Who Is The Woman In The Baileys Commercial & Why Does She Look So Familiar?
With the holiday season fast approaching, seasonal advertisements are in full swing. Baileys hopes to secure its place as the official Christmas tipple with its new commercial, starring Emmy-winning actress Hannah Waddingham. In the 20-second ad, Waddingham can be seen conducting the UK's Gold Vocal Collective. She ends the choir practice by coquettishly suggesting the group cracks open a bottle of Baileys, sending the singers into a capella frenzy as they assemble coffee-laced cocktails.
"Christmas is my favourite part of year; a time to get together with my friends and family and indulge in our own festive traditions," Waddingham said in a statement (via Mirror). "From nights out with friends to the much-needed catch ups with family around the kitchen table, with spontaneous cocktails to cosy evenings by the fire, it's a time to break away from the routine and enjoy all the festive fun....Who better to partner with for Christmas than the most festive adult treat – Baileys!"
It's not Waddingham's first Christmas ad of the year; earlier this year, she starred in a commercial for the department store Marks & Spencer. The commercial was marred by controversy when it featured celebrities burning red, green, and silver Christmas hats — the same colors, some critics pointed out, as the Palestinian flag. M&S issued an apology and pulled that part of the ad.
Waddingham is a coveted face when it comes to commercial campaigns owing to her impressive acting resume. Here's where you may have seen the actor before.
Les Misérables (2012)
Hannah Waddingham's turn as a choir conductor in the Baileys ad is apt, given that she grew up in a family full of professional opera singers. Waddingham caught the performing bug, too, and she started performing in the interactive dinner theater show "Joni and Gina's Wedding" before moving on to stage roles.
Waddingham eventually graduated to the West End and Broadway, appearing in productions of "Spamalot," "A Little Night Music," "Into the Woods," and "Kiss Me, Kate." Her theater work has made her a three-time nominee at the Olivier Awards.
Waddingham made her film debut in 2008's "How to Lose Friends & Alienate People," but she got to show off her musical theater bonafides in the 2012 screen adaptation of "Les Misérables." Waddingham has a small role as a factory worker who is hell bent on getting Fantine (Anne Hathaway) fired. In the scene, she shows off her singing chops behind a pair of fake, yellowing teeth.
Waddingham always stayed true to her theater roots, even shouting out her theater community in her Emmy acceptance speech in 2021. "West End musical theater performers need to be on screen more," she said. "Please give them a chance because we won't let you down."
Game of Thrones (2015)
Alongside Hannah Waddingham's critically acclaimed stage work, she has also maintained a steady list of television credits beginning in 2002, appearing in episodes of British series like "Coupling," "Marple," and "Bad Education." In 2014, she secured her biggest TV role to date in "Benidorm." The sitcom, which aired from 2007 to 2018, followed vacationers at a resort in Spain. Waddingham starred in seven episodes in Season 6.
In 2015, Waddingham began playing Septa Unella, also known as the "Shame Nun," in "Game of Thrones." A sister of the Faith of Seven and follower of the High Sparrow, Unella famously walks Cersei (Lena Headey) naked through the streets of King's Landing, ringing her bell of shame. Cersei gets her revenge in Season 6 when she tortures Unella and waterboards her with wine.
Filming the torture scene was as harrowing as it looked. "There I was strapped to a wooden table with proper big straps for ten hours," Waddingham recalled to Esquire. "Definitely, other than childbirth, it was the worst day of my life. Because Lena was uncomfortable pouring liquid in my face for that long, and I was beside myself."
According to Waddingham, the scene also made her develop claustrophobia and water phobia, for which she had to seek the help of a mental health professional. Still, shooting "Game of Thrones" wasn't an entirely traumatic experience. It sparked a lasting friendship between Waddingham and her frequent scene partner Headey.
