Dame Harriet Walter & Rachel Tucker

The Dorset School of Acting’s Patrons

Dame Harriet Walter

Harriet Mary Walter, is an Olivier award winning and a Tony Award-nominated British actress. She was educated at the Cranbourne Chase School and after training at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.

Harriet is one of the most successful British actresses of all time. She has worked constantly throughout her career with the Royal Shakespeare Company and was made an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1987. Her films include Sense and Sensibility (1996),Babel (2006), Atonement (2007) and The Young Victoria (2009) The Wedding Video (2012). TV: Law & Order:UK, Downton Abbey. Theatre: Anthony & Cleopatra (RSC), Mary Stuart (Broadhurst Theatre NY), Women Beware Woman (National Theatre), Julius Caesar (Donmar Warehouse).

Harriet has been made Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to drama.

Rachel Tucker

Rachel Tucker is an Northern Irish singer and actress who competed as one of the finalists in the BBC talent show-themed television series I’d Do Anything in 2008. She is perhaps best known for playing Elphaba in the hit musical Wicked in the West End, where she played the role longer than any other actress in the production’s history.

Rachel trained at the Royal Academy of Music. She worked with Any Dream Will Do winner Lee Mead in the 2005 United Kingdom tour of the Rock musical, Tommy as Sally Simpson. In December 2007, Tucker appeared as Dorothy Gale in the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of The Wizard of Oz at the Lyric Theatre in Belfast. Most recently she has appeared on Broadway as Meg Dawson in the Sting musical ‘The Last Ship’.  Most recently Rachel appeared as Poopay in Alan Ayckbourn’s ‘Communicating Doors’ at The Menier Chocolate Factory.  She is currently revisiting her most famous role of Elphaba in ‘Wicked’ on New York’s Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre.  Just to keep her busy she’s also been recording ‘Out of Oz’: Wicked Studio Sessions, where favourite Wicked alumni and current performers sing reimagined versions of Wicked songs.