Woman Crush Wednesday: Get to Know ‘The Control Room’ Star Joanna Vanderham

It’s hard to believe, but 2022 has nearly reached its end. However, before we ring in the New Year, we have one more big thing to celebrate: the final Woman Crush Wednesday of 2022! All year, we’ve been celebrating the laudable ladies who lead the best new titles streaming on your favorite platforms, and now we’re ending on a high by talking about an amazing actress who has been putting in consistent, hard work on screens big and small for 11 years and counting. So, without further ado, give it up for your WCW, the talented Joanna Vanderham.

WHO’S THAT GAL: Joanna Vanderham

WHY WE’RE CRUSHING: Vanderham stars as Sam Tolmie in British title The Control Room, which premieres for BritBox’s North American today, on December 28. The drama-thriller series follows Gabe Maver (Iain De Caestecker), an ordinary and reserved man who works in Glasgow, Scotland as an ambulance emergency call handler. His life is completely turn upside down, however, when he answers a desperate call from a woman (Vanderham) who has murdered someone and uses her childhood connection to Gabe in order to rope him in to help get her out of trouble. The Control Room is a gripping new series that is sure to have you on the edge of your seat from start to finish, so be sure to catch Vanderham, De Caestecker, and the rest of the cast and crew’s great work as soon as it drops on BritBox.

WHERE YOU’VE SEEN HER BEFORE: Vanderham’s professional onscreen career began with a bang in 2011, when she earned recurring roles as Jenny Muirhead in drama miniseries Young James Herriot and as main character Cathy Connor in crime-drama miniseries The Runaway. Just one year later, she picked up two more recurring television roles, playing Amanda Delany in three episodes of crime-drama series Above Suspicion and the main role of Denise Lovett in costume drama The Paradise, all in addition to earning her feature film debut as Margo in drama What Maisie Knew.

From there, she swiftly accumulated everything from guest to lead roles in shows like Agatha Christie’s Marple, Dancing on the Edge, Banished, One of Us, Man in an Orange Shirt, and The Tanner, and has also added work in films like 2013 horror-thriller Blackwood and 2017 thriller And Then I Was French. Most recently, Vanderham has appeared in five episodes of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow as Atropos as well as starred as Penelope Blake in Warrior and Amanda Drummond in Crime. She also starred as Sunny in 2022 romance crime-drama feature film Eddie and Sunny. With all of this incredible work under her belt in a little over a decade, we have no doubt that Vanderham has even more success coming her way, and we can’t wait to see all that she pursues and accomplishes in the years ahead.

WHERE YOU’LL SEE HER AGAIN: Luckily, you don’t have to wait too much longer to see more from Vanderham, as the actress is expected to star as the titular role in upcoming fantasy-drama short film Selkie.

For even more from her in the meantime, be sure to follow Vanderham on Twitter and Instagram so that you never miss a moment from your wonderful WCW!