Romola Garai
Romola Garai
BBC's The Hour, The Crimson Petal & the White, Atonement
Romola Garai began her acting career in earnest when she was in her first year of university. A casting director, who had seen her in a school production, asked her to audition for the part of the young Judi Dench in The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2000). 'The next thing I knew I had an agent and I suddenly started getting work.' She was studying English literature at the University of London when she read the script for I Capture the Castle (2003), the adaptation of Dodie's Smith's novel, in which Romola first properly caught people's attention.
She decided she had to choose between finishing her degree and acting, and she chose acting. Since then there has been a seemingly endless stream of work. She has starred in the brilliantly funny Inside I'm Dancing (2004), Vanity Fair (2004) and was acclaimed for her supporting role in Atonement (2007), alongside Keira Knightley and James McAvoy.
Romola was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in the television adaptation Emma (2007). She has also appeared in the films Amazing Grace, Glorious 39, and One Day.
In 2011, she played Sugar opposite Chris O'Dowd as William Rackham in the four-part BBC drama The Crimson Petal and the White based on the novel by Michel Faber. The supporting cast included Shirley Henderson, Richard E. Grant and Gillian Anderson.
She recently nabbed a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Made-for-TV Movie for her starring role as Bel in BBC's television series The Hour.
As well as film and television, she has tackled her fair share of meaty theatre roles. The first theatre work she ever did was in Calico, a complicated play about James Joyce's relationship with his mentally ill daughter. She has also appeared in Three Sisters, The Seagull, and King Lear. In 2011, she starred as Becky in The Village Bike at the Royal Court in London. It was a critical and box office success with the show being extended twice. 'My main ambitions, really, are in the theatre,' she says.
Romola Garai at the Internet Movie Database