Hannah Waddingham in Denver: Seven things to know

Emmy Award-winning “Ted Lasso” actor Hannah Waddingham will be in Denver on May 16 to receive Denver Film’s 2024 Women+Film Barbara Bridges Inspiration Award.

Here are seven things to know about the multifaceted British actor:

1. Waddingham is best known to audiences as Rebecca Welton, owner of the English football club AFC Richmond in the recently ended Apple TV+ series “Ted Lasso,” for which she won an Emmy in 2021.

2. If “Ted Lasso” fans were unaware of Waddingham’s impressive musical-theater background (and real-life singing ability), they were disabused of their ignorance during a watershed Season 1 episode called “Make Rebecca Great Again.” She sang a karaoke version of “Let it Go” from “Frozen” that paralleled her character’s divorce journey.

3. Waddingham’s signature theater roles have included Kate/Lilli in “Kiss Me Kate,” Desiree in “A Little Night Music” and The Lady of The Lake in “Monty Python's Spamalot.” But this is saucy: Her West End debut (London’s equivalent of Broadway) came in “Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens” in 1998.

4. Waddingham’s mother and both of her maternal grandparents were opera singers.

5. Waddingham keeps her Emmy statuette in her 9-year-old daughter's bedroom, she says, “to remind her that mummy will only ever be away when it's for a really blooming good reason.”

6. In 2015, Waddingham joined the fifth season of the juggernaut HBO series “Game of Thrones. She also can be heard (if not seen) in the popular FOX animated series “Krapopolis.” Additional television credits include Netflix’s “Sex Education.”

7. Three of Waddingham’s upcoming film projects include the Universal action flick “The Fall Guy” alongside Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt; Sony Pictures' upcoming animated adaptation of “Garfield” with Chris Pratt and Samuel L. Jackson; and opposite Tom Cruise in “Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part Two,” coming out in 2025.

Previous recipients of the Inspiration Award include Denver filmmaker Donna Dewey, producer Abigail Disney, actor Rita Moreno and Denver director Gabriela Cowperthwaite.

Kevin Smith: He said it

“Our Denver Film audiences, and particularly our Women+Film patrons, have expressed their passion and appreciation for the leading roles, approach and passion that actors like Hannah bring to the screen and stage.” – Denver Film CEO Kevin Smith.

Note: Denver Film’s Women+Film Festival returns to the Sie FilmCenter from April 10-14. It’s five days of features, shorts and documentaries celebrating female filmmakers.