Acting
Jan 19, 1984
Twickenham, London, England, UK
Olivia Hallinan
Acting
Biography
Olivia Hallinan is a British actress best known for her role as Laura Timmins in the BBC TV series Lark Rise to Candleford and also as Kim in the Channel 4 drama Sugar Rush. She also starred as Ellie in Girls in Love. Hallinan is from Twickenham, West London, and is the second youngest of four sisters. Olivia Hallinan began training at her mother's Saturday drama school All Expressions in Teddington when she was 11, and then went on to professional acting. After attending St Catherine's School in Twickenham, and Notting Hill & Ealing High School, in Ealing, Hallinan went on to study English and Drama at the University of Manchester. In 2020 Olivia Hallinan confirmed she was in a relationship with Charlie Smith. They live in Windsor, Berkshire and have a child together (born May 2021). In July 2024, they announced they were expecting a second child, a son. Hallinan has appeared in over 100 productions since the age of seven. Her first professional role was playing alongside Cilla Black in a 1991 production of Jack and the Beanstalk. Since then, she has appeared in theatre, radio, film and on television shows including The Bill, Holby City, My Family, Julia Jekyll and Harriet Hyde and Granada TV's, Girls in Love. At the end of her first year at the University of Manchester, Hallinan appeared in the first of two series of the cult TV drama Sugar Rush for Channel 4, based on the Julie Burchill novel. On 9 June 2007, Hallinan was a speaker at the Stonewall Gay Youth Conference, talking about playing a lesbian character in Sugar Rush. While at Manchester, Hallinan was actively involved in student drama. In 2006, her final year of her degree, she starred in Nicola Schofield's new play, Wake Me Later. That same year she played Emma in the Torchwood episode Out of Time, appeared in an episode of Trial and Retribution, and played a character in Radio 4's dramatisation of Marguerite Duras's erotic novel The Lover, broadcast between 3 and 7 September 2007. She starred as Laura Timmins in the BBC production Lark Rise to Candleford which first aired on Sunday 13 January 2008, appearing in all four series. Hallinan was named one of the 2008 UK Stars of Tomorrow in Screen International, a prestigious industry publication that highlights the hottest up and coming actors and filmmakers. A-List actors Tom Hiddleston, Michelle Dockery, Dev Patel, Claire Foy, Carey Mulligan, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Gugu Mbatha-Raw were among this coveted list alongside Hallinan this same year. 2011 saw her film debut as she starred in the British film noir Jack Falls as Natasha. In 2011 Hallinan starred in Precious Little Talent written by Ella Hickson and directed by James Dacre at Trafalgar Studios theatre in London's West End. In December 2011 Hallinan played the role of Justine in Lucinda Coxon's play "Herding Cats" at the Hampstead Theatre, London, a role she previously played at the Ustinov Studio, Bath in December 2010. In 2013, she starred as Marianne Dashwood in Helen Edmundson's BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. In 2014 Hallinan appeared in Lotty's War (written by Giuliano Crispini and directed by Bruce Guthrie) at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, before touring the UK.
Feature Films (8)
A documentary that explores the possibility of Albert being the true power behind Queen Victoria.
Albert: The Power Behind Victoria
After losing her dream job at a fashion magazine -- and her boyfriend, Danielle heads home to Romania. With the help of her colorful family, she rediscovers herself and her love of fashion.
Love by Design
Former undercover police officer Jack Adleth returns to London seeking those who tried to have him killed in Amsterdam.
Jack Falls
What are the Knickerbocker Band doing at midnight in the cemetery? Is a spirit really speaking form the sinister grave? Why does Melissa, daughter of the dead sorcerer, receive threats? Has it all to do with the mysterious legacy of the magician?
The Knickerbocker Gang: The Talking Grave
In the world of The Dead Ones, those whose lives are cut short by violence do not disappear, they live to haunt the person who killed them.
The Dead Ones
Television & Series (14)
Ben Harper is a moderately successful family man and dentist. He is also undergoing a mid-life crisis and trying to cope with the bizarre reality of raising teenage children. His wife Susan seems quite happy, enjoys her job as a London tour guide, however at home her ability to find her way around a cookbook or pantry is less successful. Their three children Nick, Janey, and Michael are as different as chalk and cheese. Nick (19) is on his gap year, but doesn't get much further than the sofa or job centre, Janey is as sharp as a tack and 16 going on 25, while Michael is a very bright, computer-nerdish 12 year old who is just discovering girls.
My Family
Sugar Rush is an Emmy Award–winning British television comedy drama series developed by Shine Limited and broadcast by Channel 4, based on the Julie Burchill novel of the same name. It follows the trials and tribulations of teenager Kim Daniels, who is dealing with all the usual adolescent issues, plus one - she thinks she might be gay. Her family has recently moved to Brighton from London, and she finds herself with a huge crush on her new best friend, Maria `Sugar' Sweet. Sugar has a bit of a wild side, and frequently gets Kim into trouble, though Kim can find trouble on her own as well. Despite attractions to other girls, and a few attempts at being interested in guys, Kim continues to long for Sugar.
Sugar Rush
The exploits of a team of people whose job is to investigate the unusual, the strange and the extraterrestrial.
Torchwood
Set in the small hamlet of Lark Rise and the wealthier neighbouring market town, Candleford, the series chronicles the daily lives of farm-workers, craftsmen and gentry at the end of the 19th Century. Lark Rise to Candleford is a love letter to a vanished corner of rural England and a heart-warming drama series teeming with wit, wisdom and romance.
