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Romola Garai
Garai in Singapore in July 2007
Born	Romola Sadie Garai (1982-08-06) 6 August 1982 (age 42) British Hong Kong
Nationality	British
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2000–present
Spouse	Sam Hoare ​(m. 2014)​
Children	2

Romola Sadie Garai (/ˈrɒmələ ˈɡæri/ ROM-ə-lə GARR-ee; born 6 August 1982) is a Hong Kong-born British actress and film director. Known for her extensive work on stage and screen, she often acts in period films. Her early film roles include Nicholas Nickleby (2002), I Capture the Castle (2003), Inside I'm Dancing (2004), and Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004). She has gained prominence for her performances in the critically acclaimed costume dramas such as Vanity Fair (2004), As You Like It (2006), Amazing Grace (2007), Atonement (2007), Glorious 39 (2009), and Suffragette (2015).

She is also known for her portrayal of Emma Woodhouse in the BBC series Emma (2009) for which she received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film. She received a nomination for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress for the BBC Two series The Crimson Petal and the White (2011). From 2011 to 2012, she played Bel Rowley in the BBC series The Hour receiving Golden Globe Award and Critics' Choice Television Award nominations. In 2022, she portrayed Mary Tudor in Becoming Elizabeth.

Early life

Garai was born in Hong Kong to British parents. Her father's family is Jewish. Her mother, Janet A. (née Brown), brought up Romola and her three siblings. Her father, Adrian Earl Rutherford Garai (born 1945), was a bank manager.

Garai's great-grandfather, Bernhard "Bert" Garai, an immigrant from Hungary, was made manager when his employers, Press Illustrating Company, merged with Keystone View Company, of the Keystone Press Agency, a photographic agency and archive, in London, in the early 20th century.

Garai is the third of four siblings. Her family moved to Singapore when she was five, and returned to Wiltshire in England when she was eight. She attended an independent boarding school, Stonar School in Wiltshire and, at 16, moved to London to attend the City of London School for Girls, where she completed her A-levels. She appeared in school plays, and was with the National Youth Theatre until the age of 18, when she signed to play the younger version of Dame Judi Dench's character in the BBC Films/HBO co-production for television, The Last of the Blonde Bombshells.

After her A-levels, she studied English literature at Queen Mary University of London before transferring and graduating with a first-class degree from The Open University. She originally intended only to focus on her studies but later began acting full-time during the summer holiday.

Acting career

2000–2009

Garai's first professional acting role was in the 2000 BBC-HBO TV film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells, where she played Judi Dench's character as a young woman. She then appeared in the BBC television series Attachments (2000–2002).

Garai's first major film role was in Nicholas Nickleby. She played Kate Nickleby, a supporting role, in the well-reviewed film. The cast were awarded Best Ensemble by the National Board of Review. In 2003's I Capture the Castle, she played 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain. Her performance earned her a nomination for a Most Promising Newcomer award from the British Independent Film Awards.

Her performance in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004) received mixed reviews. Later in 2004 Vanity Fair was released, in which she played Amelia Sedley. Co-starring Reese Witherspoon, Jim Broadbent and James Purefoy, the film was based on the 19th century novel by William Makepeace Thackeray and it was directed by Mira Nair. The film received mixed reviews.

In 2005, Garai received another BIFA nomination, this time for Best Supporting Actress, for her performance as Siobhan in the independent film Inside I'm Dancing. Her portrayal earned her the British Supporting Actress of the Year award from the London Film Critics Circle. Also in 2005, she starred in a two-part drama made for television, entitled The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant. While critics hailed it as "pleasingly old-fashioned adventure," it was her performance that won the most admiration and earned her two nominations: Best Lead Actress in Television from the Australian Film Institute and Most Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series from the Logie Awards. The Observer noted: "As for the tireless Garai, she once again demonstrated an instinctive understanding of the vital difference between overperforming and overacting."

She appears in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of As You Like It (2006), as Celia. The film was released in some European cinemas before being broadcast in 2007 on HBO cable television in the U.S. In 2009, it opened in cinemas in Mexico.

Also in 2006, she starred in the biographical drama film Amazing Grace, which was directed by Michael Apted and co-starring Ioan Gruffudd, Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Gambon. The film was about William Wilberforce, a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade. Garai played Barbara Spooner, the wife of Wilberforce. The film received generally positive reviews.

