Yorkshire, England native Joanne Froggatt began her acting career as a member of a youth theater group. She has proven herself to be a versatile talent with numerous theater credits and diverse roles in British television shows such as The Bill, Coronation Street, Spooks and Life on Mars. In 2010, she starred in her first feature film, In Our Name.

Froggatt, who has described her Downton Abbey character, Anna, as “the kind of person I'd want as a friend," portrays a different side of the beloved head housemaid in Season 3. “You see her become a bit more of a woman, because things get tough. You see her really struggle with the fact that Mr. Bates is not around. And you see her almost lose her positivity a bit – which we’ve never seen before. I think it’s nice to see her really strained, actually – because that’s how you’d be. That kind of positivity is difficult to keep up in the face of everything.”

The busy actress not only filmed three upcoming feature films in 2012, including Filth, with MASTERPIECE alums James McAvoy (White Teeth) and Jim Broadbent (Any Human Heart), but she also got married.