Celia Bannerman (born 3 June 1944) is an English actress and director. Bannerman was born at Abingdon, Oxfordshire, and trained at the London Drama Centre. She started her professional career with Ralph Richardson as Dolly in Bernard Shaw’s You Never Can Tell and Lucy in Sheridan’s The Rivals at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, London. She played a number of major television roles early on in her acting career notably Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice (1967), Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Diana Newbury in Upstairs, Downstairs. She starred in the film Biddy for which she received an award from Moscow Film Festival and continues to have a long association with Sands Films working on Little Dorrit, The Fool, As You Like It and A Dangerous Man. Bannerman was Associate Director at the Bristol Old Vic directing The Price, Translations, Quartermaine’s Terms, The White Devil, Good Fun and La Ronde. At Stratford East she directed, Sleeping Beauty and The Proposal. She was the Staff Director at the Royal National Theatre on The Passion, Larkrise, Fruits of Enlightenment and Strife.