Emma Jane Pierson, better known as Emma Pierson, (born 30 April 1981) is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Anna Thornton-Wilton in the BBC television drama Hotel Babylon.

Pierson has appeared in many television programmes, including Suntrap, Days Like These, Beast, I Saw You, Charles II: The Power and The Passion, The Worst Week of My Life, Bloodlines, Coupling and Time Gentlemen Please. Her more recent projects include the film Lives of the Saints and the BBC Three comedy Dead Boss.

Biography

The daughter of a nurse and a Royal Navy submariner, Pierson was born Emma Jane Pierson on 30 April 1981 in Plymouth, Devon. Her father, Charles, was stationed at Faslane Naval Base on the Clyde where Emma spent the first four years of her life.

When she was in her teens, Pierson lived with her parents and three siblings in North Bradley, near Trowbridge, Wiltshire, attending Grittleton House School and then later St. Laurence School in nearby Bradford on Avon where she began taking acting lessons.

After leaving school in 1997, Pierson performed in amateur productions with the North Bradley players, appearing in a number of plays including Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.

Pierson gained the role of Becky Radcliffe in the BBC children's drama series Grange Hill while studying law at the City of Bath College.