Olivia Colman

I'm already getting tired of her. She's oversaturated the market.

She's such a snooze. On screen and in real life.

I like when actors who've worked for years in obscurity get an opportunity to make bank.

She worked her way up and paid d her dues via unglamorous work.

No one has yet answered my question.

Brits, can you give any insights?

I believe Broadchurch was what made her a STAR! Though I much preferred David Tennant.

She was in Peep Show which I think was her first big role. If you have not seen it, it is worth a watch.

I first saw her on Peep Show, which is a BRILLIANT single camera comedy that started in 2003 on Channel 4. I discovered it on Hulu like 5 or 6 years ago. She plays the love interest, Sophie.

Very gifted actress, impressive range, nonthreatening looks, warm personality. I've enjoyed her in everything she's been in since she's gotten big.

I liked "Peep Show" too. She's hardly aged since then. Unlike me...

She's also great in Beautiful People.

She's been very well known to British Audiences for over 20 years. A big tv star there, and has won at least a couple of their version of the Emmys.

Colman is a similar type of actress to Judi Dench, Julie Walters, Miranda Richardson, Kathy Burke and Sheridan Smith.

They mix up parts that go from the ridiculous to the heartbreaking.

Beautiful People is amazing - WHET the guy who played Olivia’s son?

One of best examples of Colman's acting skills is a little-known film called "Tyrannosaur" (2011), with two excellent actors, Scot (and almost incomprehensible) Peter Mullan and Eddie Marsan, who does a lot of Brit TV work.

I hated The Lost Daughter, I don't understand how it is up for so many awards.

She'll always be Bev to me.

She really deserved the Emmy for her phenomenal work as the Queen in "The Crown." She's hilarious in the episode where she and Margaret Thatcher have the big fight over South Africa (I believe that's the one she submitted for consideration), and Thatcher gets the upper hand and starts to lecture the Queen--but she's also really great in the final episode when she tells off Charles at Sandringham for whinging so much about Diana.

It's striking that she's played so many great British queens: Anne, Elizabeth II, and Elizabeth the Queen Mother (in "Hyde Park Corner"). She doesn't come across as aristocratic at all when she's being herself on talk shows, but she still keeps getting those royal parts. I suspect part of it has to do with the fact she seems like such a British Everywoman.

I hate this ugly bitch. I’d never get tired of kicking her nasty face off the moon.

I first heard of her after Tyrannosaur. .

Another vote for Peep Show - - she (and the rest of the cast) are hysterical.

OP, she has been in numerous British comedy series since the early 2000s, of which Peep Show is probably best known, as well as dramas like Broadchurch and The Night Manager, so she's been pretty well known in the UK for a while.

She was also pretty hilarious in Fleabag, too.

"Lovely Soph!"

R18 The English monarchy is seen more as a more middle class than aristocratic monarchy, especially from Victoria onwards.

I'm not British but I've always watched a large amount of British television especially since youtube and streaming took off, and while she was on a lot of things, I don't think I'm wrong in believing Broadchurch was when she exploded as a STAR who could do drama as well as comedy.

I thought it was so interesting that Peter Morgan had her at the absolutely top of his list for actresses who could play Elizabeth II in middle age. As great as she was, it's amazing to me to think you could see her in "Broadchurch" and think, "Yes, that's my Queen!"

I would have had Emma Thompson at the top of my list, but maybe she was too old.

She was in the first two years of That Mitchell and Webb Look, a sketch comedy show. Mitchell & Webb had a radio show called That Mitchell and Webb Sound and she was in that as well. The TV shows are available on YouTube and the radio show is available as a podcast feed.

If you like British humor it's definitely worth checking out.

She was also in Smack The Pony and Big Train, which were comedy sketch shows from the late 90s/early 2000s onwards and Green Wing. She's been on TV for over twenty years. She's a good actress. Her success is highly deserved.

British performers do tend to sneak up at times on American audiences. The training is a lot different in the UK and (as said up-thread) actors will often take roles for the challenge and for a chance to expand their repertoire rather than to make a quick buck and achieve world-wide fame. Colman really did excel in many different genres -- her IMDB page is loaded with a mishmash of titles and each year from 2004 sees her appearing in many different projects.

There is also the confluence of events of her appearing in Broadchurch and cast in The Crown that put her name in a lot of people's consciousness. The "upset" of winning over Glenn Close shot her to the stratosphere. Interesting thing is that many industry insiders were saying that OC was the clear choice and tipped her to win. Only hack journalists were calling it an obvious win for GC. Even G's face when OC's name was called showed that she knew what was coming.