Jenna Coleman is an English actress born on 27 April 1986 in Blackpool, best known for playing Clara Oswald in Doctor Who and Queen Victoria in ITV’s Victoria. After leading the BBC crime drama The Jetty in 2024 and returning as Johanna Constantine in the final season of Netflix’s The Sandman in 2025, she reunites with Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat in Channel 4’s new comedy drama Number 10, due late in 2026. As of October 2026, she is 40 years old.
At a Glance: Jenna Coleman
- Full name: Jenna-Louise Coleman
- Born: 27 April 1986, Blackpool, Lancashire, England (age 40 as of October 2026)
- Best known for: Clara Oswald in Doctor Who (2012–2015, returned 2017); Queen Victoria in Victoria (2016–2019)
- Breakthrough: Jasmine Thomas in Emmerdale (2005–2009)
- Other major roles: Joanna Lindsay in The Cry (2018); Marie-Andrée Leclerc in The Serpent (2021); Johanna Constantine in The Sandman (2022–2025); Liv Taylor in Wilderness (2023); Detective Ember Manning in The Jetty (2024)
- Latest project: Number 10, a Channel 4 comedy drama written by Steven Moffat, expected late 2026 — Coleman plays Katie Flynn, Deputy Chief of Staff
- Awards: Golden Nymph for Outstanding Actress in a Drama TV Series (2017, for Victoria); Glamour Award for UK TV Actress (2014); Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actress (2019, for The Cry)
Who Is Jenna Coleman?
Jenna-Louise Coleman was born on 27 April 1986 in Blackpool, Lancashire, and grew up in the seaside town. She was named after Jenna Wade, the character played by Priscilla Presley in the American soap Dallas. She attended Arnold School in Blackpool and began acting in local theatre, including a production of Crystal Clear.
After leaving school, Coleman was accepted to study English at the University of York. She turned the place down to pursue acting instead — a decision that paid off within a year, when she won her first television role in 2005. She has spoken in interviews about coming from a working-class background in Blackpool and about the class barriers that still exist in British acting, a subject she returns to often when discussing the industry.
Coleman dropped the “Louise” from her professional name early in her career and is now credited simply as Jenna Coleman.
How Did Jenna Coleman Become Famous?
Coleman’s first major role came in 2005, when she joined the cast of ITV soap Emmerdale as Jasmine Thomas. She played Jasmine for four years, until 2009, in storylines that included a controversial relationship with an older man and a murder plot. The role earned her a National Television Award nomination for Most Popular Newcomer in 2006 and British Soap Award nominations for Best Newcomer (2006) and Best Actress (2009).
After leaving Emmerdale, Coleman built up a string of supporting roles that showed her range. She played Lindsay James in the BBC school drama Waterloo Road in 2009, appeared in the BBC’s Titanic miniseries in 2012, and played Susan Brown in Room at the Top the same year. She had a small film role as Connie in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), played Rosie in Stephen Poliakoff’s Dancing on the Edge (2013) and Lydia Wickham in the BBC’s Death Comes to Pemberley (2013). In 2016 she played Treena Clark, the sister of Emilia Clarke’s character, in the film Me Before You.
What Was Jenna Coleman’s Role in Doctor Who?
Coleman joined Doctor Who in 2012 as Clara Oswald, the companion of the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) and later the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi). She first appeared in the series seven opener “Asylum of the Daleks” as Oswin Oswald, a fast-talking genius who turned out to be a Dalek. She then appeared as a Victorian governess in “The Snowmen” before the modern-day Clara — a 21st-century nanny and later schoolteacher — became the Doctor’s full-time companion from “The Bells of Saint John” in 2013.
Clara was known as the “Impossible Girl”: the same face kept appearing in different eras of history, and the mystery of her multiple lives was only resolved in “The Name of the Doctor” (2013), when Clara entered the Doctor’s timestream and scattered echoes of herself across his past. She stayed with the show through series 8 and 9, and her run is widely described as the longest of any companion since Doctor Who returned in 2005.
Clara died in “Face the Raven” (2015) and was brought back in the series 9 finale “Hell Bent” (2015), in which the Doctor’s memories of her were erased. She left the TARDIS to travel the universe with Ashildr (Maisie Williams) and made a brief final appearance in the 2017 Christmas special “Twice Upon a Time”. The role made her a household name in Britain and won her a TV Times Award for Favourite Newcomer in 2013, a Glamour Award for UK TV Actress in 2014, and nominations for a BAFTA Cymru Best Actress award and a Saturn Award in 2015.