In 2007, Garai starred as Angel Deverell in François Ozon's Angel. The Independent named her one of the actresses of the year for her performance in the film. Garai was also nominated for the Prix Lumiere award (the French equivalent of the Golden Globes), as Best Female Newcomer for Angel, making her the first British actress to be nominated for the award.

Also in 2007, she starred in the Oscar-nominated film Atonement as the 18-year-old Briony Tallis. Co-starring Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Vanessa Redgrave, Saoirse Ronan and Brenda Blethyn, the film went on to receive seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. Garai earned a Best Actress nomination from the Evening Standard British Film Awards for her performance. She also appeared in two Royal Shakespeare Company productions: as Cordelia in King Lear and as Nina in The Seagull, starring alongside Ian McKellen, Frances Barber, Sylvester McCoy, Jonathan Hyde and William Gaunt. The run, which toured the world, went into residence in the New London Theatre where it ended mid-January 2008. She received rave reviews, especially as Nina in The Seagull: The Independent called her a "woman on the edge of stardom", while This is London called her "superlative", and said that the play was "distinguished by the illuminating, psychological insights of Miss Garai's performance". She reprised her role as Cordelia in a televised version of King Lear.

In 2008, she appeared in the feature film The Other Man alongside Liam Neeson, Laura Linney and Antonio Banderas. Garai next starred in Stephen Poliakoff's World War II thriller Glorious 39, alongside Julie Christie, Jenny Agutter, Bill Nighy, Christopher Lee and Eddie Redmayne. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

In 2009, she played the title role in a television adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma, a four-hour miniseries that premiered on BBC One in October 2009, co-starring Jonny Lee Miller and Sir Michael Gambon. Garai was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance. Emma then appeared on American television as part of PBS' Masterpiece Classic anthology series, airing in most U.S. markets over three consecutive Sunday evenings during January and February 2010.

In 2009, The Sunday Times Magazine named her as one of Britain's rising stars alongside Matthew Goode, Andrea Riseborough, Hugh Dancy, Eddie Redmayne and others. In January of that year she travelled to the Syrian-Iraqi border to make a short film titled No Man's Land for the UNHCR, highlighting the plight of 800 Palestinian refugees living in the Al-Tanaf refugee camp. Of her visit to the refugee camps Garai states, "My trip to a refugee camp in Syria destroyed any hope that the horrors of Iraq might end, or that we are doing enough to help its victims." Garai has been hailed by her Glorious 39 director Stephen Poliakoff as "the next Kate Winslet" and someone who will "dominate British cinema" in the future.

2010–present

In 2011, Garai starred in the four-part BBC drama The Crimson Petal and the White based on the novel by Michel Faber. She was nominated for Best Actress at the 2012 BAFTA awards for the role. In 2011 she played Bel Rowley in the TV drama The Hour leading with Dominic West and Ben Whishaw for which she was Golden Globe nominated. Later that year she played the lead role of Becky in the stage play The Village Bike at the Royal Court for which she was critically lauded.

Garai starred alongside actress Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess in Lone Scherfig's One Day. She also played the part of a drug addicted single mother in the independent British film Junkhearts with Eddie Marsan and Tom Sturridge. She reprised her role as Bel Rowley in the second season of The Hour, which ran from 14 November to 13 December 2012. In 2013 she appeared in the sci-fi film The Last Days on Mars. In 2015 she played Isabella in Measure for Measure at the Young Vic, with her performance described as 'astonishing', 'wonderfully impassioned' and 'thrilling'. That same year she had a supporting role in Suffragette written by The Hour scribe Abi Morgan, and a leading role in the 90-minute drama Churchill's Secret opposite Michael Gambon and Lindsay Duncan for ITV. In 2020 she portrayed Eleonor Marx in the movie "Mrs Marx" by Susanna Nicchiarelli.

Garai's recent Radio Drama work for BBC Radio 4 includes The Stone Tape adapted by Peter Strickland, and the lead in two of the conspiracy thriller series Tracks by Matthew Broughton in 2016 and 2019. In 2017, she appeared in the Channel 4 miniseries Born to Kill as Jenny, the mother of a seemingly ordinary 16-year-old schoolboy who appears to have psychopathic tendencies. From June to September 2017 she appeared as Sarah Churchill in the London premiere of Helen Edmundson's Queen Anne. Garai appeared as Marin Brandt in BBC One's adaptation of the period thriller novel The Miniaturist. Garai starred in Ella Hickson's play The Writer at the Almeida Theatre in London from 14 April to 26 May 2018. In 2024 Garai played Annie Ernaux in the adaptation of her autobiographical novel "The Years".

