Hayley Atwell

Hayley Atwell

Hayley Atwell has mixed and matched her roles at the start of her career as she has moved between TV and movies - as well as a bit of theatre.

She has been one of the Brit actresses to watch for some time and she could be set to see her star rocket as she takes on the big budget blockbuster for the first time.

She takes on the role of Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger this week alongside Chris Evans's Steve Rogers.

Atwell kicked off her career back in 2005 with TV movie Charles & Camilla: Whatever Love Means before going on to take on the role of Catherine Fedden in mini series The Line of Beauty.

During this time she could also be found treading the boards at the Sound Theatre in London in Prometheus Bound.

After more TV work in The Ruby In The Smoke and Mansfield Park she made her feature film debut with Cassandra's Dream.

She may have been making her feature debut but working with Woody Allen is exactly a bad way to start as she starred alongside Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor.

However the movie received mixed reviews from the critics and struggled at the box office.

2008 was the best year of her movie career so far as she starred in Brideshead Revisited and The Duchess.

It was The Duchess that grabbed all the attention as the Amanda Foreman novel about Georgiana Cavendish was adapted for the big screen.

Atwell took on the role of Lady Elizabeth 'Bess' Foster - with whom Georgiana's husband has an affair.

For her performance Atwell was nominated for Best Supporting Actress as the British Independent Film Awards and Supporting Actress of the Year at the London Film Critics' Circle Awards.

She then went back to TV with a remake of The Prisoner and then The Pillars of the Earth.

The Pillars of the Earth was a small screen adaptation of the  Ken Follett's novel of the same name. The series was one of the best of 2010 and it went on to be nominated for a Golden Globe.

But a blockbuster role is on the agenda this week as Marvel give their latest hero a 21st century big screen makeover.

After being deemed unfit for military service, Steve Rogers volunteers for a top secret research project that turns him into Captain America, a superhero dedicated to defending America's ideals.

The movie brings together a great cast of Chris Evans, Hugo Weaving, Stanley Tucci, Dominic Cooper and Tommy Lee Jones.

She has already completed work on I, Anna - a noir thriller told from the point of view of a femme fatale.

Captain America: The First Avenger is out now. Take a look at some images from the movie

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw


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