Little was born in Liverpool, England. Her mother is a teacher and her father is a NHS manager. For the first ten years of her life she lived in the Middle East where her father set up immunisation clinics for the World Health Organisation, and her mother taught at an English Speaking school. Her family then moved back to the UK and settled in Loughton, in Essex. She attended the local comprehensive school, Loughton County High School for Girls and joined a Saturday drama group called the Epping Youth Theatre.
She originally planned on a career in law, but was persuaded to apply to drama school by her teacher after she starred in a school production of the musical Chicago. She attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and graduated in 1994 with a BA Hons in drama.
Little as Vicki Westbrook in Spooks.
Little's first acting role after graduating was a part in the play The Tenth Man at the Hampstead Theatre. She was talent-spotted whilst performing a play at the Latchmere Pub Theatre and subsequently won the role of Jenny in the successful ITV drama London's Burning in 1988. She went on to have roles in the Lynda La Plante televised series Supply & Demand in 1997 and that same year she won the role of Rachel in the critically acclaimed BBC drama This Life (series 2).
Other television credits include The Bill (1998); Big Women (1998); Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair (1998); Cadfael (1998); The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything (1999); Man and Boy (2002); Far From The Madding Crowd; Murder in Mind (2003); playing Vicki Westbrook in the spy drama, Spooks (2003); The Crooked Man (2003); Angell's Hell (2005) and playing Lady Hamilton in the Ricky Gervais comedy Extras (2005), among others.
Film credits include The Clandestine Marriage (1999); The Criminal (1999); Kevin & Perry Go Large (2000); Greenfingers (2000); Another Life (2001); Byron (2003); Vanity Fair (2004), where she played Lady Jane Sheepshanks Crawley; and The Queen of Sheba's Pearls (2004), among others.
Theatre roles include Voyage Round My Father; The Vagina Monologues; Les Mains; The Alchemist and the Richard Eyre play The Novice. Interestingly, Little took her role in The Novice at the last minute. She was originally contracted to star in the film Enigma (2001), but the role was subsequently given to the actress Kate Winslet, who had previously turned the part down due to her pregnancy, but changed her mind. Little was paid her full fee of £300,000 and appeared in The Novice at the Almeida Theatre instead.
Little won the award for Best Actress in a Drama Series at the 1999 Biarritz International Television Festival for her role as Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair'' and she also received a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress in a Drama Series for the same role. In 2001 Little won the award for Best Actress at the Cherbourg Film Festival for her role in the film Another Life. In 2008 she appeared as a guest star in Foyle's War.
Little lives in Leytonstone, east London, with a cat called Sylvia and her husband, the actor Bo Poraj. Little and Poraj married in December 2003 and have one child.
Little is a trained singer with a Mezzo soprano voice and is also trained in basic jazz, ballroom and period dance.
