, Hobson and Ward divorced.[38] Ward and Brannan had a civil partnership ceremony in 2005, followed by marriage after it was legalised in 2014.[39][40][2]
Ward and Brannan divide their time between England and the United States.[2]
^Ward, Sophie (January 2020). The Narrative of Thought Experiments: Development and Uses of Fictional Narrative in Thought Experiments in Philosophy of Mind (Doctoral thesis). Goldsmiths, University of London. doi:10.25602/GOLD.00030115. Full text embargoed until 31 January 2023.
^ abAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. "The 55th Academy Awards: 1983". Oscars.org. SHORT FILM (live action) - WINNER: A Shocking Accident (Christine Oestreicher, Producer)
^ abRoyal Television Society. "2010 Regional Awards". RTS Centre Awards 2010/11. pp. 4–5. Retrieved 28 February 2022. Midlands: Best Acting Performance (Female) – Sophie Ward, "Land Girls", BBC Drama, Birmingham
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