
Alice Evans

Alice Jane Evans (born 2 August 1971) is a British-American actress.
Early life.
Evans, the daughter of educators and the granddaughter of a coal miner, was born in Summit, New Jersey, to British parents, mathematician David Evans and Janet Evans. She was raised in Bristol, and attended Henbury school, along with her two brothers, Anthony and Philip. She graduated from University College London with a in French and Italian.
Career.
After graduation, she enrolled at the Cours Florent in Paris. She gained work in French television, with her breakthrough role as French student Susan in the popular French sitcom, "Elisa Top Modele", which ran for 18 months. Next, she went to Italy to play "Nathalie", in the 1998 Italian miniseries "Le ragazze di Piazza di Spagna". Her first English-speaking role was in the Highlander episode 'Patient Number 7'. After making her first film, "Monsieur Naphtali" (1999), Oscar-winning director Claude Lelouch cast Evans as Macha in "Une pour toutes" (1999), alongside Samy Naceri and Anne Parillaud.
In 1999, Disney cast Evans alongside Glenn Close, Gérard Depardieu and her future husband, Ioan Gruffudd, in "102 Dalmatians". Evans' mother died at age 59, the day before Evans's final screen test for the role, which introduced her to British viewers.
After appearing in "Blackball", she moved to Los Angeles in 2003. She has since appeared in both television and film, such as "The Mentalist", "Brothers & Sisters", "Lost", and "Grimm". Evans also had a recurring turn as the villainous Esther on "The Vampire Diaries" and "The Originals".
Personal life.
Evans first met actor Ioan Gruffudd during the filming of "102 Dalmatians", while she was in her eight year relationship with Olivier Widmaier Picasso, a grandson of painter Pablo Picasso. She lived with Picasso in Paris, and they became engaged but later broke up.
In 2017, following a slew of sexual assault allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein, Evans penned an essay revealing that in 2002 Weinstein made sexual advances towards her and she later worried that declining him had affected not only her career but her then boyfriend Ioan Gruffudd's career as well.
Gruffudd said he and Evans became engaged on New Year's Day 2006 after Evans gave him an ultimatum, declaring that after seven years together she wasn't going to hang around any longer unless she was his wife. They married on 14 September 2007 in Mexico. The couple have two daughters, born in 2009 and 2013. Evans announced the couple's separation in January 2021. In March 2021, Gruffudd filed for divorce from Evans in Los Angeles.