Lara Pulver
Pulver inFleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond, 2013
Born	1 September 1980 (1980-09) (age 45) Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England
Alma mater	Bird College
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2000–present
Spouses	Josh Dallas ​ ​ (m. 2007; div. 2011)​ Raza Jaffrey ​ (m. 2014)​
Children	2

Lara Pulver (born 1 September 1980) is an English actress, who won the2016Laurence Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical in theWest End's revival ofGypsy.

Her screen credits includeTrue Blood (2010),Sherlock (2012-2014),Da Vinci's Demons (2013–2015),Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond (2014),Spooks (2015),Underworld: Blood Wars (2016),The Alienist: Angel of Darkness (2020),The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf (2021),Dota: Dragon's Blood (2021–2022),The Split (2022),Maternal (2023),Blood of Zeus (2024–2025), andMobLand (2025).

Pulver was born in the town ofLeigh-on-Sea inSouthend-on-Sea,Essex,^[1] on 1 September 1980 and grew up in a village nearSevenoaks,Kent.^[2][3] Her father is from a Jewish family; her motherconverted to Judaism when they married.^[4][5] She has a sister, Erika, who is four years older and works as a teacher.^[4]

Pulver attended theNational Youth Music Theatre between 1994 and 1998, as well as The Liz Burville Dance Centre,Bexley.^[6] In 1997, she began studying at theDoreen Bird College of Performing Arts, and graduated in 2000.^[7][8]

Pulver was nominated for the 2008Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the role of Lucille Frank in the first West End production of the musicalParade at theDonmar Warehouse. She reprised the role in the Los Angeles production at theMark Taper Forum oppositeT.R. Knight.

In 2008, Pulver recorded a song for the CDAct One – Songs from the Musicals of Alexander S. Bermange. Pulver joined the cast of the BBC'sRobin Hood in 2009 asIsabella, the sister ofGuy of Gisbourne.^[9]

In 2010, Pulver joined the cast of the third series ofHBO'sTrue Blood asSookie Stackhouse's fairy godmother,Claudine Crane.^[10]

Pulver playedErin Watts, the new chief of Section D, in the tenth and final series of BBC spy dramaSpooks, a role she reprised in the 2015 feature filmSpooks: The Greater Good

Pulver playedIrene Adler in "A Scandal in Belgravia", the first episode of the second series ofSherlock.^[11] Her appearance caused an "enormous" response,^[12] with theEvening Standard calling the scene where she greets Sherlock Holmes nude "infamous".^[13] ToThe Telegraph, Pulver called the scene "empowering".^[14] The BBC received over 100 complaints about the footage.^[15][16][14] The episode was the most-watched programme onBBC iPlayer from January to April 2012.^[16]

In 2012, she joined the cast ofDa Vinci's Demons as the "seductive and politically-minded" Clarice Orsini, a series regular and wife ofElliot Cowan's characterLorenzo Medici.^[17]

In 2014, she played Louise in a revival ofGypsy at theChichester Festival Theatre.^[18] The production transferred to the West End in April 2015.^[19] Pulver won the 2016Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for the same role in theSavoy Theatre production ofGypsy. Louise is actually the title role, as "Louise" becomes the real-life early-20th-century American strip-tease sensationGypsy Rose Lee, on whose memoirs the musical is based. Pulver's co-star in the Savoy production,Imelda Staunton, won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her role as the larger-than-life Mama Rose.^[20][21][22]

In 2025, Pulver starred in theGuy Ritchie directedParamount+ Britishcrime drama television seriesMobLand,^[23] in a cast which includedTom Hardy,Pierce Brosnan,Paddy Considine,Joanne Froggatt,Helen Mirren andGeoff Bell.^[24]

In 2003, Pulver met American actorJosh Dallas while he was in the UK studying at theMountview Academy of Theatre Arts.^{[citation needed]} They married in December 2007 inDevon.^[25][5] In an interview on 2 December 2011, Dallas stated they had divorced.^{[8][citation needed]}

Pulver began dating fellowSpooks actorRaza Jaffrey in 2012 and married on 27 December 2014. The couple have two children.^{[26][citation needed]}

• Parade (Lucille Frank),Donmar Warehouse,^[32] nominated forLaurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical^[33] andWhatsOnStage Award
• Into the Woods (Lucinda),Royal Opera House^[32]
• The Last Five Years (Cathy),Menier Chocolate Factory^[34]
• Honk! (Henrietta),Royal National Theatre (Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical,2000) and National Tour
• Miss Saigon (Ellen)
• High Society
• A Chorus Line (Bebe)
• The Darling Buds of May
• The Boy Friend
• Gypsy (Louise)^[20]
• Chicago
• Grease
• 42nd Street
• The Wizard of Oz
• (Adverts)Smirnoff Vodka Range – Hatter's Summer Night Dream with Smirnoff
• Uncle Vanya
• Guys and Dolls (Sarah Brown),Royal Albert Hall
• Fiddler on the Roof (Golde),Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

• Game of Thrones (2014; Video Game), as Lady Elissa Forrester
• Sherlock Series By Intouch Games And Slot Factory, as Irene Adler
• Dota 2, as the "Mirana of Nightsilver" persona item, reprising her role from Dragon's Blood

• Lara Pulver atIMDb

• 1980 births
• Living people
• 21st-century English actresses
• Alumni of Bird College
• English people of Jewish descent
• English stage actresses
• English television actresses
• Jewish English actresses
• Laurence Olivier Award winners
• Actresses from Southend-on-Sea

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from February 2024
• Articles with hCards
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from November 2025