Background
Woolgar is the youngest daughter of Maureen (née McCann) and Michael Woolgar. Her father worked as an economist for many years and the family travelled to Kuwait and Sharjah. Her mother is of Irish heritage.
Woolgar is the youngest daughter of Maureen (née McCann) and Michael Woolgar. Her father worked as an economist for many years and the family travelled to Kuwait and Sharjah. Her mother is of Irish heritage.
She was educated at Mayfield Convent, Durham University, and then Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). She graduated from RADA in 1999 and on leaving did mostly theatre, particularly at the Royal Exchange, Manchester until she got her break in 2002 playing Agatha in Stephen Fry’s film Bright Young Things.
Her early years were spent in New Canaan, Connecticut, before the family returned to the United Kingdom in 1976. She has subsequently gone on to work with Mike Leigh, Conor McPherson and Woody Allen. She played Agatha Christie in Doctor Who in 2008.
She has recently worked in theatre at the National and The Old Victoria
She is regularly heard on the radio and was nominated for Best Actress on the radio in 2013 for An American Rose in which she played Rosemary Kennedy. She played the title role in Mrs Dalloway for British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4 and Edith Wharton in both The Jinx Element and Ethan Frome.
She stars in the British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4 comedy Dot. She has narrated several audiobooks and was nominated for Audio Book of the Year 2013.
The couple have three children: Kit, born 2007, and Tristan and Gabriel, born 2009.
She paints and speaks Italian. 2014: Margaret Thatcher (Mags) in "Handbagged", Vaudeville, London 2013: Margaret Thatcher (Mags) in Handbagged by Moira Buffini, Tricycle, London 2013: Theresa in Circle Mirror Transformation, Royal Court Local, Rose Lipman Building, Haggerston, London 2011: Madeleine, The Veil by Conor McPherson, National, London, directed by Conor McPherson 2009: Madge, Time and the Conways, National, London directed by Rupert Goold 2005: Charlotte Brontë, Brontë, Shared Experience Company 2004: Adela, Passage to India, Shared Experience Company 2001: Teresa, How the Other Half Loves, Watford Palace 1999: Varya, The Cherry Orchard, York Royal.
At university she directed Murder in the Cathedral in Durham Cathedral, acted and was a member of the Durham Revue.