2016 Booker Prize Judge
Olivia Williams is a British film, television and theatre actor.
After studying drama at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School for two years followed by three years at the Royal Shakespeare Company, her first significant screen role was as Jane Fairfax in the British television film Emma (1996), based on Jane Austen’s novel. She made her film debut in 1997’s The Postman, followed by Rushmore (1998) and The Sixth Sense (1999).
Williams then appeared in several British films, including Lucky Break (2001), The Heart of Me (2002) and An Education (2009). In 2010, she won acclaim for her performance as Ruth Lang in Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer. From 2017 to 2019, she played Emily Silk on the science fiction television series Counterpart.