Other work

Garai has written for The Guardian.

In 2012 she wrote and directed the short film Scrubber, casting Amanda Hale, Michelle Duncan, Honor Kneafsey and Steven Robertson. The film was shown at the Edinburgh film festival where it was nominated for Best British Short Film, at Sundance film festival where it was nominated for Best International Short Film, at London Short Film Festival where it won the Underwire Award for Best Female Character, and at Cannes where it screened in the Short Film Corner. The film was released as part of a short film collection, The Joy of Six, a Soda Pictures Release.

It was announced on 18 April 2018 that Garai was to make her feature directorial debut with Amulet (previously named Outside), a horror film written by Garai and starring Carla Juri, Imelda Staunton and Alec Secareanu. The film went into production in autumn 2018. It was released on VOD in July 2020.

Personal life

Garai's great-grandfather emigrated from Budapest to New York in the 1910s with his English-born wife, then moved to London, where he founded the Keystone Press Agency. Most of Garai's Jewish relatives were murdered during the Holocaust in Hungary.

Garai lives in London. In 2009 she obtained a degree in English literature from the Open University. She guards her private life, saying, "It's too simplistic to say that people start to believe what's written about them. But what happens is that you become a certain way to please people, to be liked, to be what's expected of you, to change yourself so that you become the best possible version of yourself for people who don't know you. And I think that's a terrible, pernicious thing." She adds, "In a way, I'd rather go into an interview and be disliked, and have unpleasant things written about me, than to have a wonderful, glowing article written that is in no way a reflection of who I am."

Garai enjoys travelling and cooking, calling it "therapeutic". She has visited Hong Kong, Malaysia, Italy, Austria, Morocco, Switzerland and the United States, "To be the outsider for a period of time changes you for the better. It shakes up your comfort level. You have to really make an effort to enter into other people's culture and psychology and language, which the British are very bad at doing."

In March 2013, she gave birth to a daughter, and the following year married her boyfriend, British actor Sam Hoare. Their second child was born in August 2016.

Garai is a feminist and has criticised the film industry for its attitudes towards women.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Audio

