Born: 12th August 1966 (as Sharon Delores Clarke)
Episodes Broadcast: 2018, 2020-2021

Sharon Clarke was born in Enfield, London. She made her professional debut in 1984 with the play Southside at the Battersea Arts Centre, and she soon became well-established in stage musicals. Clarke's first television roles came in 1986, on The Singing Detective and EastEnders. In 1989, she contributed vocals to the FPI Project's remake of Going Back To My Roots. Clarke was also a member of the dance music group Nomad, which enjoyed hits in 1991 with (I Wanna Give You) Devotion and Just A Groove. Meanwhile, she continued to make television appearances throughout the Nineties in programmes such as Children's Ward, Between The Lines, Soldier Soldier and Performance, while her movie debut came in 1999's Beautiful People. But the theatre remained Clarke's focus; she was making regular appearances in the West End by the middle of the decade, in productions like Guys And Dolls and Rent.

In 2000, Clarke was part of Six Chix, an unsuccessful entrant for the British selection to that year's Eurovision Song Contest. After the turn of the century, television figured more prominently in her resume, with guest parts in shows such as Waking The Dead and The Crust. Between 2005 and 2008, Clarke starred in four seasons of the medical drama Holby City. She could also be seen at the movies in the crime thriller Sugarhouse. In 2008, Clarke married fellow actress Susie McKenna.

In 2014, Clarke won the first of three Laurence Olivier Awards, for The Amen Corner

During the 2010s, Clarke appeared in programmes including Psychobitches, New Tricks, Silent Witness and Informer; she also contributed to the animated children's series Tree Fu Tom. But she was never far from the stage and, in 2014, she won the first of three Laurence Olivier Awards, for The Amen Corner; she was later honoured for a 2018 revival of Caroline, Or Change and a 2019 version of Death Of A Salesman. In 2017, Clarke was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire for her services to drama. She had two brushes with science-fiction in 2018: the movie thriller Tau, and as Grace O'Brien in Doctor Who. Grandmother to Tosin Cole's Ryan and recently married to Bradley Walsh's Graham, Grace's death at the end of the season premiere, The Woman Who Fell To Earth, galvanised their decision to seek adventure with the Thirteenth Doctor, as played by Jodie Whittaker.

Clarke returned for four additional Doctor Who episodes over the next two and a half years, via devices as mundane as a conventional flashback, and as unusual as Grace's simulation by a sentient universe. She was last glimpsed in the 2021 New Year's Day special, Revolution Of The Daleks, in which Cole and Walsh left the programme. Meanwhile, Clarke took roles in the movies Rocketman and Rocks. Amongst her television projects during the Twenties were La Fortuna and Showtrial.