Miriam Margolyes OBE is a British-Australian actress. Her earliest roles were in theatre; after several supporting roles in film and television, she won a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence (1993) and was cast in the role of Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series (2002–2011).
Margolyes has spent many years dividing her time between the United Kingdom, Australia and Italy.
She has starred in productions in both the United Kingdom and Australia, including her 1989 one-woman show Dickens’ Women and the Australian premiere of the 2013 play, I’ll Eat You Last. She became an Australian citizen in 2013.
Margolyes was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 New Year Honours for Services to Drama.
Is Miriam Margolyes a vegetarian?
Margolyes has recently become vegetarian and the results, she says, are simply quite marvellous.
”I feel a bit missionary about vegetarian food now; I think everybody should be on it,” she says.
”Because I am appalled at what people are eating. I’ve been fat all my life and so I am aware of the problems that being fat brings, but I have never eaten muck and I think a lot of people are eating a lot of muck these days … and when you look around Australia, it’s an obese nation now. And that’s shocking; they were always the most beautiful people.”