Greig was born in Maidstone, Kent,[2] the second of three sisters. Her father, Eric (1906–1998), worked as a colour chemist creating dyes, and her mother, Ann (1933–2001), was enthusiastic about amateur dramatics.[3] There was a 27-year age gap between her parents, with her father being 60 years old when Greig was born.[4][5][6] Her maternal grandfather was a Polish Jew. The family moved to Kilburn when she was three.
Greig has had a long-running part as Debbie Aldridge in the BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers since 1991. As her other work increased, her appearances in the show decreased and her character Debbie spends most of her time living in Hungary.[10][11]
Her other radio work includes narrating the Radio 4 comedy Warhorses of Letters,[12] and guest-starring in five episodes of the second series of the radio version of Absolute Power, playing Charles Prentiss's former lover Gayle Shand, who now runs a rival firm.
Television
Greig appeared in a number of supporting parts, notably as Lamia in Neverwhere (1996) and The Mother in an episode of People Like Us (2000).[13] Her first major role was Fran Katzenjammer in the sitcom Black Books, which ran for three series from 2000. Fran was a friend of the main character, Bernard, and originally owned a gift shop called "Nifty Gifty" next door to his bookshop.[14]
In 2004, she played constantly embarrassed surgical registrar Dr Caroline Todd, the lead character in the Channel 4 comedy drama series Green Wing. Her performance won her "Best Comedy Performance" in the 2005 Royal Television Society Awards.[15] She also appeared as Caroline in an appearance at The Secret Policeman's Ball.
She starred in the BBC comedy drama series Love Soup (2005), as Alice Chenery, a lovelorn woman working on a department store perfume counter, in a role specifically written for her by David Renwick, whom she met in 2003 when she appeared in an episode of Jonathan Creek.[16] In May 2005 she also appeared as a nurse in an episode of the BBC series Doctor Who, entitled "The Long Game".
In 2011, she starred in the BBC/Showtime sitcom Episodes, alongside Matt LeBlanc and Green Wing co-star Stephen Mangan.[19] Greig and Mangan play a husband-and-wife writing duo who travel to America to work on an adaptation of their successful series. Greig also stars in the Channel 4 sitcom, Friday Night Dinner, as Jackie Goodman, the mother of a North London Jewish family.
She played Beth in the 2012 BBC series White Heat.
She is also the lead in The Guilty in the three-part series on ITV in 2013, playing DCI Maggie Brand who investigates the death of a young child who went missing five years previously.
[20] In 2014, she played Sally in the Inside No. 9 episode "Last Gasp".
In 2015 the fourth season of Episodes was aired, and in 2016 a seven-episode fifth season, still starring Greig alongside Stephen Mangan and Matt LeBlanc, was filmed in London.[21]
During 2006 and early 2007, Greig played Beatrice in a much acclaimed production of Much Ado About Nothing for which she won a Laurence Olivier Award,[22] and Constance in King John, as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's The Complete Works season. Whilst the win itself was a surprise,[23] her acceptance speech was received very well as being highly entertaining,[24] claiming that she was so excited that she had wet her dress. The speech was apparently completely improvised. Backstage, when told not to tell her mother about her wetting her dress, she told the host that her mum was dead before dedicating her award to her "dead mum".[25] She also won the Critics' Circle Theatre Award for "Best Shakespearean Performance" in Much Ado About Nothing, becoming the first woman to win the award,[26] and was nominated for "The FRANCO'S Best Actress in a Play" in the Whatsonstage Theatregoers' Choice Awards.[27][28]
As of 2011[update] Greig lived in a flat in Kensal Green, having moved back to the area in 1996 to be with her dying father. She became a Christian at this time, despite being brought up as an atheist.[11] Greig is also a vegetarian.[39]