Awards and nominations

References

1. See: Garai, Romola; Mustafa Khalili (20 March 2009). "For these refugees, resettlement is the only option". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
2. "Romola Garai Interview with Premiere France". Premiere France. 14 March 2007. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 18 May 2007.
3. ^ Jack Foley (2003). "I Capture The Castle – Romola Garai Q&A". Indie London. Archived from the original on 28 October 2007. Retrieved 18 May 2007.
4. Romola Garai: no wallflower Debbie McQuoid, Stylist: "My dad's family were from an immigrant background, they were Jewish."
5. "Births". The Times. 15 March 1945. p. 1.
6. "Petticoat tales". Herald Scotland. 17 March 2007. Retrieved 1 October 2009.
7. "Romola Garai interview: feminism and the 1950s". The Daily Telegraph. London. 19 July 2011.
8. McLean, Craig (10 October 2004). "Romola Garai: Dancing Queen". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 20 October 2009. Retrieved 1 October 2009.
9. "Keystone Press Agency". Fleet Street's Finest. Retrieved 22 July 2024. Press Photo Sales
10. Lewis, Tim (November 2004). "Fifteen Stupid Questions for Romola Garai". British Esquire. Archived from the original on 12 February 2009. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
11. ^ Duerden, Nick (15 March 2007). "Romola Garai: A woman on the edge of stardom". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 22 March 2007. Retrieved 18 May 2007.
12. "Keystone Press Agency, Ltd". Archived from the original on 9 January 2012.
13. Molony, Julia (22 November 2009). "Romola gets the balance right". The Independent. Retrieved 22 November 2009.
14. "Passed/Failed: An education in the life of the actor Romola Garai". The Independent. London. 25 March 2010. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
15. ^ Lakhani, Nina (15 November 2009). "Romola Garai: An actor's life for me – at least for now". The Independent. London. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
16. ^ "Romola Garai: BIFA Nominations". The British Independent Film Awards. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
17. Romney, Jonathan (28 December 2008). "Film in 2008: Who was top of the heap? A talking tin can". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 30 December 2008. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
18. Hayhurst, David (18 December 2007). "French quartet vie for Prix Lumieres". Variety. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
19. "Keira Knightley – Atonement leads Evening Standard British Film Awards". Contactmusic.com. 21 January 2008. Retrieved 15 November 2009. Knightley goes up against her co-star Romola Garai for the Best Actress award...
20. de Jongh, Nicholas (28 November 2007). "The fall of a high-flying bird". London Evening Standard. Archived from the original on 21 December 2008. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
21. Poliakoff, Stephen (15 November 2009). "Romola Garai stars in Glorious 39". The Times. London. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
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26. "Poliakoff returns to the big screen". WalesOnline. 24 November 2009. Archived from the original on 22 January 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
27. "Television Awards Winners in 2012". www.bafta.org. 24 April 2012. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
28. "Romola Garai Joining One Day". ComingSoon.net. 21 May 2010. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
29. Franklin, Garth (21 January 2024). "News Bites: Iron, Superman, Watchmen - Dark Horizons".
30. O'Neill, Phelim (29 October 2015). "The Stone Tape: behind the screams on Radio 4's Fright Night". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
31. ^ "Tracks: The Nervus Vagus – Romola Garai radio thriller channels JJ Abrams". The Guardian. 11 August 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
32. "About the play - Queen Anne - Royal Shakespeare Company".
33. Mitchell, Robert (7 April 2017). "Anya Taylor-Joy, Romola Garai to Star in 'The Miniaturist' for BBC". Variety. Retrieved 20 July 2017.
34. "The Writer". Almeida Theatre. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
35. Garai, Romola. "Romola Garai". TheGuardian.com. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
36. "Short Stories". Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
37. Wiseman, Andreas (18 April 2018). "Romola Garai Directorial Debut 'Outside' To Star Carla Juri, Imelda Staunton, Alec Secareanu". Deadline. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
38. Smith, Aidan (23 November 2009). "Interview: Romola Garai, actress". Scotsman.com. Retrieved 5 December 2009.
39. Garai, Bernhard (1965). The man from Keystone – Bernhard Garai – Google Books. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
40. Preston, John (10 August 2008). "Romola Garai: on a roll". The Telegraph. London. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
41. ^ Hawker, Philippa (17 November 2007). "Where angels fear not". The Age. Melbourne. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
42. ^ Cohen, Scott Lyle (March 2004). "Romola Garai: her personal history reads like a Jane Austen novel. Now she's taking her adventures to Hollywood". Interview. Retrieved 15 November 2009.
43. "Daughter for Romola Garai and Sam Hoare". 21 March 2013.
44. Walker, Tim (24 July 2014). "Romola Garai 'secretly' weds Sam Hoare". The Telegraph. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
45. "Romola Garai: 'Theatres should not be asking parents to work six-day weeks' | Interviews, Picks | The Stage". The Stage. 10 July 2017. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
46. Wiseman, Eva (16 April 2017). "Romola Garai: 'It's a weird time for feminism'". Title of the News Source. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
47. Child, Ben (16 October 2015). "Romola Garai: 'Sets without childcare are stymying women's careers'". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
48. Kanter, Jake (14 March 2023). "'Scoop': Connor Swindells, Romola Garai Join Cast Of Netflix's Prince Andrew Movie As Jeffrey Epstein Snapper & 'Newsnight' Editor". Deadline. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
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54. Taylor, Paul (25 April 2018). "The Writer, review: Unflaggingly provocative". The Independent. Retrieved 20 May 2018.

External links

• Romola Garai at IMDb

• 1982 births
• Actresses from London
• Alumni of the Open University
• Alumni of Queen Mary University of London
• English film actresses
• English people of Jewish descent
• English radio actresses
• English stage actresses
• National Youth Theatre members
• English television actresses
• English voice actresses
• People educated at the City of London School for Girls
• Hong Kong emigrants to the United Kingdom
• Living people
• Royal Shakespeare Company members
• English Shakespearean actresses
• People educated at Stonar School
• 20th-century English actresses
• 21st-century English actresses
• English people of Hungarian-Jewish descent
• English feminists