She went on to play Lindsay James in the BBC drama Waterloo Road, Susan Brown in a BBC Four television version of John Braine's novel Room at the Top, Annie Desmond in Julian Fellowes' four-part miniseries Titanic, and Rosie in Stephen Poliakoff's original drama series Dancing on the Edge.
Coleman first appeared in a major film in 2011 as Connie in Captain America: The First Avenger. At a press conference on March 21, 2012, Doctor Who producer Steven Moffat revealed that Coleman will portray the Eleventh Doctor's companion (Matt Smith). Moffat picked her for the part because she worked well with Smith and spoke quicker than he did.
Coleman got the role of Jasmine Thomas in Emmerdale in 2005 while auditioning for theatre schools. She was nominated for the Best Newcomer award at the 2007 British Soap Awards, as well as the Most Popular Newcomer award at the 2007 National Television Awards.
She was nominated for Best Actress, Sexiest Female, and Best Dramatic Performance at the 2009 British Soap Awards. She was nominated for a TV Choice Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series. Coleman was cast as Lindsay James, a rough girl, in the BBC drama series Waterloo Road, which premiered in May 2009.
Coleman found the experience of playing a schoolgirl strange because she was 23 at the time of her audition. Coleman was cast as Susan Brown in a BBC Four television version of John Braine's novel Room at the Top, which premiered in December 2010.
The adaptation was supposed to premiere in April 2011, however, it was canceled owing to a rights dispute between the production firm and the estate of Braine. By 2012, the controversy had been settled, and the show was broadcast in two parts on September 26 and 27, 2012. Captain America: The First Avenger was her feature film début in 2011.
She also got the role of Annie Desmond in Julian Fellowes' four-part miniseries Titanic, which she describes as "a sassy little Cockney and the ship's Eliza Doolittle." In the English adaptation of the 2011 video game Xenoblade Chronicles, Coleman supplied the voice of Melia.
Coleman landed the role of Rosie in Stephen Poliakoff's original drama series Dancing on the Edge in 2012, which follows the adventures of a black jazz ensemble in the 1930s. In February 2013, the show aired on BBC Two.
At a press conference on March 21, 2012, Doctor Who producer Steven Moffat revealed that Coleman will portray the Eleventh Doctor's companion (Matt Smith). Moffat picked her for the part because she worked well with Smith and spoke quicker than he did.
She secretly auditioned for the part, claiming it was for a program called Men on Waves (an anagram for Woman Seven, as she would make her debut appearance in the show's seventh season).
Coleman made a surprise cameo on 1 September 2012 in the first episode of the seventh season, portraying Oswin Oswald, who dies at the conclusion of the episode, despite having been announced to begin her tenure as a companion in the Christmas special in 2012.
She next made her series-regular debut in The Snowmen, a Christmas special episode, as a Victorian governess and barmaid Clara Oswin Oswald, who, like her previous incarnation, dies. Coleman is shown portraying a third version of the character, this time from modern London, and named simply Clara Oswald, near the end of that episode.
The Doctor discovers the third incarnation of her, and she begins her journeys as the Doctor's regular companion in the episode The Bells of Saint John. In June 2013, she began filming for BBC One's version of Death Comes to Pemberley, in which she would play Lydia. She began using the stage name Jenna Coleman on June 20, 2013.
Jenna Coleman will be her first credit in the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special.
