Cora Kirk

From Moorside in Oldham, Greater Manchester, Kirk attended the Waterhead Academy in her home town.^[1][2] She attended the Oldham Theatre Workshop,^[3] before she trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London.^[4]

In 2017, Kirk played Lucy in a Sally Cookson stage adaptation of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe in Leeds.^[5] She worked with Cookson again in 2020 on her adaptation of A Monster Calls, cast as Lily for a UK tour.^[6] She also played Wendy in an adaptation of Peter Pan at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London.^[7][8] She also appeared in Peter Pan when Sally Cookson took an adaptation to the National Theatre.^[9]

In 2022, Kirk could be seen in the Daniel Stamm directed film Prey for the Devil.^[10] Kirk had a lead role playing Hayley, alongside Asa Butterfield, in the Tom Parry penned 2022 Christmas comedy film Your Christmas or Mine?,^[11] and the 2023 sequel Your Christmas or Mine 2.^[12]

In March 2023, she played Aalyah in Federico García Lorca’s The House of Bernarda Alba in Manchester.^[13] In 2026, it was announced that she had joined the cast of the BBC school drama series Waterloo Road as Leah Merchant, a newly qualified teacher. She will make her first on-screen appearance in its eighteenth series.^[14]