Miriam Margoyles

Miriam Margoyles

Position: Friend
School and/or Centres: Freilich Project for the Study of Bigotry

Our uncertain economic future can foster bigotry, prejudice & a lack of compassion. That is why the work of the Freilich Foundation has never been more essential, to provide a beacon of sense to light our way forward.

Miriam Margolyes O.B.E. was born in Oxford, UK in 1941. She went to Cambridge University to read English Literature at Newnham College & was taught there by FR & QD Leavis. Their influence has informed her life. Her passion for Dickens resulted in am award-winning, one-woman show, Dicken's Women & a book of the same name. She won a BAFTA Best Supporting Actress Award for The Age of Innocence, directed by Martin Scorsese.

Her work has taken her to all parts of the world & she has appeared in many iconic productions on stage & screen – among them, the Harry Potter films (Professor Sprout) Blackadder (Spanish Infanta, Lady WhiteAdder & Queen Victoria) & the musical WICKED. Her political interests, always on the Left, ensured she was a Member of her trade union Council for many years & of many protest & action groups, most recently, Jews for Justice for Palestinians. She is active in many charities, especially in Third World countries.

She became an Australian on 26 January 2013.