Coleman’s Doctor Who connection runs through her latest work too: Number 10 is written by Steven Moffat, the showrunner who created Clara and ran Doctor Who throughout her time on the show. The Fifteenth Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, took over the TARDIS years after Coleman left, and the show’s companion tradition she helped define is still central to it.
How Did Jenna Coleman Play Queen Victoria?
In 2016, Coleman took the title role in ITV’s Victoria, a historical drama created and principally written by Daisy Goodwin. The series follows the early life of Queen Victoria, from her accession to the throne at 18 in 1837 through her marriage to Prince Albert (Tom Hughes) and the early years of her reign. It ran for three series and 25 episodes between 2016 and 2019, covering the years 1837 to 1851, and co-starred Rufus Sewell as Lord Melbourne.
Coleman’s performance was widely praised for giving the young queen a strong will and a sense of humour, alongside moments of self-doubt. The role won her the Golden Nymph Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama TV Series at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival in 2017, and two National Television Award nominations for Best Drama Performance, in 2017 and 2018.
Victoria ended in 2019 with a cliffhanger, and ITV has said there are no current plans to film a fourth series — though the broadcaster has never formally cancelled it. The show has since found a new audience on streaming, where all three series are available on Netflix.
What Are Jenna Coleman’s Best Roles After Victoria?
The Cry (2018)
Coleman’s first major role after Victoria was Joanna Lindsay in the BBC’s The Cry, a four-part psychological thriller based on Helen FitzGerald’s novel. Joanna is a young mother whose baby disappears while the family is visiting Australia, and the series follows the investigation and the unravelling of her story. The performance won Coleman the Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actress in 2019, the Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Award for TV Actress of the Year in 2018, and an I Talk Telly Award for Best Dramatic Performance. She was also nominated for Best Actress at the International Emmy Awards, the BAFTA Scotland Awards and the AACTA Awards in 2019 — the most decorated single performance of her career.
The Serpent (2021)
In 2021, Coleman played Marie-Andrée Leclerc in The Serpent, the BBC and Netflix drama about the real-life serial killer Charles Sobhraj (Tahar Rahim). Leclerc was Sobhraj’s Canadian partner, drawn into his crimes in 1970s Asia. The eight-part series was a hit for both broadcasters and showed Coleman in a darker, more ambiguous role than her earlier heroines.
The Sandman (2022–2025)
Coleman joined Netflix’s The Sandman in 2022 as Johanna Constantine, playing two versions of the character: the modern-day occult detective Johanna Constantine and her 18th-century ancestor, Lady Johanna Constantine. The role — a gender-swapped take on DC Comics’ John Constantine — became one of the first season’s most talked-about performances.
She returned for the second and final season, which Netflix released in two volumes in July 2025 — Volume 1 on 3 July and Volume 2 on 24 July, followed by a bonus episode on 31 July. Her character, Lady Johanna, appears in episode 206, where Dream needs her help with a family matter. It was while working on The Sandman that Coleman met her partner, director Jamie Childs, who directed the show’s second season.
Wilderness (2023)
In 2023, Coleman starred as Liv Taylor in Wilderness, a six-part psychological thriller for Prime Video, based on B. E. Jones’s novel. Liv is a British woman living in New York who discovers her husband’s affair and begins plotting revenge during a road trip across America. The series ranked third among UK Prime Video originals for binge rate (64.4%) in YouGov’s 2023 streaming report.
The Jetty (2024)
Coleman’s most recent leading television role before Number 10 was The Jetty, a four-part BBC crime drama that premiered on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on 15 July 2024. She played Detective Ember Manning, a recently widowed mother investigating a fire at a holiday home in a scenic Lancashire town — a case that connects to a missing-person cold case and an illicit relationship. Coleman was also an executive producer on the series, her first producing credit on a drama she starred in. The series was created and written by Cat Jones, directed by Marialy Rivas and produced by Firebird Pictures. Its four episodes averaged over 6 million viewers — around 25 million streams in total — making it one of the most-watched British television shows of 2024, according to BBC figures reported at the time.
What Is Jenna Coleman Doing in 2026?
Coleman’s next project is Number 10, a comedy drama for Channel 4 written by Steven Moffat, reuniting her with the writer who created her Doctor Who character. The series is set inside 10 Downing Street and follows a fictional Prime Minister and the staff around him. Rafe Spall plays the Prime Minister, Harry Douglas; Katherine Kelly plays his Chief of Staff, Frances Telford; and Coleman plays Katie Flynn, Telford’s Deputy Chief of Staff.
