Actor Biography

Since graduating from the renowned Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), Indira Varma has carved out an incredible career onstage and on-screen.

Over the summer at the Old Vic, London, she recently starred in a modernized reworking of Noel Coward's Present Laughter, opposite Fleabag's Andrew Scott. She will appear as Shami Chakrabarti in the thriller feature Official Secrets with Keira Knightley, Ralph Fiennes, Matthew Goode and Matt Smith. A festival highlight at Sundance this year, the film hit cinemas in the U.S. in August and general release in October in the U.K. She can currently be seen in the role of Piety Breakspear in the Amazon original series Carnival Row directed by Paul McGuigan (Victor Frankenstein). The Victorian fantasy crime drama also stars Orlando Bloom and Cara Delevingne.

This year brings Dreamland with a stellar lineup including Gary Oldman, Lily-Rose Depp, Luke Evans, Evangeline Lily, Armie Hammer and Sam Worthington—billed as the first theatrical feature to tackle the international opioid crisis.

Further television credits include the award winning hit series Game of Thrones(HBO/SkyAtlantic), Luther (BBC), Silk (BBC), Rome (HBO), Human Target (Fox), Paranoid (Netflix); the Emmy® Award-nominated drama Patrick Melrose (HBO/Sky Atlantic), a critical triumph starring Benedict Cumberbatch; and most recently This Way Up (Channel 4 and Hulu), written by and starring Aisling Bea. The six-part series also stars Catastrophe's Sharon Horgan and The Crown's Tobias Menzies.

In her prolific theater career, Varma's highlights include Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (Globe Theatre), opposite Ralph Fiennes in Man and Superman, Bianca in Othello, Ivanov (all at the National Theatre), Twelfth Night, The Vortex, Dance of Death, Privates on Parade (all at the Donmar Warehouse), The Vertical Hour, The Country, Ingredient X (all at the Royal Court), Hysteria (Theatre Royal), The Skin of Our Teeth (Young Vic) and Celebration (on Broadway). Varma recently took the role of Queen Marguerite in the National Theatre's production of Eugène Ionesco's Exit the King, opposite Rhys Ifans.