Jessica Raine

Jessica Raine (born Jessica Helen Lloyd; 20 May 1982) is an English actress. She is best known for her roles as Jenny Lee in the television series Call the Midwife (2012–2014) and Verity Lambert in the television film An Adventure in Space and Time (2013). Raine portrayed Catherine Parr in Becoming Elizabeth, a historical drama featuring Elizabeth I as a teenager. Raine was born Jessica Helen Lloyd, on 20 May 1982, in Eardisley, Herefordshire, where she was raised on her father's farm. She is the younger of two daughters of farmer Allan Lloyd (descended from the Lloyd family of Baynham Hall, who were well known for generations as bonesetters alongside their farming activities), and his wife Sue, who trained as a dancer and then worked as a nurse. Educated in Kington, Herefordshire, she wanted to be an actress from the age of 13, as her father starred in amateur dramatics with the Eardisley Little Theatre. In sixth form she studied theatre at A-Level and a BTEC in photography at Hereford College of Arts and studied drama and cultural studies at the University of the West of England, Bristol. After graduating, she was turned down by every drama school she applied to, so went to Thailand and taught English as a second language.