Denise Gough leads The Stolen Girl as a new wave of viewers discovers Elisa Blix

The Stolen Girl has found a fresh audience after premiering on Disney+ last year and now airing on ITV, with Denise Gough at the centre as Elisa Blix in a five-part drama that begins with a vanished child and a shocked mother. the stolen girl pulls viewers into a single-night disappearance that leaves a family searching for answers.

The central mystery: a sleepover that ends in disappearance

In The Stolen Girl, Elisa Blix (Denise Gough) reluctantly allows her daughter to go to a first sleepover at her new friend Josie’s house after meeting Josie’s mother, Rebecca Walsh, played by Holliday Grainger. The next day Elisa arrives to collect her daughter only to find Josie’s family—and her own little girl—have vanished, setting the plot of the five-episode series written by Catherine Moulton and based on the novel Playdate by Alex Dahl.

Where you’ve seen Denise Gough on screen

Gough has moved between stage and screen: she won praise for Dedra Meero in the Star Wars series Andor, a role that earned her a Peabody Award in 2023, and she was the title role in the drama Paula in 2017. She played Dr Alison Walden in two episodes of The Fall and earned a BAFTA nomination for the 2021 three-parter Too Close. Television credits also include Casualty, The Bill, Silent Witness, Holby City, Stella and Apple Tree Yard; she has appeared on screen alongside Claire Foy in the film H Is For Hawk and has a yet-to-be-confirmed role in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming Narnia: The Magician's Nephew.

The Stolen Girl on ITV and Disney+

The Stolen Girl first gripped viewers on Disney+ last year and now airs on ITV on Wednesdays at 9pm, with the full series available to stream on ITVX. The ITV run has introduced the drama to a new wave of fans and highlights a cast that also includes Bronagh Waugh as DI Shona Sinclair, Michael Workéyè as Kabel Negate, Ambika Mod and Jim Sturgess.

Stage career and awards that shaped her screen work

Gough is a multi-award-winning theatre performer who continues to headline major productions: she is currently on London’s West End starring alongside Billy Cruddup in the play High Noon and in 2024 she reprised the role of Emma in People, Places and Things, a play first staged in 2015 for which she previously won an Olivier Award and a Critics' Circle Theatre Award. For her work in Angels in America in both the UK and the US she was nominated for a Tony and won another Olivier.

A life and career rooted in County Clare and early training

Born on February 28, 1980, in Wexford and raised in Ennis, County Clare, Denise Gough has described a childhood in a bustling household. One piece of coverage says she was one of ten children living with their mother; another describes her as the seventh of eleven siblings and notes her mother was pregnant for nine-and-a-half years. Her father worked as a fisheries head and an electrician, and her mother was a marriage counsellor who made curtains, stitched clothing and created outfits for pre-loved toys. Gough left school at 15 and trained at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in Wandsworth, graduating in 2003.

Personal history that she has spoken about publicly

Now aged 45, Gough has spoken about difficult episodes in her youth: she has described a teenage “obsession with smoking and boys” and has said she was groomed at 14 by a 21-year-old who collected her from school. She has also reflected on her upbringing and her mother’s candid comment that “we were provided for in the best way, but emotionally, it's impossible to provide, ” and the phrase being brushed aside with “stop looking for attention. ” She maintains a public presence, including posts on Instagram under the handle denisegoughig.

The Stolen Girl’s cast list also draws on actors with high-profile credits: Ambika Mod previously played Em opposite Leo Woodall, and Jim Sturgess played Dex opposite Anne Hathaway in the 2011 film One Day. The series sits alongside Gough’s other screen credits such as Under the Banner of Heaven, Robin Hood and Who Is Erin Carter? on Netflix, and film appearances in Colette, The Other Lamb, Monday and Martyrs Lane.

Next up, The Stolen Girl continues its ITV schedule on Wednesdays at 9pm and remains available to stream in full on ITVX.