back to Awards & NomineesThe Inspiration Awards - Dame Helen Mirren

Dame Helen Mirren was born Ilynea Lydia Mironoff on 26th July 1945 in Chiswick, London, England. Mirren has gone from working at the Kursaal amusement park in Southend as a "blagger”, attracting customers to the rides, to winning an Oscar for her role in 'The Queen'. 

Known to her friends as 'Popper', Mirren attended a teacher training college in her youth to please her parents but pursued her real love, acting, during weekends and vacations at the National Youth Theatre.  

Helen made her theatrical debut at age 18 as Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra at the Old Vic in 1965, for which she received rave reviews. She joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1967 and went on to become a leading actress, starring in numerous plays in England. In 1972 she joined Peter Brook's experimental International Centre of Theatre Research.

She has since become one of our most successful actors starring in countless TV dramas and films including, Prime Suspect (7 series), Cal, The Madness of King George and Gosford Park.

Many actresses have been considered sex symbols. Brigitte Bardot and Gina Lollobrigida are just a couple to have been famed for setting male pulses racing. Far fewer have been considered super-sexy and hugely talented.

Not many actresses have been capable of arousing both the body and the intellect. And no one has been considered super-sexy and hugely talented for quite as long as Dame Helen Mirren .

A wholly inflammatory character, she's been one of the UK's top thespians, a star of stage and screen, and a hot pin-up for over 35 years. Now past 60, she's still up for the world's most prestigious acting awards, and still being talked about in terms of her sexuality.

A woman of undisputed beauty, huge intellectual appeal and a winner of an Oscar, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes and four Emmy Awards during her career.

Even with all her success, Dame Helen Mirren is known for her down-to-earth personality.