Kathryn Hunter’s Career: From Harry Potter to Shakespeare and a Daring Role in ‘Poor Things’

Kathryn Hunter may not be a household name, but chances are good you’ve witnessed her shapeshifting presence in movies or shows like Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix , The Tragedy of Macbeth or Andor . The actress, who first became known as a powerhouse performer on the stage, is busier than ever at 67 and had a scene-stealing turn in last year’s provocative hit film Poor Things . She most recently played Brandy ’s mother-in-law from hell in the thriller The Front Room , and can now be seen in Francis Ford Coppola ’s high-concept passion project Megalopolis .

Here’s a look at Hunter’s unique career, and how she made the move from acclaimed theater actress to Hollywood’s go-to for playing compellingly bizarre characters.

A gifted stage performer

Born Aikaterini Hadjipateras to Greek parents and raised in England, Kathryn Hunter trained at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. While at school, she struggled with her mental health, and endured serious injuries when she was hit by a car in a botched suicide attempt. Since that harrowing event, she’s been open about her emotional struggles and how performing saved her.

In a situation where many people might have given up on acting entirely, Hunter instead chose to find strength in her injuries, and soon earned a reputation for the daring physicality of her performances in both classical and modern productions. In her thriving theater career, she became known for taking on decidedly unglamorous roles and throwing herself into dark, gender-bending performances, playing everything from King Lear to a monkey.

Hunter still performs in plays, and reflecting on the significance of stage work in her life, she said, “ Finding theater was a lifeline . On a personal level, I was troubled way back at university and that’s when I got into theater . . . It is a lifeline because of the community of it, the imagining, and then all those things that are bubbling around inside you in terms of why we’re here and what the world is, and all that. If you don’t have a channel in which to express it, you’re just like a crazed atom going round the universe. If there’s a stage and other people and lines that brilliant other people have written, you can channel a lot of those unsorted feelings and thoughts.”

Hunter’s ability to channel emotional chaos into physical drama earned her rave reviews, and in the '90s, she made the jump from the stage to the screen, while never forgetting her background.

Kathryn Hunter movies and TV shows

Hunter made her film debut in the 1992 art film Orlando . Throughout the '90s and into the '00s, she built up an eclectic resume combining small-scale British films and TV appearances (including playing Cleopatra’s slave in Rome from 2005 to 2007) with plays. In 2007, she had her mainstream breakout when she played Harry Potter’s mysterious neighbor in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix .

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Hunter’s role in the Harry Potter world led to more franchise parts, including doing voiceover work for two episodes of the Disney series Tron: Uprising in 2012 and 2013 and a recurring role in the Star Wars Universe series Andor in 2022.

In 2021, Hunter honored her Shakespearean roots when she played all three of the witches in The Tragedy of Macbeth , and won rave reviews for the intensity of her performance. Since then, she’s had an impressive run of wonderfully twisted roles in mainstream films, playing a grizzled, tattooed madame at a brothel in Poor Things , an abusive religious fanatic in The Front Room and the wife of a corrupt mayor in the new epic Megalopolis .

Hunter’s later in life movie stardom has been inspiring to witness. The actress has managed to channel her trauma into art and is refreshingly uninhibited when it comes to playing strange roles that most other actresses would turn down. While the word “fearless” is frequently thrown around in the entertainment industry, it most definitely applies to Kathryn Hunter.

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