Dame Imelda Mary Philomena Bernadette Staunton, DBE, is an English actress. For Disney, she provided the voice of Tall Flowers in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. She also voiced Knotgrass in the 2014 live-action film Maleficent and its 2019 sequel Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.
Staunton was born in Archway, North London and attended La Sainte Union Catholic School, Staunton took drama classes with her elocution teacher and starred in school plays, including the role of Polly Peachum in The Beggar's Opera. Encouraged by her teacher, she auditioned for drama schools and got into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at age 18. In time, Staunton appeared in various stage productions in her career including Guys and Dolls, Venus and Adonis, Uncle Vanya, Into the Woods, Slavs!, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Gypsy, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Follies.
Outside of theater, Staunton became best known for portraying Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and the titular character of the 2004 British drama film Vera Drake. Her other film credits include Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Sense and Sensibility, Shakespeare in Love, Nanny McPhee, Freedom Writers, and Downton Abbey (2019). She also voiced Bunty in the 2000 DreamWorks/Aardman animated film Chicken Run and Queen Victoria, the main antagonist of the 2012 Sony/Aardman film The Pirates! Band of Misfits. She has also lent her voice to films, like Arthur Christmas and Paddington, as well as the radio drama Julie Enfield Investigates.
