Megan Dodds (born 15 February 1970) is an American stage and television actress.
Megan Dodds was born in Sacramento, California, and after High School she enrolled in a community college where she was cast as Bananas in John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves. The role inspired her enough to apply successfully to study for four years at the Juilliard School.
After graduation, Dodds spent two years in Off Broadway and Broadway productions, before being spotted by English comedian Ben Elton, and came to London in 1997 to play a bunny girl in Elton's play Popcorn. As a result of meeting her photographer husband Oliver Pearce, she became resident in London: “I love it here, I really feel like I learn a lot. There’s a lot of variety in terms of work.”
Dodds track record in London shows the variety of work, as she has held down roles in diverse television productions, including: Love in a Cold Climate; playing Christine Dale, the chilling CIA liaison officer in the BBC One series Spooks; and Kitty deLux in Viva Blackpool.
However, theatre is probably where she makes most impact at present. Having previously played opposite Gwyneth Paltrow in 1999 in As You Like It, and kissing Madonna in Up For Grabs; in 2006 she won the London Theatregoers' Choice Award for Best Actress in the one woman show "My Name is Rachel Corrie". The show opened at the Royal Court Theatre in London, but a planned transfer to the New York Theatre Workshop was cancelled, with rumours of the theatre being afraid of the show’s Gaza Strip based political content. Dodds fought against the imposed indefinite delay, and the debate of censorship on such a sensitive issue at the time of the post-Iraq war debate became publicised by the New York Times. After a successful run in London's West End, the show eventually played to a sellout audience at the off-Broadway Minetta Lane Theatre in early 2006.
After coming to the UK in 1997, she met fashion and advertising photographer Oliver Pearce. The couple married, have one daughter Isabella, and live in Battersea, South London.
She is a fan of tennis and Roger Federer, and her friends include actress Rachel Feinstein. Her guiltiest pleasure is smoking.
List of Stage Credits:
