Riseborough was born on 20 November 1981 in Newcastle upon Tyne, the daughter of Isabel, a secretary and beautician, and George, a car dealer.^[1] She grew up in Whitley Bay. In reference to The Long Walk to Finchley, she has described her parents as "working-class Thatcherites."^[2]

She appeared at the People's Theatre, Newcastle upon Tyne, in the play Riding England Sidesaddle by Christopher Goulding, as Celia Fiennes, and was a member of the Young People's Theatre for five years. Riseborough spent her schooldays at the independent school, Newcastle upon Tyne Church High School. She was a student of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), graduating in 2005 with a BA in Acting Degree (H Level).^[3]

Riseborough portrayed Margaret Thatcher in the BBC Four film The Long Walk to Finchley (2008). She appeared in the 2010 films Made in Dagenham and Mark Romanek's adaptation of Never Let Me Go. She starred in the American premiere of Alexi Kaye Campbell's The Pride at the Lucille Lortel Theatre in January 2010.^[4] The production was directed by Joe Mantello. She appears in Rowan Joffé's film adaptation of Brighton Rock. She worked with The Devil's Mistress author Peter Flannery on his screenplay based on the life of Angelica Fanshawe.^[1] She played the role of Wallis Simpson in W.E., a film directed by Madonna. She stars in Resistance, an adaptation of an Owen Sheers novel. The film was released on 25 November 2011.^[1]

She writes with her creative partner, actor Tom Burke, and with Mike Leigh. Riseborough starred in the thriller Hidden,^[5] a low-budget film directed by the Duffer Brothers.^[6] Hidden was released for streaming September 2015.^[7] She appeared in Oblivion (2013), in a supporting role.^[8] She co-starred in the acting ensemble of the Alejandro González Iñárritu's showbusiness drama film Birdman (or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), which won the Oscar for Best Picture at the 87th Academy Awards. Riseborough shared the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture for the film.

In 2016 she co-starred in apartheid drama Shepherds and Butchers and the Tom Ford directed psychological thriller Nocturnal Animals.^[9][10] She joined the cast of Netflix's Bloodline for season 2, as a series regular character, Evangeline.^[11][12] She acted as Emma Stone's love interest in the biographical sports film Battle of the Sexes, based on the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs.^[13] She portrayed Joseph Stalin's daughter Svetlana Stalina in the 2017 comedy-drama film The Death of Stalin and was praised by Variety for the "shrewd, multi-layered complexity" of her performance.^[14]

She was cast in Waco, a six-part television series about the Waco siege. The first episode was released on 24 January 2018.^[15] That same year she acted in three films, the horror film Mandy, the mystery drama Nancy (which she also produced), and the historical drama Burden.^[16] Riseborough has been cast in Lone Scherfig's The Kindness of Strangers as an ER nurse who runs an eclectic therapy group. The film started shooting at the Russian Tea Room in the spring of 2018.^[17][18][19] She starred in a Sony remake of The Grudge. The film was released on 3 January 2020.^[20] Riseborough starred in the international cocaine trade drama ZeroZeroZero, an eight-part series adapted from the book by Roberto Saviano, which had its debut on Sky in the UK and Amazon Prime in the US in 2020.^[21][22] She starred in Possessor—written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg—as Tasya Vos, an agent for a secretive organization who uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people's bodies, driving them to commit assassinations for the benefit of high-paying clients. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020.^[23]

In 2022, Riseborough appeared in the film To Leslie, for which she received critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Numerous celebrities praised her performance publicly and on social media, and hosted screenings during the voting period for the Academy Award nominations in January 2023.^[24][25] Her unexpected To Leslie nomination has generated some questions, and without referring to her, the Board of Governors has pledged to "review of the campaign procedures around this year's nominees, to ensure that no guidelines were violated, and to inform us whether changes to the guidelines may be needed in a new era of social media and digital communication."^[26][27][28] Also that year she had supporting roles as Mrs. Wormwood in the musical Matilda the Musical and Beatrice Vandenheuvel in David O. Russell's Amsterdam. In 2023 she acted opposite Kate Winslet portraying Vogue editor Audrey Withers in the biographical war drama Lee which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Riseborough in 2020 revealed that she met the 'love of her life', Karim Saleh, while working on the set of Luxor.^[29] Previous to that she was reportedly in a long term relationship with Joe Appel from 2009 to 2016.^[30]

Film edit

Television edit

Theatre edit

• Andrea Riseborough at IMDb  
• Andrea Riseborough at AllMovie
• Andrea Riseborough at Rotten Tomatoes
• Andrea Riseborough at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art