1980–2007: Early career and breakthrough with ER In 1980, Kingston made her television debut in three episodes of the children's drama series
Grange Hill, while also appearing as an uncredited extra in the film ''
The Wildcats of St Trinian's. From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, she performed on stage in twenty different theatrical productions, working extensively with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her classic Shakespearean roles included Calpurnia in Julius Caesar (1987), Cordelia in King Lear (1990), Hero in Much Ado About Nothing (1990–1991), Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1992) and Desdemona in Othello'' (1993). Around the same time, she had small parts in television shows like
A Killing on the Exchange (1987),
Hannay (1989),
Covington Cross (1992),
Soldier Soldier (1993) and
Crocodile Shoes (1994), and had guest roles in
ITV's long-running
police procedural The Bill (1988–1995). In film, she appeared in
The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) with
Helen Mirren,
The Infiltrator (1995) with
Oliver Platt and
Carrington (1995) with
Emma Thompson, where she played writer
Frances Partridge. In April 1996, she got her first regular television role as
customs officer Katherine Roberts in the ITV crime drama
The Knock, appearing in all thirteen episodes of the second series. In December, she played the lead role opposite
Daniel Craig in
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders, an ITV adaptation of
Daniel Defoe's novel
Moll Flanders. She received a nomination for
Best Actress for her performance at the following year's
British Academy Television Awards. In September 1997, Kingston gained North American television fame after being cast as a main character in the long-running medical drama
ER. She made her first appearance as British surgeon
Elizabeth Corday in the premiere of the
fourth season, the
Emmy Award-winning
live episode "
Ambush". Having appeared in the show for just over seven seasons, she left it in October 2004, in the
eleventh-season episode "
Fear", after her contract was not renewed. Being 41 at the time, she criticised the move as
ageism, stating that "apparently, I, according to the producers and the writers, am part of the old fogies who are no longer interesting." Despite that, she said that she was "very proud of the work [she had] done over the past eight years" and "grateful for the professional associations and friendships [she had] made through
ER". and independent period drama
Sweet Land (2005), as well as the crime dramas
Essex Boys (2000) and
Alpha Dog (2006). In November 2005, Kingston guest starred as a vacationer whose husband gets kidnapped by a Mexican
street gang in an episode of the
CBS crime drama
Without a Trace, titled "
Viuda Negra" and directed by her former
ER co-star
Paul McCrane. The following year, she returned to the stage after ten years in the
West End production of ''
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'', starring as
Nurse Ratched opposite
Christian Slater as
Randle McMurphy. She then revealed that she auditioned for the role of
Lynette Scavo on
ABC's
Desperate Housewives but was turned away for being too curvy.
2008–2015: Doctor Who and further television and stage work and
Karen Gillan at the 2019
GalaxyCon Minneapolis In 2008, Kingston guest starred as Professor
River Song in the
fourth series of the BBC's long-running
science fiction television series
Doctor Who, in the two-part story "
Silence in the Library" / "
Forest of the Dead", starring
David Tennant as the
Tenth Doctor. She thought it was simply a one-off guest role but was delighted to find out that she would be a returning character after the story's writer,
Steven Moffat, succeeded
Russell T Davies as the
Doctor Who showrunner. She reprised the role in thirteen episodes between 2010 and 2015, appearing on screen opposite two more incarnations of the
Doctor played by
Matt Smith and
Peter Capaldi. In September 2008, Kingston took the part of
Mrs. Bennet in ITV's acclaimed four-part drama
Lost in Austen, based on
Jane Austen's novel
Pride and Prejudice. In October, she appeared in the episode "
Art Imitates Life" of the police procedural drama
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as psychiatrist and
grief counsellor Patricia Alwick, who helped the team cope with the recent death of one of their members. In both 2009 and 2010, Kingston had recurring roles as
MI6 agent Fiona Banks in the
ABC science fiction drama
FlashForward and
defence attorney Miranda Pond in the
NBC legal drama
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, in which she reunited with her former
ER castmates,
Mariska Hargitay and
Maria Bello. In spring 2009, Kingston returned to
ER itself during its
fifteenth and final season for two episodes, "
Dream Runner" and the two-hour series finale, "
And in the End...". In June, she starred as the lead character Ellie Lagden, one of four former
convicts, in the
BBC One eight-part drama series
Hope Springs. In the early 2010s, Kingston played a housewife in the five-part supernatural drama
Marchlands (2011), an archaeologist in the second series of the revived
Upstairs Downstairs (2012) and an analyst working for a
missing persons unit in the four-part crime drama
Chasing Shadows (2014).''
In the US, she appeared in the romantic film Like Crazy (2011) and the Grey's Anatomy spin-off series Private Practice'' (2011), in the guest role of a psychiatrist writing book reviews. She starred in the
first season of
The CW's
superhero drama series
Arrow (2013) as Professor Dinah Lance, the mother of
Laurel and
Sara Lance, and later reprised the role in a few episodes over the next three seasons. On stage, she participated in the
Donmar Warehouse production of
Friedrich Schiller's play
Luise Miller (2011), directed by
Michael Grandage. In July 2013, she played
Lady Macbeth opposite
Kenneth Branagh in the
Manchester International Festival's production of
Macbeth, which was broadcast live in cinemas worldwide as part of the
National Theatre Live programme. Following a nomination for Best Actress at the
Manchester Theatre Awards, she reprised her role with Branagh at the
Park Avenue Armory in June 2014, making her New York stage debut. Earlier in April, Branagh and Kingston took other classic Shakespearean lead roles in the two-and-a-half-hour adaptation of
Antony and Cleopatra, broadcast on
BBC Radio 3 as part of its celebration of the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth.
2016–present: Recent work During the late 2010s, she took a prominent role as Sarah Bishop in
Sky's fantasy drama
A Discovery of Witches (2018–2022), while appearing in shows like
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life (2016),
Shoot the Messenger (2016) and
The Widow (2019). and reprised the role for pre-recorded elements of the
interactive theatrical experience
Time Fracture. In 2022, she starred as
British Prime Minister candidate Audrey Gratz in the
Netflix spy miniseries
Treason and as the villainous Lucifer in the
Oliver Twist-inspired
children's television series
Dodger, also starring the
Ninth Doctor actor,
Christopher Eccleston. In a 2022 interview, Kingston expressed her enthusiasm for returning to
Doctor Who, stating that if offered a role alongside
Ncuti Gatwa's
Fifteenth Doctor, she would "bite their hand off" to accept the opportunity. In January 2023, she returned to the Royal Shakespeare Company for the first time since the early nineties in the role of
Prospero in
The Tempest. In 2024, Kingston played Sheila Bellowes opposite former
Doctor Who co-star
Karen Gillan in the
ITV drama
Douglas Is Cancelled, also written by former
Doctor Who showrunner
Steven Moffat. In August 2025, Kingston was announced as a contestant on the
twenty-third series of
Strictly Come Dancing. She was paired with
Johannes Radebe and the pair were the eighth couple to be eliminated in week 10 of the competition, after losing the dance-off to
Balvinder Sopal and
Julian Caillon. ==Personal life==