Alastair Muir/ShutterstockAntonia Kinlay as she appeared in 2015 stage production The Three Lions' PlayAn actress has won a pregnancy discrimination case after being dropped from a minor role in a TV adaptation of one of JK Rowling's crime novels.
Antonia Kinlay appeared in the 2018 adaptation of Career of Evil and had expected to return in the follow-up.
But her role was recast after she became pregnant because producers feared audiences would be confused if her character had a visible baby bump.
An employment tribunal has upheld her claim and awarded an £11,000 payout.
Bronte Film and TV, the production company behind the BBC TV adaptations of Rowling's Cormoran Strike novels, claimed it would have cost £25,000 to digitally remove Ms Kinlay's baby bump from footage.
But the tribunal judges said it would have been possible to conceal Ms Kinlay's pregnancy "through the use of costume, camera angle, props, the positioning of other actors and make-up if appropriate".
The production company said it was "disappointed" by the tribunal's decision.
ReutersJK Rowling wrote the Cormoran Strike novels under the pseudonym Robert GalbraithMs Kinlay was paid £4,370 to play Sarah Shadlock in Career of Evil, appearing on screen for approximately 30 seconds.
According to the tribunal's findings, another actress was paid £9,555 to play the same character in 2020's Lethal White, which was a larger role.
Filming on Lethal White was due to start in September 2019, when Ms Kinlay would have been around four months pregnant.
In July that year, however, her agent was told she would not be in the cast.
After Ms Kinlay raised the matter with actors' union Equity, one of the show's producers admitted the decision was down to her pregnancy.
"We were concerned... it might appear that the character was pregnant and that this would therefore raise questions with the audience," wrote Ruth Kenley Letts.
Tom Burke and Holliday Grainger star in the TV versions of Rowling's crime novelsThe actress successfully argued that her pregnancy could have been disguised without the need for costly post-production work.
In a statement, Bronte Film and TV said: "The decision not to cast Antonia Kinlay was made wholly in good faith.
"We concluded that there was a genuine occupational requirement for the actor playing the role of Sarah Shadlock not to be visibly pregnant given the role she would be required to play, the scenes she would be required to appear in, and the nature of the storyline, which we believe could not be adapted to accommodate an actor in the visible later stages of pregnancy."
Ms Kinlay was awarded £6,000 for injury to feelings and £4,370.75 for loss of earnings. With interest, her total award came to around £11,690.
Under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith, Rowling has written five novels about private detective Cormoran Strike and his partner Robin Ellacott.
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