Georgina Cates, ‘An Awfully Big Adventure’ Actress and Former Wife of Skeet Ulrich, Dies at 51
Georgina Cates, the British actress widely recognized for her role in the 1995 film An Awfully Big Adventure and for originating the part of Jenny Porter in the beloved BBC sitcom 2point4 Children, died earlier this year. She was 51. The news of her death was publicly shared this week by Andrew Marshall, the creator of 2point4 Children, who revealed that he had only just learned of her passing months after the fact.
In a post on X on Saturday, October 17, Marshall expressed his sadness and surprise at the news. “I’m very sad to report, I have just discovered, that lovely and talented Claire Woodgate aka Georgina Cates, our 1st Jenny in 2p4 died last May,” he wrote. “I have no other details than what’s on IMDb. Sympathies to her family and children. If anyone has further details to share, please do.”
According to IMDb, Cates died on May 6 in Brighton, England. No cause of death has been revealed, and no further public statement from her family or representatives has been issued.
Cates was born Clare Elaine Woodgate in Colchester, Essex, England, in April 1975. She would go on to adopt the stage name Georgina Cates, a name that became synonymous with a short but memorable run in British television and film during the 1990s. Her career was marked by early promise, an unconventional breakthrough, and a willingness to reinvent herself in order to land the roles she wanted.
She first came to widespread attention in 1991, when she was just 16 years old, playing Jenny Porter in 2point4 Children. The sitcom, created by Andrew Marshall, became a staple of BBC One’s early-nineties lineup. The show focused on the Porter household, a chaotic suburban family whose extraordinary misadventures and strange encounters kept audiences entertained. Cates played the elder daughter, Jenny, in the show’s first two seasons, and her performance made a lasting impression on viewers and colleagues alike. Marshall’s affectionate tribute referred to her as “our 1st Jenny,” underlining how important her original contribution was to the series. Though she eventually moved on to other projects, her early work on the sitcom remained a beloved part of her career.
After leaving 2point4 Children, Cates turned her attention to film. Her biggest cinematic role came in 1995 with An Awfully Big Adventure, a romance directed by Mike Newell and based on the novel by Beryl Bainbridge. The film starred Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman, and Cates played Stella Bradshaw, a teenage girl living in post-Second World War Liverpool. Stella takes a job as an assistant at a local repertory theater troupe, where she becomes infatuated with the director, Meredith Potter, played by Grant. At the same time, the older actor P.L. O’Hara, played by Rickman, finds himself falling for Stella. The film was a rich and moody period piece, and Cates carried much of its emotional weight as the determined, romantic, and complicated young woman at the center of the story.
What made Cates’s casting in An Awfully Big Adventure even more remarkable was the story behind it. She had initially auditioned for the role under her birth name and was rejected. Rather than accepting that outcome, she chose a bold approach: she auditioned again under her adopted stage name, changed her hair color, and altered her accent. The transformation worked. This time, she landed the part. The film’s director, Mike Newell, later spoke warmly about her persistence and her suitability for the character. “She was very bushy-tailed, eager, romantic, soulful, tough, very much like the character,” he told The New York Times in 1995. “She even looked a bit like [Stella].”
That same year, Cates also appeared in Frankie Starlight, another well-regarded film. She continued to work steadily through the late nineties, taking on roles that showcased her versatility. In 1998, she starred in Clay Pigeons, a black comedy crime thriller featuring Joaquin Phoenix and Vince Vaughn. The film, set in a small Montana town, followed a young man whose life becomes tangled in a series of darkly comic events. Cates’s presence in the film placed her among a cast of actors who were all in the middle of notable career moments. Also in 1998, she appeared in Stiff Upper Lips, a period comedy that parodied the kind of British upper-class dramas popular in the decades before.
Later, Cates took on the film Everlasting in 2014, and her most recent credited role was as Madeleine in the 2016 short film Save Me from the Sound of the Siren. While she never became a household name on the level of some of her contemporaries, her body of work remained memorable to those who followed her career. For many fans of nineties cinema and British television, Cates was a distinctive presence: striking, fearless, and unafraid to take risks with the parts she played.
