Jean first made some brief appearances in BBC Bristol productions as a student in the Bristol University Drama Department. Her first professional theatrical job was a season with the Nottingham Playhouse Company where she received her Equity card. She spent three years at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre, playing Principal Boy in their traditional pantomimes, and performing in Noël Coward's Semi-Monde directed by Philip Prowse. Gilpin spent a year with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She played the Duchess of Vanholt in Faustus with Ian McKellen, directed by John Barton. Her first credited appearance on British television was in the role of Julia in The Duchess of Malfi for the BBC. She's also Janet Milton in the episode Reunion, third stagion of Survivors. Jean is perhaps best known to British television audiences as Sylvia, a precocious Auxiliary Territorial Service member who attempts unsuccessfully to seduce Private Pike in "The Making of Private Pike" in the final series of Dad's Army. Jean also won minor roles in several British films of the 1970s including Catch Me a Spy, Feelings, The Stud and The World Is Full of Married Men. She also featured in several British television commercials, notably as The Avon Lady.
After ten years working in British theatre and television, Jean Gilpin moved to Los Angeles. Her first role there was in Anne Sexton's Transformations at the Coronet Theatre in L.A. She also began to take roles in TV and film. Jean Gilpin performed in Steven Berkoff's Greek at the Matrix Theatre in L.A. The ensemble won the BATCC Award. She co-produced and appeared in the L.A. premiere of Jean Reynolds' Dance With Me which was nominated for an LADCC for ensemble.
Voice-acting career
Since the 1980s, Gilpin has mainly worked as a voice actor on over two hundred Hollywood films. She worked regularly doing voice-acting for Max Steel. More recently, Gilpin has featured as a voice actor in video games, including Neverwinter Nights and '. In particular, she has worked regularly in the voice acting cast for Bethesda Softworks, and can be heard in such games as Dragon Age II as the character Meredith, and ' as Elenwen, Boethiah and Meridia. She is also featured in The Elder Scrolls Online, ', in King's Quest as Pillare and Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn in the English version of ' but not in its expansion pack, Heavensward. She also voiced Sangheili character Makhee 'Chava in . She voiced the role of Amanra in Age of Mythology. Gilpin also did the "voice over" for the computer called "Stacie" in the film Nuclear Hurricane in 2007.
