Jodie Auckland Whittaker (born 17 June 1982) is an English actress. She came to prominence in her 2006 feature film debut Venus, for which she received British Independent Film Award and Satellite Award nominations. She was later praised for her roles in the cult science fiction film Attack the Block, the Black Mirror episode "The Entire History of You", and as grieving mother Beth Latimer in Broadchurch.
On 16 July 2017, the BBC announced that Whittaker would become the thirteenth and first female incarnation of The Doctor in the British TV series Doctor Who. She formally assumed the role from Peter Capaldi in the 2017 Christmas special episode "Twice Upon a Time" when Capaldi's Twelfth Doctor regenerated into Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor. Whittaker will appear in her first full series as the Doctor in the eleventh series, due to air in late 2018.