Netflix’s Wednesday Season 2, featuring the return of Jenna Ortega, also includes the introduction of new characters like Isadora Capri, Nevermore Academy’s new director of music. What else has Billie Piper, who plays Isadora, starred in before?
Created by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, with some of the episodes directed by executive producer Tim Burton, Wednesday Season 2 premiered on Netflix on Aug. 6 with Part 1, which consists of four episodes. Among the new Nevermore staff Wednesday Addams (Ortega) encounters is Nevermore Academy’s new principal, Barry Dort (Steve Buscemi), as well as Isadora, a werewolf, who wants Wednesday to foster her talents as a cellist.
However, Piper told Netflix TUDUM, there’s an obvious friction between Wednesday and Isadora and they “rub each other the wrong way.”
“There’s a lot about the fact that Capri and Wednesday are both kind of control freaks,” Piper told TUDUM. “They like things to go a certain way — they’re drawn to perfection and they’re very methodical.”
Born Leian Paul Piper in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, on Sept. 22, 1982, the actor — whose professional name is Billie Piper — got her first screen credit in a guest role in the BBC miniseries The Canterbury Tales in 2003.
Piper’s career quickly developed from there, as she landed the title role in the BBC-TV movie Bella and the Boys and a supporting role in the UK film The Calcium Kid, both in 2004.
In 2005, also starred in the UK films Things to Do Before You’re 30 and Spirit Trap, which was followed by another BBC-TV movie with the lead in The Ruby in the Smoke in 2006 and the PBS Masterpiece movies Mansfield Park (in the lead role of Fanny Price) and The Shadow in the North, which were both released in 2007.
Also in 2005, Piper landed a role in an iconic sci-fi TV series, which created one of the several reasons — listed below — why she looks so familiar in her latest role as Isadora in Wednesday Season 2.
‘Doctor Who’ (2005-2013)
Billie Piper starred as Rose Tyler, the Doctor’s traveling companion for the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and 10th Doctor (David Tennant) in Seasons 1, 2 and 4, and reprised the role again for single episodes in 2010 and 2013.
Piper also made a surprise appearance in Doctor Who in 2025, when in the 15th season finale, the Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) leaves the role and regenerates into Piper’s visage.
‘Secret Diary Of A Call Girl’ (2007-2011)
Billie Piper starred in the lead role of Hannah Baxter in the sex comedy-drama Secret Diary of a Call Girl for four seasons on ITV in the UK.
A university graduate, Hannah leads a secret life at night as a high-end call girl in London who goes by the name Belle de Jour.
‘Penny Dreadful’ (2014-2016)
Billie Piper plays Brónagh Croft — who later becomes Lily Frankenstein — in Penny Dreadful in all three seasons of the Showtime horror series.
Based on penny dreadfuls in the UK that highlighted cheaply printed fiction (akin to pulp fiction publications in the U.S.), Penny Dreadful featured such public domain characters as Count Dracula, Renfield, Dorian Gray, Victor Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s monster.
The latter, of course, demands Victor get him a mate, who ends up being Lily, aka the Bride of Frankenstein.
‘Scoop’ (2024)
Billie Piper stars as real-life BBC Newsnight producer Sam McAlister in Scoop, which is based on McAlister’s best-selling book Scoops: Behind The Scenes of the BBC’s Most Shocking Interviews.
A Netflix original movie, Scoop chronicles how McAlister is instrumental in landing Newsnight host Emily Maitlis’ (Gillian Anderson) infamous 2019 interview with Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell) to discuss his relationship with deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
‘Kaos’ (2024)
Billie Piper stars as Cassandra in Kaos, a Netflix original series that ran for only one season and consisted of eight episodes.
The series follows Zeus (Jeff Goldblum), the King of the Gods, who is convinced he is losing his grasp of power. Cassandra, meanwhile, is a mortal who bore witness to the Trojan War.
Billie Piper can currently be seen in Wednesday Season 2, Part 1, which is new on Netflix.
