Amy Manson

I think her hair says it all - this unruly, unkempt, wild-spirited individual, who has grown up around men, supports feminism but loves people and life and doing the right thing. But she's very fair and is a hard worker.

—Amy Manson on her role as Merida ^src

Amy Manson is the Scottish actor who portrays Merida on ABC's Once Upon a Time.

Biography

Amy Manson was born in Aberdeenshire,^[1] where she attended Westhill Academy and went to a Saturday drama school Stagecoach,^[2] until leaving home for London at age seventeen to pursue acting.^[1] After studying at the prestigious Central School of Speech and Drama in London, she left early to film Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud in Romania. She has also appeared in the horror film Blood Monkey and the short film Smile Emily. Her first professional theater role was in Luigi Pirandello's masterpiece of meta-theatre, Six Characters In Search Of An Author, portraying the lead character, Stepdaughter, at the National Theatre of Scotland.^[3] Amy later won in Best Female Performance at the 2008 Critics' Awards for portrayal of this character.^[4]

Amy has lent her voice to the radio dramas Lost in Plain Sight, The Summer Walking and The Dead Hour. On television, she played Alice Guppy in two episodes of Torchwood, and appeared as Abby Evans in nine episodes of Casualty. She has guest-starred on British television in the soap drama Doctors, police procedural The Bill and sitcom My Family. Her career also spans roles such as Lizzie Siddal, muse, wife and lover of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, in the BBC Two period drama Desperate Romantics, the vampiress Daisy Hannigan-Spiteri in series two of Being Human, alongside Desperate Romantics co-star Aidan Turner, Ginger Corrigan in the 2010 adaptation of Agatha Christie's Marple in series four's episode, "The Pale Horse," and Fleur Morgan in Outcasts, an eight-part series by Kudos for BBC One. In 2011, Amy joined the third series of Misfits as Leah and in the BBC drama Young James Herriot as Emma "Whirly" Tyson.

Trivia

She is a pescetarian, and abstains from eating animal meat such as pork, poultry and beef, except fish and seafood.^[3]
Used to practice archery daily for her role as Merida.^[5]
Manson was asked to be series regular, but she declined as it would have kept her "unable to do any other work for at least six months."^[6]
On her first time on the set, Robert Carlyle told her: "Amy, these are Americans writing for a Scot so you just either do it your way or ignore them, right pal?."^[6]
Acted opposite Robert Carlyle again in the 2017 crime comedy drama film T2 Trainspotting.^[6]
Appears alongside fellow Once Upon a Time actor Karen David in the Legacies episode "Malivore."^[7]

Appearances

Once Upon a Time: Season Five
"The Dark Swan":	"The Price":	"Siege Perilous":	"The Broken Kingdom":	"Dreamcatcher":	"The Bear and the Bow":	"Nimue":	"Birth":	"The Bear King":	"Broken Heart":	"Swan Song":
Appears	Absent	Absent	Appears	Appears	Appears	Absent	Absent	Appears	Appears	Absent
"Souls of the Departed":	"Labor of Love":	"Devil's Due":	"The Brothers Jones":	"Our Decay":	"Her Handsome Hero":	"Ruby Slippers":	"Sisters":	"Firebird":	"Last Rites":	"Only You":	"An Untold Story":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Appears	Appears	Absent

Once Upon a Time: Season Seven
"Hyperion Heights":	"A Pirate's Life":	"The Garden of Forking Paths":	"Beauty":	"Greenbacks":	"Wake Up Call":	"Eloise Gardener":	"Pretty in Blue":	"One Little Tear":	"The Eighth Witch":	"Secret Garden":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
"A Taste of the Heights":	"Knightfall":	"The Girl in the Tower":	"Sisterhood":	"Breadcrumbs":	"Chosen":	"The Guardian":	"Flower Child":	"Is This Henry Mills?":	"Homecoming":	"Leaving Storybrooke":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Archive

Once Upon a Time: Specials
"Magic is Coming":	"The Price of Magic":	"Journey to Neverland":	"Wicked is Coming":	"Storybrooke Has Frozen Over":
Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent	Absent
"Secrets of Storybrooke":	"Dark Swan Rises":	"Evil Reigns Once More":	"The Final Battle Begins":
Absent	Archive	Absent	Absent