This is a list of the British Academy Television Awards for Best Actress. The British Academy Television Awards began in 1955. The Best Actress award was initially given as an "individual honour", without credit to a particular performance, until 1969, when Wendy Craig won for her performance in Not in Front of the Children. Since 1970, nominees have been announced in addition to the winner, and are listed, with the winner highlighted in blue. The Actress category was split into Leading Actress and Supporting Actress, starting in 2010. Julie Walters holds the record of most wins in this category with four, followed by Dame Judi Dench, Thora Hird, and Dame Helen Mirren, with three wins each. The nominations tally includes Helen Mirren and Francesca Annis having received 6 and Judi Dench and Julie Walters having received 7. The award is currently held by Sarah Lancashire having won most recently in 2024 for Happy Valley.

Winners and nominees

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

2020s

Superlatives

Actresses with multiple wins and nominations

Multiple wins

The following people have been awarded the British Academy Television Award for Actress multiple times: 4 wins 3 wins 2 wins

Multiple nominations

The following people have been nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Actress multiple times: 7 nominations 6 nominations 5 nominations 4 nominations 3 nominations 2 nominations Note: Julie Walters' two mentions in 2010, count as two separate nominations.