Denise Gough

Denise Gough is reprising the role of Emma in Duncan Macmillan’s People, Places & Things at the Trafalgar Theatre.

Gough is an Irish actress born in 1980, who trained at the Academy of Live and Recording Arts. She started her London theatre career in By the Bog of Cats and As You Like It, both at the Wyndham's Theatre. She then performed in off-West End shows including Our New Girl at the Bush Theatre and in Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre.

Following this success, she starred as Julia in The Duchess of Malfi at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in 2014 which was filmed and broadcast on BBC4. Gough also performed in Duncan Macmillan’s People Places and Things at the National Theatre in 2015, playing a recovering drug addict. For People Places and Things, Gough won the Olivier Award for Best Actress.

She returned to stage in 2017 in Angels in America alongside Russell Tovey, Nathan Lane and Andrew Garfield at the National Theatre. For her performance as Harper Pitt, she earned the Olivier for Best Supporting Actress, as well as a Tony Award nomination for the role off Broadway. Her last stage role was as Portia Coughlan at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.

Gough also has a number of screen credits, including most famously the role of Dedra in Star Wars prequel Andor. She has starred in the 2018 film Colette opposite Keira Knightley, the mini-series Too Close with Emily Watson, Under the Banner of Heaven with Andrew Garfield, and in the 2023 thriller series Who is Erin Carter?