Biography:
A self-described "urban survivor" from working-class Nottingham, British actress Samantha Morton gave her breakthrough performance playing a young girl impregnated by a cult leader on a 1994 episode of the British crime drama "Cracker". The following year she appeared as Tracy, a troubled young prostitute stalked by a serial killer, in the first two installments of the miniseries "Band of Gold", a British production that aired in the USA on HBO. Morton has had a string of successful small screen roles in BBC/A&E films, including turns as the charmingly artless Harriet Smith in "Jane Austen's 'Emma'" (1997) and as an especially staunch Sophia Western in the miniseries adaptation of "Tom Jones" (1998). The blonde up and comer also starred as the title heroine in 1997's "Jane Eyre", another BBC/A&E production.

While her television work proved her a capable actress with a strong presence, more impressive were Morton's big screen roles. She debuted in "This Is the Sea" (1997), as a teenaged Protestant girl who falls in love with a Catholic boy from Belfast (played by Ross McDade), each immune to the tradition that they should be enemies. "Under the Skin" (also 1997), though, marked her breakthrough. As Iris Kelley, an endearing and needy girl who spirals into self-destructive sexual encounters following her mother's death, she delivered a critically-lauded, powerful and uncompromising performance in an often disturbing film. With her stock rising, Morton continued to land high profile roles. In "Dreaming of Joseph Lees" (1999), she excelled as a 1950s lass torn between her romantic yearnings for her disabled cousin (Rupert Graves) and her obligations to her mentally unstable common law husband (Lee Ross). That same year, Morton earned the lion's share of praise (and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination) for her turn as the mute laundress who proved to be the one great love of an egocentric jazz guitarist (Sean Penn) in Woody Allen's delightful period piece "Sweet and Lowdown". The busy actress also played a young woman taken hostage by two inept crooks (Mark Addy and Charlie Creed-Miles) in the comedy "The Last Yellow" and demonstrated her versatility as an American drug addict opposite Billy Crudup in the festival screened "Jesus' Son" (released theatrically in 2000). Art imitated life when a pregnant Morton was cast as an expectant Sara Coleridge opposite Linus Roache as Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Julien Temple's "Pandemonium" (2000).

Though Morton's desire for offbeat roles had taken her away from the spotlight, it was only temporarily so. In the summer of 2002, she appeared opposite Tom Cruise as Agatha, in Steven Speilberg's blockbuster action feature "Minority Report" (2002). Later that year, Morton starred, along side Kathleen McDermott, in the Lynne Ramsay drama feature "Morvern Callar."