You don’t need us to tell you: Billie Piper is a true power player on the British acting scene. Now an award-winning actor known for her often gritty roles, she rose to fame as a teenage pop star before starring in some of the nation’s most beloved TV shows, bringing characters with complex backstories but big hearts to life.

As she once told Stylist herself: “I feel like taking risks professionally has always really paid off for me. I don’t think about work being risk-taking and strategic moves. I just think if I don’t do different things, I get bored, so most of the changes – the decision to play a sex worker or a woman who can’t have a baby – are born out of boredom in a way… not boredom, but like a sense of adventure.”

So, from plucky Rose Tyler to complicated Suzie Pickles, here are some of her best TV and film roles… so far.

Scoop

In Netflix’s newly released drama that follows the fallout after Prince Andrew’s 2019 Newsnight interview, Piper stars alongside Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell as Sam McAlister, the TV producer who negotiated and secured the bombshell booking.

Secret Diary Of A Call Girl

Widely considered her breakout acting role, the provocative 2007 drama series saw Piper as Hannah Baxter, a young woman who lives a secret life as a high-end call girl under the pseudonym Belle. 

Collateral

Piper starred as Karen Mars in 2018’s detective drama Collateral, which followed Carey Mulligan as DI Kip Glaspie, a police officer assigned to investigate the shooting of a pizza delivery driver in inner city south London.

I Hate Suzie

Alongside Succession writer Lucy Prebble, Piper created and starred in the dark comedy-drama series I Hate Suzie, which told the darkly funny story of an actor whose life is turned upside down when nude photos of her are leaked. It was a sharp and original examination of the bad decisions women in their 30s often make thanks to prevalent anxieties and pressures.

Penny Dreadful

Horror fans will remember Piper’s turn in Penny Dreadful, the gothic fantasy where she starred as Brona Croft/Lily Frankenstein, an Irish immigrant seeking to escape her brutal, violent past.

Rare Beasts

This powerful “anti romcom” marked Piper’s directorial debut in 2019. In it, she played Mandy, a struggling mum from a dysfunctional family, who is writing about “a love that no longer exists”. She falls upon troubled man Pete (Leo Bill) who “seeks traditional dynamics and a sense of worth in this current female movement”.

Doctor Who

Perhaps her most beloved role of all is, of course, as Rose Tyler, the travelling companion of the ninth and tenth Doctors in BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who. Alongside both Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant, Rose was plucky and heroic, leading Piper to win most popular actress at the 2005 National Television Awards.

Images: Getty; Netflix; BBC; Sky