Dame Maureen Lipman DBE

Dame Maureen Lipman DBE has been an actress and writer for fifty-eight years. She was born in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, and trained at LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art).

At the start of a long and distinguished career in theatre, she spent three happy years with the National Theatre Company at The Old Vic led by Sir Laurence Olivier. She appeared in Re: Joyce, an acclaimed one-woman tribute to Joyce Grenfell which ran several times over five years in the West End. Other self-written one- woman shows include Live and Kidding (Duchess Theatre) and Up For It (Edinburgh Fringe and Purcell Room). 

Other West End credits include: See How They Run (Olivier award) Martin Sherman’s Messiah (Aldwych) Oklahoma (NT nominated Olivier); Lost in Yonkers (Strand Theatre); Daytona (Haymarket Theatre); Harvey, A Little Night Music (Nominated Olivier) and The Best Man (Playhouse Theatre).

Film credits include: Oklahoma, the Oscar-winning The Pianist and Educating Rita. Not to mention Carry on Colombus! 

TV credits include: Agony; Love’s Labours Lost; Eskimo Days, Smiley’s people, Plebs, Father Brow On your Way Riley, Absent Friends, Absurd Person Singular, About Face, and fronting Celebrity Gogglebox. She appeared in ITV’s DNA Journey with Rula Lenska, ITV’s Great Escapers and was not identified as ‘Goose A-Laying’ on the Masked Singer UK 2025 Christmas Special!

She appeared in fifty-five BT adverts in the nineties – one of the first creations to ‘go viral’. She has also presented TV documentaries on Style, Art Deco, Memory and UK Travel.

Radio credits include: To Hull and Back, and her self-written show Maureen and Friends on BBC Radio 4.

She was married for thirty-three years to the late writer Jack Rosenthal, appearing in three of his TV plays including the Emmy-winning The Evacuees. Her partner of fourteen years, Guido Castro, died in 2021. It was Martin Sherman who said: “You are a fortunate woman to have lost two such wonderful men”. She married David Turner last September.

She paints for pleasure and has tried stained glass making, spray painting and collaging everything in sight. Topiary is next.

She has published ten books through Robson Books, some of which made it to the charts. She has two writer children, Amy and Adam, and two grandchildren, Ava and Sacha. She was awarded a Damehood in 2021.

Maureen starred in the timely revival of Martin Sherman’s Rose at the Ambassadors Theatre, following on from successful runs online and at the Hope Mill and Park Theatres. She won the Offie for Best Solo Performance (Plays).