Gina Bellman - British actress

Gina Bellman (born 10 July 1966) is a New Zealand-born British actress who starred in the series Leverage as Sophie Devereaux, for which she was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress in Television, but lost to fellow New Zealand alumnus Lucy Lawless.

Bellman was born in New Zealand to Jewish parents of Russian and Polish origin who emigrated to New Zealand from England in the 1950s. Her family returned to the United Kingdom when she was eleven years old.

After making her debut in an episode of Into the Labyrinth in 1982, and a two-episode stint in Grange Hill in 1984, she became a household name for her performance in the title role in Dennis Potter's drama Black eyes. She is also well known for playing Jane in the sitcom Coupling. Her other TV roles include Waking the Dead, Jonathan Creek, Little Napoleons, and one-off appearances in Only Fools and Horses and Hotel Babylon.

She has also appeared in several feature films including King David, which starred Richard Gere and Edward Woodward.

She co-starred alongside James Nesbitt in the 2007 BBC One drama serial Jekyll, a modern-day sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, written by Coupling author Steven Moffat.

In 2008 she began appearing on the TNT channel's serial drama Leverage, starring Timothy Hutton.

In 2013 Bellman narrated poetry for The Love Book App, an interactive anthology of love literature developed by Allie Byrne Esiri. In late 2013 she played the role of The Italian Woman in the National Theatre's production of the Georg Kaiser playFrom Morning to Midnigh