The series was announced on 10 December 2025, with Channel 4 describing it as a comedy about “one of the most famous addresses in the world”. First-look images were released on 15 May 2026, showing Coleman in character as Flynn. The six-episode series, produced by Hartswood Films and directed by Ben Palmer, is expected to air late in 2026, though Channel 4 had not announced an exact broadcast date as of October 2026.
The project is a notable change of gear for Coleman: a comedy, after a run of thrillers and period dramas, and her first collaboration with Moffat since she left Doctor Who in 2015. Channel 4’s official announcement confirms the full cast, which also includes Laura Haddock, Richard Rankin, Jing Lusi and Joe Wilkinson.
Has Jenna Coleman Won Any Awards?
Coleman has won six awards across her career and been nominated for many more. Her wins are the TV Times Award for Favourite Newcomer (2013, for Doctor Who), the Glamour Award for UK TV Actress (2014, for Doctor Who), the Golden Nymph for Outstanding Actress in a Drama TV Series (2017, for Victoria), the Harper’s Bazaar Women of the Year Award for TV Actress of the Year (2018, for The Cry), the I Talk Telly Award for Best Dramatic Performance (2018, for The Cry) and the Logie Award for Most Outstanding Actress (2019, for The Cry).
Her nominations include a BAFTA Cymru nomination for Best Actress in 2015, for the Doctor Who episode “Kill the Moon”, and a Saturn Award nomination the same year. She was nominated for Best Drama Performance at the National Television Awards in both 2017 and 2018 for Victoria, and for Best Actress at the International Emmy Awards, the BAFTA Scotland Awards and the AACTA Awards in 2019, all for The Cry. She has never won a BAFTA — her BAFTA Cymru and BAFTA Scotland nominations were nominations only, not wins.
What Is Jenna Coleman’s Personal Life Like?
Coleman keeps her private life largely out of the public eye, and what is known comes from her own public statements and reputable reporting. She is in a relationship with Jamie Childs, a director she met while working on The Sandman. In June 2024, she announced that she was expecting her first child, and she gave birth later that year, with the news reported in October 2024. She has not publicly shared her child’s name.
Before Childs, Coleman was in a relationship with actor Richard Madden, which ended in 2015, and with her Victoria co-star Tom Hughes, with their split reported in July 2020. She does not discuss her relationships in detail in interviews and has said little publicly about her family life since becoming a mother.
Away from acting, Coleman is an ambassador for two children’s charities: the One to One Children’s Fund, which works with children affected by HIV in South Africa, and Place2Be, the UK children’s mental health charity. She has also supported Red Nose Day and Comic Relief campaigns.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Jenna Coleman?
Jenna Coleman was born on 27 April 1986 in Blackpool, Lancashire. She is 40 years old as of October 2026.
What is Jenna Coleman best known for?
She is best known for playing Clara Oswald, the companion of the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors, in Doctor Who (2012–2015, with a return in 2017), and for playing Queen Victoria in ITV’s Victoria (2016–2019).
Is Jenna Coleman in The Sandman season 2?
Yes. Coleman returned as Johanna Constantine — specifically Lady Johanna Constantine — in the second and final season of Netflix’s The Sandman, released in July 2025. She first played the character in season 1 in 2022.
What is Jenna Coleman’s new show in 2026?
Her new show is Number 10, a Channel 4 comedy drama written by Steven Moffat. Coleman plays Katie Flynn, Deputy Chief of Staff to the fictional Prime Minister, played by Rafe Spall. The six-episode series is expected to air late in 2026; no exact date had been announced as of October 2026.
Was Jenna Coleman in Emmerdale?
Yes. Coleman played Jasmine Thomas in Emmerdale from 2005 to 2009. It was her first major television role and earned her a National Television Award nomination for Most Popular Newcomer in 2006.
Does Jenna Coleman have a child?
Yes. Coleman announced in June 2024 that she was expecting her first child with her partner, director Jamie Childs, and gave birth later that year. She has not publicly shared her child’s name.
Has Jenna Coleman won a BAFTA?
No. Coleman has been nominated for BAFTA Cymru Best Actress (2015, for Doctor Who) and BAFTA Scotland Best Actress (2019, for The Cry), but she has not won a BAFTA. Her wins include a Golden Nymph Award for Victoria and a Logie Award for The Cry.
