Freema Agyeman

Freema Agyeman (born Frema Agyeman on 1 January, 1979 in Finsbury Park, London ) is an English actress of Ghanaian and Iranian descent whose first notable appearance was in the ITV soap opera Crossroads in 2003. She is best known for playing medical student Martha Jones, companion of the Tenth Doctor in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and Torchwood.

Background
Freema Agyeman grew up on the Woodberry Down council estate in the London Borough of Hackney. Her mother, Azar, is Iranian and her father, Osei, is Ghanaian. They divorced when she was a child. She has a younger brother, Dominic, and an older sister, Leila. She attended Our Lady's Convent, a Catholic school in Stamford Hill and the Anna Scher Theatre School in Islington. She studied performing arts and drama at Middlesex University, graduating in 2000. She has martial arts skills which prompted speculation that she would bring a more physical approach to the role of the Doctor's companion. .

Early Career
When Agyeman began her professional acting career she chose to use a different spelling of her birth name, Frema, as her professional name, to avoid pronunciation problems.

Before securing the part of Martha Jones, Agyeman's most famous television role was playing the character of Lola Wise in the revived series of Crossroads. She also had small parts in other TV series such as Casualty, Mile High and The Bill. In 2005 she played the character Mary Ogden in an episode of Silent Witness. She starred as the character 'Nana' in the Independent film Rulers and Dealers, written and directed by Stephen Lloyd Jackson.

Doctor Who
Freema Agyeman auditioned for three roles in the 2006 series of Doctor Who. On the 24th June 2005 she auditioned for the part of Sally Jacobs in The Christmas Invasion but was ultimately unsuccessful, losing out to Anita Briem, who the production team felt worked better as an ice cool blonde. She later auditioned for the roles of Esme and Adeola, in the Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel and Army of Ghosts respectively. Esme was ultimately cut from the final script but Freema was successful in her audition for the character Adeola in the Doctor who episode, Army of Ghosts. She filmed her role in the series in December 2005 and appeared on screen as Adeola on the 1st of July 2006. The Production team were enamored by the versatility shown by Agyeman across her three auditions and called her back as a serious candidate for the new companion. She attended another audition (under the guise of Torchwood) and the production team remained impressed. The next step was to take a screen-test with the Tenth Doctor actor, David Tennant. Tennant left a reasurring note under the door of Agyeman's hotel room, and this helped calm any nerves the actress had. She was ultimately successful and recieved notice of her success in February 2006. Following months of speculation on who would replace Billie Piper, Freema was confirmed to the press as new companion Martha Jones on the 5th July 2006.

Agyeman began filming for the third series in August 2006 and finished in March 2007. She made her screen debut as Martha Jones on the 31st March in the 2007 episode, Smith and Jones. Martha's physical similarity to Adeola Oshodi was explained as Martha being Adeola's cousin. . Agyeman continued to portray the character Martha Jones throughout every episode of the 2007 series.

Despite her character's departure from the TARDIS in the 2007 season finale "Last of the Time Lords", Agyeman returned as Martha in Series Four for five episodes, which consisted of "The Sontaran Stratagem", "The Poison Sky", "The Doctor's Daughter", "The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End".

She also appeared in three episodes of Torchwood. , appearing in "Reset", "Dead Man Walking" and "A Day in the Death, in the intermediary period between Doctor Who series' three and four, before her character departed to return to her job as a Medical Officer with UNIT.

Freema Agyeman has read the abridged audio book adaptations of three of the Doctor Who New Series Adventures novels, The Last Dodo, Wetworld. and The Pirate Loop

Recent Work
Agyeman can often be seen on The Bedtime Hour on CBeebies reading the story shortly before 7pm. She narrated BBC Three's hospital documentary series Bizarre ER which ran from February 14th 2008 to 3rd April 2008. She will host a Doctor Who-themed portion of the BBC Proms on 27th July.

On the 25th April 2008, Agyeman appeared on The Paul O'Grady Show.

She will be appearing as Tattycoram in the upcoming BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' Little Dorrit.

As confirmed by the BBC Press release, Agyeman will star in the BBC 1 remake of the cult TV series Survivors to be transmitted mid autumn 2008. She will play the charcter of Jenny Collins, a bright and lively young teacher in a primary school who must face choices beyond anything she could have imagined.

Awards and Recognition
In June 2007 Freema Agyeman was named 'Best Newcomer' at the 2007 'Glamour Women of the Year Awards'.

She won the 2007 People’s Choice category for “Female TV Star” in the 5th annual Screen Nation Film and TV Awards which were held on Monday 15th October 2007 at the Hilton Metropole in London.

The Observer had an interview with Agyeman in December 2007 and named her as a “face of 2007”.

Nominations
In 2003 Agyeman was nominated in two categories in The British Soap Awards for her role as Lola Wise in Crossroads. She was nominated as Best Newcomer but eventually lost out to Shane Richie (Alfie Moon). She was also nominated as sexiest female, but lost out to Jessie Wallace (Kat Slater).

In 2007 she was amongst the top four nominations for best actress in the prestigious National Television Awards but lost out to Lacey Turner

TV

 * Mile High (2003, TV Series)
 * Crossroads (2003, TV series) as Lola Wise
 * Casualty (1 episode, 2004) as Kate Hindley
 * The Bill (1 Episode, 2004) as Jenna Carter
 * Silent Witness (1 Episode, 2005) as Mary Ogden
 * The Bill (2 Episodes, 2006) as Shakira Washington
 * Doctor Who (2006, Episode "Army of Ghosts") as Adeola Oshodi
 * The One Show (2006) as herself
 * Doctor Who (2007-2008, TV Series) as Martha Jones
 * Doctor Who Confidential (2007-2008, 'making of' series) as herself
 * Doctor Who animated special The Infinite Quest (2007, TV Serial) as Martha Jones (voice)
 * Totally Doctor Who (2007, Children's magazine show) as herself
 * Friday Night with Jonathan Ross (25th May 2007) as herself
 * Richard and Judy (26th June 2007) as herself
 * The Omid Djalili Show (2007, TV Series) as herself
 * Torchwood (2008, TV Series) as Martha Jones
 * Torchwood Declassified (2008, 'making of' series) as herself
 * Bizarre ER (2008, TV Series) as the Narrator
 * The Friday Night Project (2008) as herself
 * The Paul O'Grady Show (2008) as herself
 * Little Dorrit (2008, TV serial) as Tattycoram
 * Survivors (TV Remake) (Autumn 2008, TV Series) as Jenny Collins.

Film

 * ''Rulers and Dealers (Independent Film, 2005) as Nana

Audio/Radio

 * ''The Last Dodo (Abridged Doctor Who Audiobook) (2007) as Narrator
 * ''Wetworld (Abridged Doctor Who Audiobook) (2008) as Narrator
 * ''Torchwood Radio Play (2008) as Martha Jones.
 * ''The Pirate Loop (Abridged Doctor who Audiobook (2008) as Narrator

Theatre

 * ''Twisted Roots - by Emily Nightingale (2001) as Anya Starr
 * ''When Snow Falls - by Chris Elwell (2001-2002) as 'T'
 * ''Lords and Ladies -Terry Pratchett's Discworld (2002) as various