Leanne Best Movies and TV Shows: Best Roles Guide

If you’ve ever caught yourself pausing mid-binge to wonder where you know an actress from, Leanne Best is probably behind at least a few of those moments. Over the past decade, she’s drifted in and out of some of the most talked-about British series on television—and a galaxy far, far away. Born 15 June 1979 in Liverpool, England, Best trained at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts before building a career that now spans police dramas, period pieces, and Hollywood franchises. This guide maps out the roles worth knowing about, from her Line of Duty breakthrough to the recent credits still landing on her IMDb page.

Line of Duty role: PC Jackie Brickford · Ted Lasso role: Georgie (Jamie’s mum) · Star Wars: Min Sakul (The Force Awakens, 2015) · Birthplace: Liverpool, England

Six roles span genres from Victorian crime drama to sci-fi blockbuster, united by a common thread: Best consistently chooses characters who hold secrets.

What is Leanne Best best known for?

Three BBC productions anchor Best’s reputation in British television: Ripper Street, Fortitude, and Line of Duty. She played Jane Cobden in the Victorian crime drama Ripper Street, a BBC series set in Whitechapel after the Jack the Ripper murders. Her character worked within that gritty, historically grounded world where detectives navigated a city still raw from recent trauma.

Best also appeared in Fortitude, the Sky Atlantic psychological thriller set in a fictional Arctic Norwegian town. There, she played Celia Donnelly—a role that placed her in a very different narrative landscape, one mixing murder mysteries with supernatural undertones and an unsettling sense of isolation. The show ran for two seasons and attracted attention for its unusual premise and ensemble cast.

Her filmography reveals a talent for inhabiting characters who exist in professional worlds marked by pressure and secrecy. In The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death (2014), she carried the title role—a rare feat in horror cinema where female leads are less common. That same year, she was already thinking about her next challenge.

Ripper Street as Jane Cobden

In Ripper Street, Best played Jane Cobden during the show’s run on BBC One. The series explored the ripple effects of Jack the Ripper’s crimes on Whitechapel’s residents, and Best’s character contributed to that tapestry of traumatized Londoners trying to rebuild normalcy after unspeakable violence.

Fortitude as Celia Donnelly

Fortitude pushed Best further from familiar territory. As Celia Donnelly, she operated in a community where the permafrost was as cold as the secrets residents kept from each other. The show tested her range in ways that police procedurals on British television rarely do.

Who did Leanne Best play in Line of Duty?

Best’s highest-profile television role came in Line of Duty Series 3 (2016), where she portrayed PC Jackie Brickford. The series—renowned for its tangled webs of police corruption—added Brickford to an already stacked cast that included Will Mellor and Arsher Ali alongside Best. Her character operated within Central Police’s Anti-Corruption Unit, navigating the same institutional pressures that defined the show.

Production secrecy around Line of Duty reached legendary levels. Cast members deliberately did not receive full scripts to prevent storyline leaks. Best herself described the extreme lengths taken to maintain surprises: “We don’t get the end of the scripts in case we give anything away subconsciously,” she told Digital Spy. This approach extended to promotional materials as well.

Her Line of Duty appearance was described as pivotal by industry coverage. At the time, Best was simultaneously starring in Home Fires and Undercover, a workload that Digital Spy noted as unusually demanding. The combined workload highlighted how thoroughly Best had embedded herself in British crime drama.

PC Jackie Brickford role

PC Jackie Brickford operated in an environment where trust was rationed carefully. TV Guide credits Best with the role, confirming the character’s rank and the actress’s place in one of Britain’s most acclaimed crime dramas.

The implication: Best’s Line of Duty credit functions as a seal of approval in UK television. It places her in a lineage of actors who contributed to a series that redefined what police drama could look like on British screens.

Who did Leanne Best play in Ted Lasso?

Best appeared in one episode of Ted Lasso as Georgie, playing Jamie’s mum. This guest appearance placed her in Apple TV+’s beloved comedy series—a very different genre from the crime dramas defining her other credits. Her role came in a single episode, but it gave her exposure to a global audience beyond traditional British television.

The contrast was notable. In Line of Duty, Best operated in an atmosphere of institutional secrecy and moral ambiguity. In Ted Lasso, she entered a world built on optimism and second chances—Jamie Tartt’s complicated relationship with his mother played into that emotional architecture.

Georgie character

Best’s character as Georgie gave depth to Jamie’s backstory without dominating the episode. Wikipedia confirms her role in the series, though the specific episode details are not as widely documented as her Line of Duty work.

The pattern: Best has learned to pick roles that maximize impact per minute of screen time. Georgie needed only a few scenes to register, but they mattered to Jamie’s character development in a show where family dynamics drive much of the emotional storytelling.

What else has Leanne Best been in?

Beyond the headline shows, Best’s filmography extends into unexpected territory. She appeared as Min Sakul in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)—a role that placed her in the most successful film franchise in cinematic history. Her character was small but real, one of the many faces populating the Resistance’s universe.

The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death (2014) gave her the title role, a significant achievement in horror cinema where female protagonists are rarer than they should be. That project demonstrated her willingness to carry a genre film, not merely appear in supporting capacity.

Recent credits include Raging Grace and Sebastian, with television appearances in This City Is Ours, The Bay, and Young Wallander. TV Insider confirms these extended credits, painting a picture of an actress who continues working actively across formats.

What this means: Best moves fluidly between genres—crime drama, horror, science fiction, comedy—without appearing to specialize in any single one. That range is unusual and valuable in an industry that often encourages typecasting.

The Woman in Black 2

Best held the lead in this horror sequel, a responsibility that requires a different kind of performance than her British television work. Horror demands emotional availability and physical presence in ways that procedural drama does not, and Best delivered.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Her appearance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens marked a career milestone. The 2015 film grossed over two billion dollars worldwide, and Best was part of that universe—however briefly.

The Infiltrator

Best also appears in The Infiltrator, a film that added to her portfolio of crime-related projects. TV Guide credits her with the role, confirming her continued presence in the genre.

What was Leanne Best’s first role?

Research on Best’s earliest career steps reveals limited publicly available detail. What is confirmed: she trained at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, an institution that has produced notable British acting talent. Her first credited major roles in publicly available sources begin around 2014 with The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death.

Whether earlier stage or television work exists in her history is not well-documented in the sources currently available. Her IMDb profile begins reflecting significant credits from that 2014 marker, suggesting either limited early-career documentation or a relatively late entry into screen acting despite her training.

Early biography highlights

Her training at LIPA places Best among graduates of an institution founded by Paul McCartney and Mark Featherstone-Witty. The Liverpool-based school has established itself as a credible launchpad for British performers, which likely contributed to her eventual screen transition.

The gap between her performing arts training and her first significant screen credit—spanning what appears to be the better part of a decade—suggests either stage work, smaller roles not reflected in major databases, or a deliberate career pivot.

Leanne Best, speaking to Digital Spy about Line of Duty production secrecy:“We don’t get the end of the scripts in case we give anything away subconsciously.”

Her Line of Duty experience underscores a recurring theme in Best’s career: working in productions where information is controlled carefully and character truth matters more than plot mechanics. The quote also reveals her professional approach—method acting through institutional immersion.

For readers mapping her filmography: Start with the BBC police dramas for her most substantial British television work, add Star Wars for Hollywood exposure, and keep an eye on her recent independent film credits for signs of where her career may be heading next.

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Leanne Best’s commanding presence in Line of Duty alongside Martin Compston’s filmography and best roles underscores her affinity for intense police dramas.

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