Trainspotting, Doctor Who and Harry Potter star Shirley Henderson to get BAFTA Scotland honour

Screen favourite Shirley Henderson, a star of the Trainspotting, Harry Potter and Bridget Jones movies, is to get the biggest honour in the film and TV industry in Scotland.

The actress, who has also starred in Happy Valley, Doctor Who and Hamish Macbeth, will receive an outstanding contribution award from BAFTA Scotland next month.

She will be honoured after a screen career stretching back more than 30 years.

BAFTA Scotland has also announced an outstanding contribution award for Oscar-winning sound engineer Stuart Wilson, who has worked on the Star Wars, James Bond and Harry Potter franchises.

Born in Forres, in Moray, Henderson was brought up in Kincardine, in Fife, attending Dunfermline High School. She studied theatre arts at Adam Smith College in Kirkcaldy before winning a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

Henderson made her first stage and screen appearances after graduating in 1986, winning TV roles in the dramas Casualty and Wish Me Luck, and starring in the plays Entertaining Strangers and The Winter’s Tale.

She came to prominence in the mid-1990s starring alongside Robert Carlyle in the Highland-set police comedy-drama Hamish Macbeth and playing Gail, the girlfriend of Spud, Trainspotting.

She played Jude in all three Bridget Jones films and Moaning Myrtle in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fife.

Early film roles included Rob Roy, Topsy-Tury, Wonderland, 24 Hour Party People, American Cousins and Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself.

More recently, she has appeared in the TV series The Mandalorian, Tom Jones and The Nest and the feature film Stan & Ollie and Filth. She won an Olivier Award for her role as Elizabeth in the musical Girl From The North Country, which used the songs of Bob Dylan.

As well as appearing in the two Trainspotting movies, Henderson has also appeared on screen in two other Irvine Welsh stories, Filth and Wedding Belles.

An official announcement from BAFTA Scotland said: “Throughout her career, Henderson’s ability to transform on screen has allowed her to accumulate an extraordinarily versatile CV. From the fantastical worlds of Harry Potter, Doctor Who and Star Wars, to period pieces such as Marie Antoinette, Meek’s Cutoff, Stan & Ollie, and See How They Run - through to contemporary dramas like Filth, Happy Valley and Okja.”

Henderson, who has previously won two BAFTA Scotland best actress awards, will be presented with the award at the annual ceremony in Glasgow on 19 November.

She said: “It is so kind of BAFTA to give me this award and it has come as a huge surprise.

“It is overwhelming and lovely all at the same time.”

Glasgow-born Wilson, who studied at the National Film and Television School in London, has worked with the likes of Sam Mendes, Sofia Coppola, Michael Winterbottom, JJ Abrams, Wes Anderson, Steven Spielberg and David Cronenberg during his career.

He said: “It seems a long time since I was chapping the doors of Glasgow’s production companies, asking if I could carry their boxes and make tea, but the opportunities that began there have since taken me on adventures all round Scotland and across five continents of the world.

“I couldn’t be more proud and thank BAFTA for this remarkable honour.”