Romola Garai

Romola Sadie Garri was born on 6 August 1982 in Hong Kong to British parents, the third of four children. After a brief childhood in Singapore, her family settled in Wiltshire, England, where she attended Stonar School and later the City of London School for Girls, developing a love for performance through school productions and the National Youth Theatre. She pursued English literature at Queen Mary University before transferring to the Open University, graduating with a first‑class degree while simultaneously launching a professional acting career. Her breakthrough came in the BBC‑HBO film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2000), followed by notable early roles in Nicholas Nickleby (2002) and I Capture the Castle (2003), the latter earning her a British Independent Film Awards nomination for Most Promising Newcomer. Garri quickly established herself as a versatile talent in period dramas, delivering acclaimed performances as Amelia Sedley in Vanity Fair (2004), Celia in Kenneth Branagh’s As You Like It (2006), and Briony Tallis in the Oscar‑nominated Atonement (2007). Her television work garnered prestigious recognition, including Golden Globe nominations for the BBC series Emma (2009) and The Hour (2011‑2012), and a BAFTA Television nomination for The Crimson Petal and the White (2011). Beyond screen acting, she has excelled on stage, earning critical praise for roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company and at the Young Vic. In recent years she expanded into writing and directing, creating the short film Scrubber (2012) and the feature‑length horror Amulet (2020), while penning the screenplay Monstrous Beauty (2023). Garri’s personal life remains relatively private; she married actor Sam Hoare in 2014 and is mother to two children. A self‑described feminist, she uses her platform to advocate for gender equity in the film industry and continues to explore diverse creative avenues across film, theatre, and literature.