A Field Guide To Natalie Dormer

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Now that Natalie Dormer is back on premium cable and in our lives once again, we thought we should spend a little time getting to know her. We regret not doing this when she was playing Anne Boleyn on "The Tudors," and we're not going to miss our chance now that she's on "Game of Thrones."

Natalie Dormer was born on February 11, 1982 in Reading, Berkshire, England. Although her early years were spent studying ballet, jazz, and modern dance, she describes herself as once being the "academic hopeful" of the family who got straight A's, excelled at extra-curriculars, and travelled the world with her school's public speaking team. Despite all her early successes with school and being offered a place at Cambridge, Natalie didn't achieve the test scores required to attend, so she ended up studying drama at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Just think: there could've been an insanely cute yet devilishly hot historian running around Cambridge and we never would've known about her.

Six months after graduating from Webber Douglas Academy, Dormer auditioned for and won the role of Victoria in Lasse Hallstrom's "Casanova" alongside Heath Ledger, Sienna Miller, and Jeremy Irons. Although it started out as a bit part, Hallstrom was so impressed with Natalie's raw comedic talent that he had Sir Tom Stoppard (seriously, the Tom Stoppard) rewrite and expand the role overnight. Unfortunately, after "Casanova" came out, Natalie was out of work for nine months: "It was the best lesson I could have had in the first 12 months of my career," she says.

But hey, the next time Natalie got a role turned out to be huge for her career! Yes, we're talking about her time as Anne Boleyn on "The Tudors." We fell in lust with her almost as fast as King Henry VIII did--although, we didn't get to express it in quite the same ways he did (such as forest sex.) Although Dormer didn't receive any awards for playing Boleyn, she did receive numerous nominations and a ton of critical acclaim. Interesting fact: one of Natalie's distant ancestors is Jane Dormer, a lady-in-waiting of Mary I of England ("Bloody Mary"), whose memoirs helped shed light on Anne Boleyn's actual age.

Natalie's had a bunch more work since "The Tudors," but let's fast forward to when she showed up on "Game of Thrones" last week and made us squeal with delight! She plays Margaery Tyrell, and though she's currently wed to Renly (as you can see in the video at top), her character gets married twice more in order to bind the Tyrells with the Lannisters. If this doesn't mean anything to you, then we strongly urge you to read some of the "A Song of Ice and Fire" books, bone up on your HBO, and hop on this bandwagon with us. Margaery doesn't have a very large part in the books, but it looks like she'll be making a bunch of appearances on "Game of Thrones." There must be something about Natalie Dormer that inspires people to enhance her roles--could it be her beauty, her brains, perhaps her impressive swordfighting skills?

Whatever it is, we're ever so glad it didn't get lost in the halls of Cambridge. Destiny wants you on HBO, Natalie Dormer!