Career
Colman has appeared in roles in numerous comedy films and other BBC, ITV and Channel 4 television programmes such as Bruiser, People Like Us, Look Around You, Black Books, The Office, The Time Of Your Life and provided the voice-over for Five's poll for Britain’s Funniest Comedy Character. She regularly features in BBC Radio 4 comedies, such as Concrete Cow, Think the Unthinkable, The House of Milton Jones and Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. She is also the voice of Minka, the Polish secretary in the Radio 4 comedy Hut 33, set in a fictional codebreaking hut of the real-life Bletchley Park during World War II.
Her film credits include the British mockumentary film Confetti (in which she plays a naturist with Robert Webb - she has described the role as "the worst experience of my life"), Alice in Grow Your Own, Doris Thatcher in Hot Fuzz, and I Could Never Be Your Woman. Colman appeared as 'Bev', alongside Mark Burdis as 'Kev', in a series of television adverts for AA car insurance. She provided voices for the Andrex "be kind to your behind" adverts and Glade fragrance adverts, where her character is a gorilla.
In October and November 2008, Colman appeared in the BBC sitcom Beautiful People, based on the life of Simon Doonan, as Debbie Doonan, Simon's mother. She also made a guest appearance in Skins, in the third-series episode "Naomi" as Naomi's mother Gina. In 2010, Colman took a leading role as Alex Smallbone, the wife of an inner city vicar, in the BBC sitcom Rev. Also in 2010, she played "Mother" in Matt Smith's debut Doctor Who story.
In January 2011, Colman won a Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Special Jury Prize for Breakout Performances for her role in the film Tyrannosaur. In spring 2011, Colman appeared in the BBC drama Exile, written by Danny Brocklehurst and starring John Simm and Jim Broadbent.
In 2011-12 she played Sally Owen, the love-lorn secretary to Hugh Bonneville's character Ian Fletcher in Twenty Twelve, a successful comedy about planning for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
She starred alongside Meryl Streep and Jim Broadbent in the Academy Award-winning film The Iron Lady in 2011. In her BAFTA acceptance speech for Best Actress, Streep thanked Colman and described her as "divinely gifted."
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