Away from the screen, Cates’s personal life sometimes drew as much attention as her work. She was married to the actor Skeet Ulrich, known for his roles in films such as Scream and the television series Riverdale. The couple married in 1997 and remained together until their divorce in 2005. During their marriage, they welcomed twins, Naiia and Jakob, who were born in 2001. Although the marriage eventually ended, Cates and Ulrich remained connected through their children. Ulrich was 56 at the time the news of Cates’s death was publicly shared.
In the weeks after her mother’s death, Cates’s daughter Naiia wrote a heartfelt tribute on Instagram. The post offered a rare and intimate glimpse into the woman behind the public persona. “My beautiful, free-spirited mom lived a hard life and still found ways to make herself and others laugh and smile <3 now she can rest easy,” Naiia wrote in June. The message continued with a tender list of memories and images that captured her mother’s personality: “I will always see you in black and white photos, Virginia slims, baggy clothes, no bras, big sunglasses, doodling while talking, pleasers, and flip-flops and everything in between.”
Naiia’s tribute went on to express gratitude and admiration for her mother’s spirit. “I love you, thank you for your creativity, curiosity and your bravery to always be true to yourself — no matter what.” Those words, shared months before the public announcement of Cates’s death, painted a portrait of a woman who lived life on her own terms. They also hinted at the private struggles she may have faced along the way, though no additional details have been made public. The fact that her daughter described her as someone who “lived a hard life” and yet still found ways to make others laugh and smile added a deeply human layer to the news that emerged later.
The delay between Cates’s death and the public announcement meant that many people learned of her passing only after several months had passed. For fans of her work, the shock was no less profound. Andrew Marshall’s message on X served as the first official confirmation for many, and his request for additional details suggested that even those who worked with her were not entirely sure what had happened. The response to his post reflected the affection that still surrounded Cates and her contribution to British entertainment.
Marshall’s use of the shorthand “2p4” and his reference to her as “our 1st Jenny” spoke to the lasting bond between the actress and the show that launched her career. The sitcom may have continued on without her, but Jenny Porter remained an important part of its early identity, and Cates’s work in those first two seasons helped set the tone for what followed. In that sense, her legacy is tied to a piece of British television history that fans continue to revisit.
Georgina Cates’s career was relatively brief by some measures, but it left an impression that outlasted her time in the spotlight. She navigated the transition from television to film at a moment when many British actors were trying to find a foothold in Hollywood, and she did so with ambition and determination. Her decision to reinvent herself to win the role in An Awfully Big Adventure remains one of the more memorable casting stories of the nineties, not only because it worked but because it said something about who she was as an artist.
Her performances in films like Frankie Starlight and Clay Pigeons demonstrated an ability to move between registers, from romance to comedy to darker material. She never appeared to be chasing fame for its own sake. Instead, she seemed drawn to characters that had complexity, texture, and emotional honesty. Even in smaller projects, including the short film that became her final screen credit, she brought a seriousness and a spark that had been evident from the very beginning of her career.
As news of her death continues to spread, many will remember Cates not only for the roles she played but for the energy and originality she brought to the screen. Her family, especially her children Naiia and Jakob, remain in the thoughts of those who admired her work. While many questions about her death remain unanswered, there is no question that her loss is deeply felt by those who knew her personally and by the audiences who watched her grow from a teenager on a beloved sitcom into a film actress with real range.
Georgina Cates was more than the sum of her credits. She was a young woman from Essex who took an unconventional path into acting, refused to accept rejection, and carved out a space for herself in an unforgiving industry. She lived through difficult moments, as her daughter’s tribute gently acknowledged, and she still managed to find joy, laughter, and creativity. Her daughter’s words — “now she can rest easy” — offer a quiet sense of peace amid the sadness. Her work remains, and it is through that work that she will be remembered.