Sex Education (2019)
Unsurprisingly, Hannah Waddingham's "Game of Thrones" performance increased her profile, and more roles followed. In 2017, she had a four-episode arc on the Syfy series "12 Monkeys," and she appeared in the films "Winter Ridge" and "The Hustle." Waddingham also played Jax-Ur in "Krypton" before it was canceled after Season 2, ultimately appearing in 13 episodes of the Superman-adjacent series.
Waddingham is most familiar to some fans for her role as Sofia Marchetti in "Sex Education." As one of Jackson's (Kedar Williams-Stirling) moms, Sofia is the disciplinarian, imbuing Jackson with her love of swimming and competition. That shared passion ultimately drives a wedge between the two of them when Sofia pressures her son to maintain an intense training regimen. She ultimately admits that she used sports as a way to bond with Jackson due to her insecurity of not being his biological mother.
Sofia is one of many queer characters on "Sex Education," a show that has continuously highlighted LGBTQ+ experiences. Championing the queer community has always been important to Waddingham. "Because I've been so much part of the theatre community for so many years, the larger part of my friend group is gay," she told the Gay Times. "I love the fact that my daughter is awash with the gays. I love it! They are devoted to her. I'm devoted to them."
Waddingham appeared in 14 episodes of "Sex Education" between 2019 and 2023, though she was only in one episode of Season 3 due to scheduling conflicts with "Ted Lasso."
Ted Lasso (2020)
Hannah Waddingham is perhaps best known for playing Rebecca Welton, the owner of the Premier League soccer team AFC Richmond, in "Ted Lasso." When the series begins, Rebecca hires American football coach Ted Lasso (Jason Sudeikis) to coach her team to failure in an effort to embarrass the former owner, her ex-husband Rupert (Anthony Head).
Over the course of three seasons, Rebecca grows from a spiteful villain archetype to a woman who has embraced her own autonomy. For Waddingham, it was important to show Rebecca's humanity. "I feel like I and the writers...have very much nurtured and held her hand through a process that I take very seriously as a middle-aged person," Waddingham told The Hollywood Reporter. "Wanting to represent that confusion and abandonment of anyone that's going through that, anyone that's had the rug pulled out from underneath them and doesn't know where they slot in anymore."
For her performance in "Ted Lasso," Waddingham earned an Emmy. But even she isn't entirely sure if the series is returning for a fourth season, as Sudeikis has kept his lips sealed since "Ted Lasso" Season 3 concluded in May. "That's what's kind of unnerving about it," the actor continued, "because I'm not ready to say goodbye to Rebecca, or any of them. But also, I'm quite glad that I don't know, because I think it would have made all of us have play this season, and certainly the season finale, differently."
Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)
If "Ted Lasso" has indeed come to an end, Hannah Waddingham is not wanting for her roles. She's slated to appear in the upcoming film "The Fall Guy" starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, as well as the eighth "Mission Impossible" film. Her most recent feature film was 2022's "Hocus Pocus 2," in which she played Mother Witch.
A sequel to the 1993 Halloween classic, "Hocus Pocus 2," sees the return of the witchy Sanderson sisters: Winifred (Bette Midler), Sarah (Sarah Jessica Parker), and Mary (Kathy Najimy). In the film's opening flashback, the young sisters meet the Mother Witch in 17th-century Salem. Sensing that they're not like other children, the Mother Witch gifts the sisters her human-skin-bound book of spells and sends them on their journey as young witches.
Waddingham relished playing the role, for which she donned wispy silver hair and a flowing cape. She also sympathized with the so-called villain. "What is a witch, really?" Waddingham asked InStyle. "She's just a woman who knows she has power, and who's been very misunderstood. And that's been so many of us, hasn't it? It's certainly been me."
"Hocus Pocus" has been confirmed to return for a third installment. Although Waddingham hasn't explicitly been asked to reprise her role, screenwriter Jen D'Angelo teased the character's return, telling Entertainment Weekly, "We've only scratched the surface of Hannah Waddingham's mother witch."