MyAnna Buring

Buring was born My Anna Margaretha Buring Rantapää on 22 September 1979 in Sundsvall, Sweden and later moved to the Middle East. Her father Klas was an orthopaedic consultant and surgeon, while her mother sold fur coats and Christmas trees in Kuwait. Buring attended secondary school at the American British Academy in Muscat, Oman with her childhood friend Stegath Dorr.

As a teenager, Buring temporarily quit school and worked as a glass collector in a Stockholm bar. She then moved to England, where she completed the International Baccalaureate at a boarding school in Oxford. She studied Drama and Spanish (though she eventually dropped Spanish) at the University of Bristol and went on to graduate from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) in 2004. She was the associate director of the MahWaff Theatre Company.

Television

In 2006, Buring appeared in "The Impossible Planet", the first episode of a two-episode Doctor Who story. Her character, Scooti, perished in the vacuum of space. Also in 2006, Buring played Olivia in a production of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night by Exeter's Northcott Theatre Company, and appeared in a new play, Seduced, at London's Finborough Theatre. In 2008, Buring starred as Alice in the independent film Credo, also known as The Devil's Curse.

Buring also starred as Debbie in Much Ado About Nothing (BBC One), Midsomer Murders (ITV), Casualty (BBC One) and Murder Prevention (Channel 5). For MahWaff Theatre Company, she starred in Guardians, Monologue for an Ensemble and An Inspector Calls.

Buring played the role of the CND peace activist and student Adriana Doyle in series three, episode two, of Inspector George Gently, which was screened in the UK on BBC One in October 2010.

In 2012, Buring had significant supporting roles in the BBC drama serials Blackout and Ripper Street. She also joined the cast of Downton Abbey, playing the role of the maid Edna Braithwaite in the 2012 Christmas special episode and the fourth season.

In December 2012, Buring played protagonist Karen Clarke, a woman who is haunted by her past which eventually catches up with her, in a two-part drama called The Poison Tree that was broadcast on ITV1.

In 2013, Buring appeared in an episode of NBC's Crossing Lines, playing villainess Anika Hauten.

In July 2017, she played the lead role of Manchester police Detective Inspector Helen Weeks in BBC 4-part drama In the Dark.

Since 2019, she has played the role of Tissaia de Vries in the Netflix fantasy series The Witcher.

She played the role of Dawn Sturgess in the 2020 television series The Salisbury Poisonings.

In 2022 she played the role of Kate Carson in the BBC TV drama The Responder.

Film

In her first film role, Buring starred in a leading role in the 2005 horror film The Descent, as one of the main characters among the women who ventured down into an uncharted cave system. Buring also appeared in the film's sequel, The Descent Part 2, in the form of flashbacks.

She also starred in Doomsday in 2008.

Buring appeared as the female lead in the film Lesbian Vampire Killers, released to UK cinemas on 20 March 2009.

In May 2010, she appeared as Jozefa in Witchville for the SyFy channel.

Buring played the role of Tanya of the Denali Coven in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 and Part 2.

In 2011, Buring appeared in the horror film Kill List, in which she acted the part of the protagonist's wife.

Theatre

Buring played the lead as Vera in Mathilde Dratwa's Milk and Gall in South London's Theatre503. The show ran from 2 to 27 November 2021.

Buring lives in North London. In May 2017, she gave birth to a son. In 2022, she opened up about her experience with perinatal depression. Buring generally prefers to keep the details of her personal life private.

A 2013 interview with The Herald noted Buring's knowledge of and "interest in the world around her". She is a Women for Women ambassador and became involved with SolarAid in 2014. She is vocal on a number of social issues, such as climate change and the rights of refugees. In light of the 2023 Israel–Hamas war, Buring was one of over two thousand to sign an Artists for Palestine letter calling for a ceasefire and accusing western governments of "not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them."

Film

Television

Video games

• MyAnna Buring at IMDb