Katherine "Katie" McGrath (born 24 October 1983) is an Irish actress best known for playing Morgana in the BBC series
Merlin and
Princess Margaret in the 2009 TV docu-drama series
The Queen. She has also appeared in
The Tudors and the horror film
Red Mist (or
Freakdog as it was titled in the US) and is to play one of the main characters in the 2013 NBC adaptation of
Dracula.
Originally, she worked behind-the-scenes as a wardrobe assistant on
The Tudors. She was then tapped to be an extra in one scene, and... The rest may well be history, depending on how her career goes.
Named one of the 50 Hottest Irish Women by
Complex Magazine in March, 2011.
And she really likes
Nathan Fillion, really.
Her Films Include:
- Red Mist (2008) - Harriet
- W.E. (2011) - Lady Thelma Furnes
- A Princess for Christmas (2011) - Jules Daly
Her Television Roles Include:
Tropes associated with this actress's work include:
- Blue Blood: Not in real life, but her rather aristocratically pale good looks seem to make her a natural choice for such roles, to the extent that she has already played two British princesses (The Queen, Merlin) and a Viscountess (W.E.).
- Celebrity Resemblance: To Keira Knightley. It's rather amusing if you check the archives for The Tudors on Television Without Pity, for long before she became recognisable in other roles, all the commentators there described her as "the Keira Knightley lookalike".
- Does Not Like Shoes: Often barefoot in her modelling shoots.
- Dyeing For Your Art: Naturally blonde, but dyed her hair dark for Merlin.
- Fake Nationality: Her speciality. She hasn't actually played an Irish chararacter since The Roaring Twenties.
- Fake American: Jules Daly in A Princess for Christmas.
- Fake Brit: Most of her more widely seen roles so far, including Morgana, Princess Margaret and Lady Thelma Furnes.
- Goth: In her earlier roles, most notably Vixen in The Roaring 20's.
- Identical Stranger: Looks quite a lot like Jennifer Connelly in Creation.
- Mistaken Nationality: She's Irish but because she works on British TV and her accent isn't familiar outside Ireland a lot of people think she's British.
- Name's the Same: This particular Katie McGrath is not married to JJ Abrams.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Most of her roles though A Princess for Christmas sees her use an American accent.
- One of Us: She has cheerfully confessed many times that's she's a huge fantasy and sci-fi geek, even going so far as to say that her favourite thing about the Morgana action figure is that it is exactly the right size to fit in her toy Millennium Falcon, part of a reportedly very large collection.
- And an impressive 'Merlin' shipper - various DVD commentaries and interviews have revealed she ships Arthur/Merlin, Merlin/Morgana, and possibly Morgana/Gwen too.
- Playing Against Type: She is best known for playing morally ambigous/outright evil British aristocrats but A Princess for Christmas sees her playing a lower middle class American heroine.
- Psychotic Smirk: Her defining facial expression as Morgana, at least in later episodes of Merlin.
- Star-Making Role: Morgana in Merlin.
- What The Hell Is That Accent: No one inside Ireland would mistake her accent for anything other than an Irish one (a slightly posh Wicklow/South County Dublin one to be specific), but since that accent is nearly totally unknown outside Ireland it is has left more than a few foreigners a bit puzzled.
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