Sophie Ward


Sophie Anna Ward is an English actress and novelist. Early in her career she played Elizabeth Hardy, the love interest of Sherlock Holmes in the film Young Sherlock Holmes. She played Dr. Helen Trent/Walker in British television police drama series Heartbeat in 40 episodes 2004–2006. Her first novel was published in 2020.

Career

Born in Hammersmith, Ward is the eldest of the three daughters of Alexandra and actor Simon Ward.
Ward started work as an actress when she was aged 10, and has worked in film, television and theatre. She trained as a dancer under ballerina Merle Park. In 1983, at the age of 19, she had a brief, non-speaking role at the very end of the Tony Scott vampire movie The Hunger. In the credits, her character is listed as "Girl In London House". Another of Ward's early film roles was in the film Young Sherlock Holmes directed by Barry Levinson. Other early films included Full Circle, Return to Oz playing beautiful princess Mombi II, Little Dorrit and A Summer Story, and she also portrayed a dancer in Roxy Music's music video "Avalon".
She has appeared in several Glasgow Citizens' Theatre productions including Private Lives, Don Carlos and most strikingly in Hamlet as Ophelia.
Her most recent films are Out of Bounds, in which she co-stars with Sophia Myles and Celia Imrie, and Book of Blood, co-starring Jonas Armstrong and Reg Fuller. She also recently appeared in Cary Fukunaga's Jane Eyre. She has worked with Susan Sarandon in The Hunger directed by Tony Scott, Liv Ullmann in , directed by Mauro Bolognini, and Elizabeth Taylor in Young Toscanini, directed by Franco Zeffirelli.
Her television work includes the mini-series A Dark-Adapted Eye with Helena Bonham Carter and the fantasy Dinotopia. More recently, Sophie had the recurring role of Helen Trent in long-running ITV drama Heartbeat. In 2008, Ward joined the cast of Holby City in a recurring role as Sophia Byrne.
For the past 4 years, Ward has hosted the European Diversity Awards.
In 2020 her first novel, Love and Other Thought Experiments, was published by Corsair and was longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize.

Personal life

Ward has a degree in Literature and Philosophy from the Open University.
She married veterinary surgeon Paul Hobson in 1988, and the couple have two sons, Nathanial and Joshua. They divorced in 1996 after Ward became involved with Korean-American writer Rena Brannan, and came out as a lesbian. Ward and Brannan had a civil partnership ceremony in 2005, followed by marriage after it was legalised in 2014.
Ward had long been considered a 'Face of the 1980s' as a Vogue model.
Ward's sister, Kitty, is married to stand-up comedian Michael McIntyre.

Filmography

Film

* Winner Best Actor

Guest appearances

* Oscar Best Short Film

Child performances