Early career |left|227x227pxWhittaker made her professional debut in
The Storm at
Shakespeare's Globe in 2005. and playing
Lydia Bennett in
Unseen Austen, an original drama by Judith French. In 2009, she worked on the films ''Ollie Kepler's Expanding Purple World
and Perrier's Bounty, as well as the BBC Two drama Royal Wedding
and the short film Wish 143'', which was nominated for
Best Live Action Short Film at the
83rd Academy Awards. In the early 2010s, Whittaker co-starred in the
anthology series
Accused (2010) and the adaptation of
Sarah Waters's novel
The Night Watch, followed by the role of Ffion in the
Black Mirror episode "
The Entire History of You". In film, she starred in the cult
science fiction comedy horror Attack the Block, as well as in projects like
The Kid (2010),
One Day (2011),
Hello Carter (2013) and
Good Vibrations (2013). She also returned to the stage in the contemporary staging of the classic Greek tragedy
Antigone, playing the title role opposite
Christopher Eccleston as
Creon. In 2014, she appeared as
Sandra Grimes in the reality-based spy drama miniseries
The Assets and as Anna in the
BAFTA-nominated short film
Emotional Fusebox, later reprising the role in its feature-length version,
Adult Life Skills, and earning nominations in the Best Actress category at both the
British Independent Film Awards and the
National Film Awards. She also took one of the lead roles in the hit
ITV crime drama
Broadchurch (2013–2017) and the four-part
BBC One medical drama
Trust Me (2017).
2017–2022: Doctor Who promoting
Doctor Who On 16 July 2017, the
BBC announced Whittaker would play the
Thirteenth Doctor in the science fiction television series
Doctor Who; she is the first woman to play
the Doctor. She had previously worked with incoming
Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall on
Broadchurch. She admitted that she had to "tell a lot of lies" after being cast to keep the information secret and used the codeword "Clooney" when talking about the role. She urged fans not to be afraid of her gender, saying "
Doctor Who represents everything that's exciting about change. The fans have lived through so many changes, and this is only a new, different one, not a fearful one." Reaction to Whittaker's casting was mostly positive, although a "sizeable minority" was unhappy. Some said that a female Doctor would be a good role model for young girls, while others felt the Doctor was only ever meant to be male, or criticised the casting as an exercise in
political correctness. Whittaker debuted in the 2017 Christmas special "
Twice Upon a Time" while her opening episode
The Woman Who Fell to Earth is the highest-viewed premiere episode of a debuting Doctor in the show's history with 10.96 million viewers. In November 2018, the BBC confirmed that the
twelfth series, Whittaker's second series, began production. Whittaker returned for the
thirteenth series, and also voiced the Doctor in the 2022
BBC Sounds podcast
Doctor Who: Redacted. She departed the programme following the series and
three associated specials in 2022. Whittaker generally received praise for her performance. Though some felt the Thirteenth Doctor did little to combat social and political injustices, others felt the era's storylines were too 'politically correct', criticising what they saw as the show taking a more socially progressive outlook during Whittaker's tenure. Columbus in 2025 On May 31, 2025, Whittaker made a surprise cameo, reprising her role as the Thirteenth Doctor in the Doctor Who series 15 finale "
The Reality War", alongside
Ncuti Gatwa as the
Fifteenth Doctor. Starting in July 2025, Whittaker reprised her role as the Thirteenth Doctor in
a series of Doctor Who audio dramas from
Big Finish Productions.
2023–present In February 2023, a press release indicated that Whittaker was filming for a six-part Australian drama series
One Night for
Paramount+. and in the UK and Ireland on 24 November 2023. In
One Night, Whittaker played a rape victim. In April 2023, it was announced that Whittaker would star alongside
Bella Ramsey and
Siobhan Finneran in the second series of the BBC prison drama
Time and that filming would start in the spring of 2023 in and around
Liverpool. In August 2023, Whittaker joined the main cast of the
Netflix series
Toxic Town, based on the
Corby toxic waste case. From October 2024 to December 2024, Whittaker starred in the West End stage play
The Duchess. It was announced on 30 January 2025 that Whittaker and
Suranne Jones would star in
Frauds, a six-part ITV art-heist series about two
confidence trickster women. The tv series premiered in the UK on
ITV1 6 October 2025. It was announced on 7 July 2025 that Whittaker would star in
Dear England, a four-part BBC series adapted from a hit stage play about English football manager Gareth Southgate. Southgate, to be played by
Joseph Fiennes, turned around the England men's football team; Whittaker will play the team's psychologist. The series is set to broadcast on the BBC in the UK in 2026. == Personal life ==