Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning: A sensation 16 years within the making
As fans continue to rave about Netflix drama Baby Reindeer, one cast member in particular has captured the imaginations of viewers – Jessica Gunning, who plays Martha the stalker.
Actress Gunning, 38, first appeared on popular TV in 2008 in an episode of Doctor Who but has only now become a global star in the Netflix drama. And from 2021, she appeared in BBC comedy-crime thriller The Outlaws alongside stars Christopher Walken and Stephen Merchant.
In Baby Reindeer, Gunning first appears on screen when she timidly walks into the bar where Donny (Richard Gadd) is working, and appears crestfallen as she informs him she can’t afford a cup of tea.
After Donny gives her a brew on the house as a gesture of kindness to a stranger, viewers are pulled into her complex and bizarre life in which she creates fantasies about her background and ultimately becomes obsessed with Donny.
Perhaps the most captivating aspect of Martha’s character is that she is based on a real person who stalked Gadd for four years.
Gadd has described the real-life Martha as a complex character who was ‘unwell and needed help’, meaning the actress who eventually played her had some difficult lines to tread – but in his words, Gunning did an ‘amazing job’.
Jessica Gunning plays Martha in Baby Reindeer, the fictionalised version of Richard Gadd’s real-life stalker
Gunning’s first memorable part was in Doctor Who series four opener Partners in Crime
Gunning as Orla in 2012 series White Heat broadcast on BBC TWO
Jessica Gunning, 38, from Yorkshire, has been the standout star of Netflix’s Baby Reindeer and has wowed audiences around the world
Jessica Gunning was born in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire. She has previously revealed she fell in love with acting at a young age, when she snuck into rehearsals for school plays, which were run by her mother.
The Mirror reports she was ‘in awe’ of what she saw on stage, which propelled her to study acting.
After leaving school in Holmfirth, Gunning moved down to Sidcup in Bexley, south east London, where she studied at Rose Bruford drama school – an institution also attended by the likes of Stephen Graham and Gary Oldman.
When she left drama school, Gunning began her career onstage and won a small role in Much Ado About Nothing at the National Theatre.
She has had small parts in various TV shows including Doctors, Doctor Who and Holby City.
Gunning began her stage career at the National Theatre, starring in productions including Much Ado About Nothing and Major Barbara.
She first appeared on TV in an episode of short-lived BBC Three variety show It’s Adam and Shelley in 2007.
But Gunning’s first memorable part was in Doctor Who series four opener Partners in Crime, starring David Tennant as the 10th Doctor and Catherine Tate in her return as companion Donna Noble.
Her character Stacey Campbell meets an gruesome end after the alien weight loss pill she has been taking accidentally goes her into overdrive and converts her whole body into a dozen cute baby aliens made of fat – an ‘Adipose’.
She appeared in Mutual Friends, which starred Keeley Hawes and Alexander Armstrong, followed by a recurring role as Angela in Law & Order: UK in 2009.
Gunning played Annie the babysitter in the BBC comedy series Life of Riley between 2009 and 2019.
She played Orla in the BBC television series White Heat in 2012, followed by a lead role as Melissa Young in the BBC drama What Remains.
She has also starred in The Scandalous Lady W on BBC Two and played Shirley Allerdyce in Sky Atlantic’s series Fortitude.
Gunning’s past credits have seen her carve out a successful career as a comedy actress – pictured in Trollied on Sky
Elsewhere Gunning starred alongside Imelda Staunton in 2014 film Pride, about the LGBT community joining forces with miners in Wales
She was cast in 2014 film Pride, a comedy/drama set in a Welsh mining town in which LGBT activists from London team up with miners in the village to protest against Margaret Thatcher’s government.
Gunning played police officer Kath Morgan in Prime Suspect 1973.
She has since starred become an experienced comedy actress, taking on roles in the sitcom Trollied, as well as the critically-acclaimed comedy The Outlaws, written by Stephen Merchant, about a group of people who meet while ordered to take part in a community payback scheme.
As Baby Reindeer continues to surge in popularity, fans eager to see more of Gunning’s work have revealed their shock at Gunning’s entirely different appearance in Trollied.
Set in a fictional supermarket of Valco, the show dealt with its employees, their nature and the relationships they shared with each other.
In the show Donna was a new security guard after former security man Ian resigned over safety fears.
Donna was dedicated to the safety of shoppers at the store and was keen to stop shoplifters in their tracks.
She only starred in one series of the show as the seventh was the last to air on the channel.
Muzz Khan, her Trollied co-star and drama school pal, told the Mirror of Gunning: ‘I hope people don’t think Jessica’s like Martha because she’s not at all. She’s a lovely, lovely actress, warm and funny and proud of her Northern roots. I’m delighted for her and I really hope it catapults her career even further.’
Elsewhere, it appears Gunning and Gadd share a passion for stand up comedy, as the Mirror reports she has posted clips of her routines on YouTube.
Gunning’s performances caught Gadd’s attention, and he has revealed he had her in mind to play Baby Reindeer’s Martha early on.
Jessica Gunning as Angela in Law & Order UK in 2009
Jessica Gunning as Kath Morgan in ITV’s Prime Suspect 1973 which came out in 2017
Jessica Gunning as Diane in BBC comedy-crime thriller The Outlaws, which started in 2021
Speaking to Lorraine Kelly earlier this month, he said to her: ‘I always thought that, every role you did, you brought this amazing nuance to it. Always elevated everything you were in, I always thought.’
And Gunning herself has also addressed the importance of making Martha a multi-faceted character rather than a plain villain.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, she said: ‘I never saw it as a kind of stalker-victim story. You can’t ever play someone with bad intentions. I don’t think she intended ever to be scary, even if she was received that way.’
Gunning added she also gave an ‘interpretation’ of the kind of character Martha was, rather than an ‘impression’ of her.
She explained Gadd didn’t share much about the real-life Martha when the show was in production, and also that she didn’t want to know too many details about her.
The actress has echoed this sentiment while doubling down on Richard Gadd’s pleas to viewers to stop searching for the real-life Martha.
After the harrowing show soared to global success, Richard, 34, was forced to beg social media sleuths to stop trying to find out the real identities of the characters.
Since, Jessica has doubled down on his plea and said it is a ‘real shame’ fans are getting fixated on who the real ‘Martha’ is, after Richard went to great lengths to protect their identity.
She told Glamour: ‘I would urge people not to be doing that […] I think it’s a real, real shame, because it shows that they haven’t watched the show properly, that’s not the point of it in any way.
‘Netflix and Richard [Gadd] went to extreme lengths to try and make sure that the identities were kept private for a reason.
‘I think they should try and watch the show again, and really see what the point of it was – it definitely wasn’t that, I deliberately didn’t want to do an impersonation of somebody, I wanted to do an interpretation of this character.’
