Sian Elizabeth Phillips, known professionally as Sian Brooke, is a talented British actress born in Lichfield, Staffordshire, England. She is the youngest of three siblings, and her parents, a police officer and a teacher, are of Welsh descent. To avoid confusion with fellow actress Siân Phillips, Brooke adopted the stage name, inspired by an English Civil War general who served in Lichfield.
Brooke's early education took place at The Friary School in Lichfield, where she developed a passion for the performing arts. She joined the Lichfield Youth Theatre at the age of 11 and later became a member of the National Youth Theatre. Brooke's formal training began at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, from which she graduated in 2002.
Brooke's acting debut was in the television series Dinotopia in 2002. She has since appeared in a variety of television shows, including A Touch of Frost, Hotel Babylon, Foyle's War, and The Fixer. As a child, she featured in Strangers in Utah alongside Adrian Dunbar and Phyllida Law. Brooke has also played lead roles in All About George and Cape Wrath.
In addition to her television work, Brooke has lent her voice to several radio dramas, including Murder on the Homefront, A Pin to See the Peepshow, and Dreaming in Africa. Her theatre credits include Harvest, Dying City, Dido Queen of Carthage, In The Club, The Birthday Party, and Absolutely Perhaps. She has also appeared in productions of Poor Beck, A Midsummer Night's Dream, King Lear, and Romeo and Juliet with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
From July to August 2008, Brooke played Dorothy Gale in the musical The Wizard of Oz at the Southbank Centre, directed by Jude Kelly. In 2011, she appeared in Stephen Poliakoff's My City and Neil LaBute's Reasons to be Pretty at the Almeida Theatre in London. From August to October 2015, Brooke played Ophelia alongside Benedict Cumberbatch in the Barbican's production of Hamlet.
In 2017, Brooke starred in the fourth season of the television crime drama Sherlock as Sherlock Holmes' secret sister Eurus. She initially auditioned for multiple characters before being told that all the characters were, in fact, Eurus, a master of disguise. Michael Hogan of The Daily Telegraph praised Brooke's performance, stating that it was "a star-making turn." Later that year, she appeared alongside Sheridan Smith and Gemma Whelan in the BBC miniseries The Moorside, based on the Kidnapping of Shannon Matthews.
