Tessa Shaw is a direct descendant of the actor William Powell, protege of the great 18th Century Actor/Manager David Garrick. The Victorian folk heroine Grace Darling was also a family member. Tessa graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London , and earned an Honours Degree in Psychology from London University. She started her acting career in the theatre, moving into television, where she has had extensive experience. She is best known for her roles in Dr. Who, General Hospital, Jane Eyre (with Timothy Dalton), Diana: Her True Story - playing Countess Raine Spencer and James Cameron's Titanic Explorer. Other notables in Tessa's family are her World War II poet father, Oliver Shaw, who was one-time Attorney General of Sierra Leone, her maternal grandfather, who was Lord of Sowerby, Yorkshire, and her elder son Daniel Fathers who is also an actor and starred in Walt Disney's teen movie Camp Rock. Miss Shaw is now retired and resides in Hampshire, England with her husband, Entertainment Producer Chevalier Richard Winter-Stanbridge, GOTJ.