Emma Lowndes
Emma Lowndes (born 1975) is an English actress, known for portraying Bella Gregson in Cranford, Mary Rivers in Jane Eyre and Margie Drewe in Downton Abbey. Background Brought up in Irlam, near Manchester, Lowndes attended Irlam Primary School and Urmston Grammar School, where she was Head Girl. She studied English at the University of York before training at RADA, graduating in 2000. Her training was partly funded by the Salford Sports and Arts Trust, established by Albert Finney and Harold Riley to assist the city's young talent. Lowndes is the eldest of three siblings born to Eric and Suzanne Lowndes. She has a younger brother, footballer Nathan Lowndes, and a sister, Katie Lowndes. Lowndes lives in London with her partner, Jason Merrells and their daughter. Career Lowndes' television credits include Waking the Dead, Burn It, Afterlife, Doctors, Vera, Silent Witness, Heartbeat, Downton Abbey and Moving On. She also played Mary Rivers in the 2006 BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre and Bella Gregson in Cranford. Lowndes has appeared in the films All or Nothing (2002), This Little Life (2003), Mother's Milk (2011) and Frozen (2005). She has lent her voice to the radio dramas Whitby Pier, Aperture and Hanging, and played