The Favourite star Olivia Colman awarded CBE in Queen’s birthday honours list
Olivia Colman plays Kit Connor’s on-screen mum in Heartstopper. (Getty Images/Eamonn M. McCormack)
Olivia Colman has been recognised for her services to drama in Queen Elizabeth II’s Birthday Honours of 2019.
The British actor, who bagged an Academy Award for her role as queer Queen Anne in The Favourite earlier this year, is now a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE).
Colman rose to fame as Sophie, David Mitchell’s onscreen girlfriend, in comedy series Peep Show.
Aside from appearing in upcoming horror movie Them That Follow, she will next be seen as the Queen in the eagerly-anticipated third and fourth seasons of Netflix’s The Crown. Helena Bonham Carter is set to portray Princess Margaret while her The Night Manager co-star Tobias Menzies will play Prince Philip.
Colman portrayed real-life monarch Queen Anne, who was believed to have had a romantic relationship with her close friend Sarah Churchill, in The Favourite (20th Century Fox)
“I’m totally thrilled,” she said in a statement to the Press Association. “Delighted and humbled to be in the company of these incredible people, most of whom have been nowhere near as visible as I have, but should be – and hopefully now will be. It’s such an honour.”
What are the Queen’s Birthday Honours?
Dating back to 1890, the Queen’s Birthday Honours list is announced annually and celebrates those who have benefited the nation in some way, be it through activism, sport or another avenue altogether. Other appointees from the entertainment industry this year include lesbian author Sarah Waters, whose best known works include Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith, and gay actor Simon Russell Beale, who received a knighthood.
“Writing is, by its nature, a very solitary pursuit,” Waters said in a statement. “You spend most of your time as an author hidden away.
“So to receive this kind of very public honour is a huge thrill. I’m absolutely delighted, and a little bit dazed.”
Sarah Waters, author of lesbian novels such as The Night Watch and Fingersmith, was also recognised (NICOLAS ASFOURI/AFP/Getty Images)
Elsewhere, Laurie Lee, the founder and Chief Executive of Maggie’s cancer centres, anti-slavery commissioner Sara Thornton and sculptor Rachel Whiteread have been awarded damehoods. Other names – who will now have to add CBE whenever they write their title down – include thriller novelist Lee Child, domestic violence expert Professor Charlotte Watts and pianist Joanna MacGregor.
Celebrity survivalist Bear Grylls, social activist Leyla Hussein, musician Elvis Costello, Planet Earth producer Alastair Fothergill, The Good Fight actor Cush Jumbo and CEO of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust Sonia Watson, are now Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).
