Shelley Conn

Biography:

Shelley Deborah Conn (born September 21, 1976) is an English actress known for her roles across television, film, and theatre. She portrayed Lady Mary Sharma in the second season of Bridgerton, Isabella in Love Sarah, Dr. Elizabeth Shannon in Steven Spielberg’s Terra Nova, Beelzebub in season two of Neil Gaiman’s Good Omens, and Indira Shetty in the first season of Gen V, a spin-off of The Boys.

Born in Barnet, North London, Conn comes from an Anglo-Indian background with Portuguese, Burmese, and Indian ancestry. She studied at Queen Mary’s College in Basingstoke and trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and Bretton Hall. She also attended Cranbourne School in Basingstoke.

After completing drama school, Conn took on several small roles in British films before gaining recognition as Ashika Chandiramani in the BBC series Party Animals. In 2001, she played PC Miriam Da Silva in BBC1’s Mersey Beat and had a recurring role in Casualty. The following year, she made her West End debut in three productions—The Island Princess, Eastward Ho! and The Roman Actor—as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Jacobean Season at the Gielgud Theatre.

Her career includes a mix of television, film, and theatre, featuring leading roles in British and European independent films, as well as BBC dramas like The Innocence Project. She appeared in Down to Earth (Series Five, 2004), The Palace, Mistresses, and Trial & Retribution (all in 2008), along with playing Claire in Dead Set. In 2010, she portrayed Danni Prendiville in Strike Back.

Conn was personally selected by Steven Spielberg for a leading role in the high-budget sci-fi series Terra Nova, which premiered on September 26, 2011. She later appeared in the 2014 American TV series The Lottery.

Her role as Mary Sharma in Bridgerton was based on Julia Quinn’s novel The Viscount Who Loved Me, with the series premiering in March 2022. She also starred as Beelzebub in Good Omens (Season 2) and played Indira Shetty in Gen V, both for Amazon Prime Video.

Conn resides in London with her husband, actor Jonathan Kerrigan, and their son, born in 2012. In addition to her acting career, she participated in the 2006 London Marathon.