Anna Louise Friel was born on July 12th, 1976. A staple of British soap operas before she was even out of her teens, Anna Friel experienced the type of fame encouraged by tabloids and Internet shrines before getting a chance to prove her talents on the stage and screen. Born in Rochdale, Lancashire on July 12, 1976, Friel began acting as a teenager, performing with theatres across Britain. In 1990, she made her television debut with a role on the BBC series In Their Shoes, and was soon appearing in a number of popular TV series, including Coronation Street and Emmerdale. She received her greatest amount of notice to date when she was cast on the soap opera Brookside in 1993; the resulting popularity of her role on the show made the waifish, saucer-eyed actress something of a celebrity in her native country. In 1997--two years after leaving Brookside--Friel made her film debut in The Land Girls. A World War II drama, it featured Friel, Rachel Weisz and Catherine McCormack as its titular heroines. Although the film was virtually unheard of outside the UK, it received generally favorable reviews. The following year, Friel appeared in two more films, The Stringer and Rogue Trader, the latter of which had her starring opposite Ewan McGregor. That same year, she won great acclaim on the London stage for her performance in Patrick Marber's Closer. A trenchant commentary on love and sex, it featured the young actress as an enigmatic stripper, and allowed her to work alongside such performers as Natasha Richardson, Ciaran Hinds and Rupert Graves. The play proved to be so successful that it moved to Broadway the next year, where it continued to win accolade after accolade. Friel herself won a Drama Desk award for Best Supporting Actress for her work. That same year, she continued to broaden her resume and fan base with starring roles in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Sunset Strip, the former of which featured her as Hermia, and the latter of which saw her experiencing the ups and downs of life in 1972 Los Angeles. Following roles in The War Bride and Me Without You (both 2001) Friel continued to develop her onscreen persona, and with Richard Donner's time travel adventure Timeline (2003) the actress remained poised for the role that would provide her with her widest exposure to date. ~ Rebecca Flint, All Movie Guide

Source: Blockbuster.com

David and Anna met in 2006 at the Cannes Film Festival and after that at a dinner thrown by a mutual friend. Anna says they both enjoy staying in more than going out, they're not the biggest party animals around. They were both seen in time-travel adventure Timeline in 2003. The happy couple live together in Windsor and miss each other tremendously when being apart because of work. In 2005 Anna gave birth to their daughter, Gracie Ellen Mary Friel.

Anna likes to talk about the love of her life:

Whenever I take a break from work and David can’t come with me, there’s a bit of me that wants to stay at home. I miss him dreadfully while we’re apart, but that’s good, I think!

I’m with David, and that’s given me a lot of focus. We’re not party animals - I’ve got over all of that – we like our own company and that of good friends.

Before I go into anything new, I get very nervous and uptight, and David is great at calming me down. He’s made me feel much more confident. He’e my biggest hero ever.

It's only natural that this happens because of the jobs we do. We were lucky enough to have an unusual amount of time together for the first 18 months of our relationship. We only spent three nights apart. David is just starting work on the new Harry Potter film, so we'll have even less time together. He is playing Professor Lupin and has now become the favourite with all our friends who've got kids. Their eyes are huge with awe at the fact that David is going to be meeting Harry Potter. It will be brilliant - I'm really excited for him. And it will be nice to say to our kids one day 'Look there's daddy', especially in a film like that with Gary Oldman and Michael Gambon, who is taking over the role of Professor Dumbledore. But I won't be as popular as he is - the girlfriend of Professor Lupin doesn't sound quite as cool.

Links:

Anna's official website

Anna Friel Homage Page

The Anna Friel Reference Site