Where to Watch the Best Hannah Waddingham Movies and TV shows Online
This article has been updated by Rory O'Connor.
Since her performances in hit TV series such as Ted Lasso and Game of Thrones, Hannah Waddingham has become one of the most in-demand British actors and something of a national treasure—to the point of starring in a gooey Christmas advert for M&S. Since finding this late-career success, Hollywood has come calling with roles in some of the biggest franchises of the last few years.
With Waddingham’s recent appearance in Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning now available to stream at home, and with rumours of the long-awaited fourth season of Ted Lasso finally starting to gain some traction, it feels like a good time to look back on the actress’s landmark roles—arranged here in chronological order—and see how we got here. Read on to discover more and use the guide below to find out where to stream them on platforms like AppleTV, Netflix, Prime Video and elsewhere.
After garnering great success on the West End, the actress and singer made her small-screen debut with a small part in the TV series Coupling in 2002. From there, Waddingham started popping up in a number of shows before landing her first big screen role in the Simon Pegg comedy How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.
This is a classic fish out of water movie, with Pegg as the rather snide British journalist who lands an unlikely job at a swanky New York magazine. It’s a decent comedy, though viewers should probably set expectations more to The Intern than The Devil Wears Prada. Either way, Waddingham has plenty of fun playing Elizabeth Maddox, a haughty staff writer at the magazine.
Waddingham got to showcase some of her extensive stage talents in a brief but memorable appearance in Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables—which was, at the time, her most prestigious movie to date. This is a direct screen adaptation of the classic Victor Hugo-adapted musical, so if you’re a fan of similarly faithful reproductions, like Spielberg’s West Side Story or Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd, you’ll likely appreciate it.
Hooper’s movie starred Hugh Jackman as Valjean alongside Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway and Amanda Seyfried. Amongst that roster, Waddingham’s part was so small that it was simply called Factory Worker #1 in the credits—but she actually makes it sing.
Waddington landed her first recurring role in ITV’s Benidorm, a comedy series that followed British tourists vacationing abroad—imagine if The Inbetweeners somehow landed in The White Lotus and you’ll have some idea what to expect.
For the series, Waddington played the head of the Dykes, a working class family who lit up season six with their bawdy humor and inner fighting.
Many viewers first got to know Waddingham for her haunting performance as Septa Unella in season 6 and 7 of Game of Thrones. In the world of Westeros, the fanatical character is best known for taking Cersei on her iconic walk of atonement, where she repeatedly rang a bell while chanting “Shame”—needless to say, the character lives to regret it.
If for some reason you’ve yet to see the show, imagine Lord of the Rings with a whole lot more sex, violence, politics and profanity—and yes, aside from the unfortunate final season, it is about as much fun as that sounds.
Following her performance in Game of Thrones, Waddingham landed a role in Netflix’s Sex Education, a hilarious show about the gooier aspects of a group of young peoples’ hormonal years (think a funny, UK-based Euphoria) that has since launched the careers of a number of wonderful young actors—so if you appreciated Aimee Lou Wood’s performance in White Lotus season 3 or Emma Mackay’s in Emily, you might be interested in seeing where they got their start.
Leaning back into the matriarchal traits she’d become famous for with Unella, Waddingham gave a memorable performance in season 4 as Sofia Marchetti, the conservative headmaster of Cavendish College.
The Hustle is basically a gender swapped remake of the 1988 classic Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: a story about two con artists who decide to work together to shake down some wealthy types on the French Riviera—and naturally, if you like the original or other similar heist movies set in fancy locales, like Ocean’s Eleven, you might be interested in checking it out.
The movie stars Anne Hathaway (Waddingham’s Les Mis scene partner) alongside Rebel Wilson as the two thieves, with Waddingham bringing her signature haughtiness to a small part as one of the Hathaway character’s marks.
It might have come later than expected, but Waddingham’s award-winning performance as Rebecca Welton in Ted Lasso is arguably the finest achievement in her screen career so far. The uplifting show tells the story of an American coach who moves to England to manage a football team—so if you appreciate good-natured, fish out of water comedies, like Parks and Recreation or The Good Place, or even just like watching Welcome to Wrexham, you’ll probably be into it.
For her performance as the fierce but loving head of AFC Richmond, Waddingham received both the Primetime Emmy Award and the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.
Alongside lending her voice to the most recent Smurfs and Garfield movies, Waddingham appeared in the sequel to another nostalgic family favourite, Hocus Pocus 2. This long awaited followup was basically made for fans of the original so we highly recommend watching (or possibly re-watching) it before checking this one out!
Alongside the returning cast from the original (including Beth Middler, Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Najimi), Waddingham was cast to play the Mother Witch—appearing in flashback to give the central trio their powers. It’s a role that once again called on the actress’ matriarchal presence and signature ability for blending villainy and mischief.
More recently, the actress landed a lead role in The Fall Guy, an action-comedy starring Ryan Gosling as a stuntman who comes out of retirement to help his ex-girlfriend (Emily Blunt), a movie director, when the production of her latest starts to go haywire.
The movie is about as bonkers as the synopsis suggests, but if you’re a far real stuntwork (as in the various movies of the Mission: Impossible franchise), you’ll appreciate this loving ode to the craft—and plus, if you’re a fan of Waddingham, you’ll enjoy seeing her in one of her juiciest antagonist roles.
And speaking of the Mission: Impossible franchise, Waddingham’s most high profile gig to date came earlier this year in Christopher McQuarrie’s remarkable final movie in the long running (pun intended) Tom Cruise franchise—and if you’re a fan of those movies, especially more recent, action-heavy efforts like Rogue Nation and Fallout, you’ll love this one.
For Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Waddingham appeared as Rear Admiral Neely, a high-ranking naval officer. It’s admittedly not the best part in the movie, and Waddingham’s American accent probably needs a little work, but it’s a big role in one of the biggest movies of the year—a clear marker that the actress has never been more prominent.
