It’s Jenna Coleman’s 40th birthday! The British actress was born on April 27, 1986, in Blackpool, Lancashire, England.
Coleman started acting in the late 1990s. However, she landed her first significant role in the mid-late 2000s, playing Jasmine Thomas in the popular British soap opera “Emmerdale.” She is now best known on a global scale for playing the Doctor’s companion Clara Oswald in the iconic British sci-fi series “Doctor Who.” She made her first appearance in 2012 and final one in 2017.
On the day Coleman celebrates becoming a quadragenarian, let’s take a photographic look back at her through the years. We’ll star with her “Emmerdale” days, and go all the way up to how she looks today.
Jenna Coleman’s First Acting Role
Above is a social media post with a picture of Coleman (R) in her first screen role as Jasmine Thomas in “Emmerdale” in 2006.
In 2005, Coleman began her four-year tenure as Jasmine Thomas in ITV’s soap opera “Emmerdale,” set in the Yorkshire Dales.
Her only other acting credit in the mid-late 2000s came in 2009, when she landed a key role as Lindsay James in series five of British drama series “Waterloo Road.”
The Early 2010s
Above is a social media post with the first official picture of Coleman as “Doctor Who” character Clara Oswald in 2012.
The early 2010s saw Coleman’s career take off. Her first big screen role came with a small part in 2011’s Marvel superhero movie “Captain America: The First Avenger.”
On television, she appeared in the ITV miniseries “Titanic,” the BBC miniseries “Room at the Top,” the drama series “Dancing on the Edge,” and the BBC miniseries “Death Comes to Pemberley.”
Moreover, she also landed her most famous role as Clara Oswald in “Doctor Who.” Her stint as the character began in 2012 and ended in 2017.
The Mid-Late 2010s
GettyColeman landed her second movie role in the late 2010s, with a part in the 2016 romantic drama “Me Before You.”
Television roles over this period included a voice role in the animated sci-fi series “Thunderbirds Are Go” and a key role in the BBC miniseries “The Cry.”
She also played the eponymous role of Queen Victoria in the ITV period drama “Victoria” from 2016 until 2019.
The Early 2020s
HBOIn the early 2020s, Coleman significantly added to her credits on both the big and small screens.
Movie-wise in this period, she appeared in the 2022 British dark comedy “Klokkenluider,” the 2023 British action thriller “Jackdaw,” and the 2024 sci-fi romantic drama “All of You.”
On television, her credits included an episode of the British anthology comedy mystery series “Inside No. 9,” the Netflix crime drama miniseries “The Serpent,” narrating the “Billion Pound Bond Street” documentary, a key role as Johanna Constantine in the Netflix fantasy drama series “The Sandman,” the Amazon psychological thriller miniseries “Wilderness,” and the BBC British crime drama series “The Jetty.”
Jenna Coleman Today
Above is a 2026 social media post by Jenna Coleman with four recent pictures of her.
Today, Jenna Coleman is looking as stunning as ever.
She has a couple of projects lined up. Notably, she will star in the Channel 4 political comedy-drama “Number 10” about 10 Downing Street. Additionally, she will appear in the action movie “Control.” In that one, she’ll star alongside the likes of James McAvoy, Julianne Moore, Sarah Bolger, and Nick Mohammed.
We’d like to wish the beautiful Jenna Coleman the happiest of 40th birthdays. Hereâs hoping she has the most amazing day celebrating.
Jenna Coleman’s filmography info was courtesy of IMDb.
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