Top 5 Things You Didn't Know About Jodie Whittaker

She’s stepping into one of the most coveted and exclusive roles in British TV, landing a landmark moment for female actors in the process, but Jodie Whittaker usually works away from the spotlight if she can help it. She’s not on Instagram, she doesn’t have a Facebook account and she has previously challenged Twitter to take down fake profiles pretending to be her. Keen to keep her family and work lives separate, the actress is reportedly happy to be able to walk down the street unrecognised. However, with the TARDIS keys jangling in her back pocket, that could all be about to change. The BBC’s reveal trailer was broadcast to millions shortly after the 2017 Wimbledon men’s final, before it was beamed across the internet for Whovians everywhere.

Born and raised in Skelmanthorpe, a small village in West Yorkshire, acting has always been one of Whitttaker’s chief goals. Her lofty ambitions sent her down south to London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she graduated with the prestigious Gold Medal and met her future husband, the US actor Christian Contreras. TV audiences will also associate her with the West Country, following her role as Beth Latimer in “Broadchurch”, while an itching for worldwide travel took Whittaker backpacking along the west coast of America when she was eighteen, as well as the Cook Islands, Australia and Singapore. The urge to explore should only serve her well for a part as TV’s most prolific planet-hopper, although we doubt she’s ever encountered anything close to a Dalek or Cyberman before.

Life as the Doctor is rarely routine, but Whittaker is used to a little variety. While she’s best known for film and TV roles, she has tried her hand at other things too, and successfully so. In 2008 she played Joanna in the Radio 4 adaptation of Stephen Poliakoff’s “Blinded by the Sun” and she debuted on stage at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2005, when she played Ampolisca in Peter Oswald’s “The Storm”. The soon-to-be-Time Lord has seen a smidge of Oscar buzz as well, having starred in “Wish 143”, a 24-minute drama which scored a nomination for Live Action Short Film at the 2011 Academy Awards. But not even Hollywood can match the grandeur of Gallifrey.

Since 2006, Whittaker has steadily built one of the UK’s most impressive film and TV resumes, making her one of Britain’s most in demand actresses, even before becoming the latest custodian of DW’s legendary blue box. A role in “Venus” in 2006 earned a wealth of Best Newcomer nominations, before a spot in “St. Trinian’s” and parts in “The Kid” and “One Day”. 2016's “Adult Life Skills” saw Whittaker break stereotypes, starring as an awkward 29-year old who rarely leaves the solitude of her mother’s shed; “Women are not a genre”, said the actress in a promo interview. Arguably, she’s best known for TV work however, with a starring role in the first season finale of “Black Mirror” and a haunting performance as the grieving mother in “Broadchurch”.

And she has a history with aliens. Amongst all of Whittaker’s other acting credits, there are two which fly closer to the Doctor Who brief than others; both from 2011. In “Attack the Block”, the new Who stars alongside John Boyega – who’s also a pretty big name in sci-fi circles nowadays – for a sci-fi/horror/comedy set in a council estate under siege by extra-terrestrials. Six months later and “A Thousand Kisses Deep” premiered at the Raindance Film Festival with Whittaker as Mia, a woman who travels back in time to try and prevent a death she’s just witnessed. Of course, Who fans know that not even the Doctor can change the course of history (time’s much more wibbly-wobbly than that), but the part does serve as a sort of work experience for one of TV’s greatest adventures.