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Full Name:	Romola Garai
Birth Name:	Romola Sadie Garai
Famous As:	Actress
Date of Birth:	August 06, 1982
Place of Birth:	Southwark, London, England, UK
Height:	5' 8
Nationality:	British
Father:	Adrian
Mother:	Janet
Brother(s):	Ralph
Sister(s):	Rosie; Roxy

• Romola Garai Praises Stephen Poliakoff

  MaleFirst Mens Magazine - Found 9 hours ago Romola Garai has heaped praise on her Glorious 39 director Stephen Poliakoff claiming that he has respect for actors. Win DVDs With Glorious 39 - MaleFirst Mens Magazine Garai: 'Poliakoff has respect for actors' - Digital Spy Win A Glorious 39 Script Signed By Stephen Poliakoff - Channel 4 Explore All

  MaleFirst Mens Magazine

• Interview: Romola Garai, actress

  The Scotsman - Found Nov. 23, 2009 Climbing the narrow stairs of the private members' club where I'm meeting Romola Garai, I have to ease my way past one air-kissing couple and, on the ...

• The Informant! Steven Soderbergh, 108 mins, (15)Glorious 39, Stephen ...

  The Independent - Found Nov. 21, 2009 Tennant, and a civil servant, Charlie Cox, are in Churchill's camp, while Nighy's adopted daughter, Romola Garai, isn't too bothered either... Matt Damon as you've never seen him before - ITN The Informant! Steven Soderbergh, 108 mins, (15)Glorious 39, Stephen ... - The Independent Explore All

• Glorious two on Andrew Marr's sofa

  BBC - Found Nov. 20, 2009 This Sunday Stephen Poliakoff, writer and director of new movie Glorious 39, and its star Romola Garai join Andrew Marr.

• Glorious 39 review

  Telegraph - Found Nov. 19, 2009 Aspiring actress Romola Garai, adopted into the family of a wealthy Tory MP, smells a rat when various anti-Hitler types start dying. Video: Glorious 39 Culture Minute - Telegraph Nighy Won't Watch His Films - IMDB REVIEW: GLORIOUS 39 - Hornsey Journal Explore All

  Telegraph

• Julia Stiles Also in the Running For Spider-Man 4

  /Film - Found Nov. 17, 2009 ... lead for the fourth Spider-Man film, and that Romola Garai (Amazing Grace, The Other Man) has auditioned for the role. Garai, McAdams, and...

• Rachel McAdams Denies Spider-Man 4 Casting Rumor

  /Film - Found Nov. 17, 2009 ... female lead for the fourth Spider-Man film, and that Romola Garai (Amazing Grace, The Other Man) has auditioned for the role. Garai is only a...

• Romola Garai stars in Glorious 39

  Times Online - Found Nov. 14, 2009 ... were Bill Nighy, as Alexander, the owner of this sumptuous estate, and his children, played by Romola Garai, Eddie Redmayne and Juno Temple...

• Sir Links-a-Lot

  Film Experience Blog - Found Nov. 14, 2009 ... slap some people silly who have wanted to condemn this movie for existing. Cinema Blend Romola Garai's Spider-Man surprise Los Angeles...

• New Source Confirms Black Cat For Spider-Man 4, More Story Details ...

  /Film - Found Nov. 10, 2009 ... at the Spider-Man 4 big-shot hang out, with Sam Raimi reportedly turning over both Rachel McAdams and Romola Garai during his trawl for a...

Romola Garai extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Romola Garai
Garai at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival
Born	Romola Sadie Garai 6 August 1982 (1982-08-06) (age 27) Hong Kong
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2000–present

Romola Sadie Garai (pronounced /ˈrɒmələ ˈseɪdi ˈɡæri/;¹ born 6 August 1982) is an award-winning Hong Kong born English actress.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Acting career 3 Personal life 4 Filmography 5 References 6 External links

Early life

Garai was born in Hong Kong,²³ the daughter of Janet, a journalist, and Adrian Garai, a high-ranked bank manager.⁴ Her first name is the female version of Romulus, one of the founders of Rome.⁵ Garai's father is of Jewish Hungarian descent;⁶ her great-grandfather was Bert Garai, the founder of the Keystone Press.⁷

Garai is the third of four siblings.⁸ She relocated to Singapore at five before her family returned to Wiltshire in the United Kingdom when she was eight. She attended an independent boarding school, Stonar School in Wiltshire, and later moved at sixteen to London to attend the City of London School for Girls where she ended up finishing off her A-levels. She was fond of drama and appeared in school plays, and also with the National Youth Theatre up until the age of eighteen, where she was spotted by an agent who whisked her away to play the younger version of Judi Dench's character in a television production called The Last of the Blonde Bombshells.³

After A-levels, she studied English Literature at Queen Mary, University of London; she originally intended to only study but decided to do acting on the side during the summer holidays.³ She is a former model.⁵

Acting career

Garai's first professional acting role was in a television production, The Last of the Blonde Bombshells.⁹ She then landed a part in a BBC-produced television series called Attachments.⁹ It was this production that prompted her to make the decision to stop her education and concentrate solely on her acting career.³

Garai's first major film role was in 2002's Nicholas Nickleby.⁹ She played Kate Nickleby, a supporting role, in the well-reviewed film. The entire cast was widely recognized for their work and were awarded Best Ensemble by the National Board of Review. In 2003's I Capture the Castle, she played 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain. She received glowing praise for her work and the film scored 80% at Rotten Tomatoes. Her performance earned her a nomination for a Most Promising Newcomer award from the British Independent Film Awards.¹⁰ Many critics hailed her as the next Julie Christie taking into account not only Romola's acting talent but also her uncanny resemblance to the screen legend.^{citation needed} Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004) was Garai's biggest critical flop to date,^{citation needed} scoring only 23% at Rotten Tomatoes (though it went on to make $27 million worldwide). Her performance received mixed reviews – many critics felt let down after her previous impressive turns.^{citation needed} Later that same year Vanity Fair was released.

In 2005, Garai received another BIFA nomination, this time for their Best Supporting Actress award, 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 earn 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. As The Observer noted: "As for the tireless Garai, she once again demonstrated an instinctive understanding of the vital difference between overperforming and overacting".

She can be seen in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of Shakespeare's 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 theatres in Mexico.¹¹

In 2007, Garai starred in her biggest role yet, as Angel Deverell in Francois Ozon's Angel. The Independent named her one of the Actresses of the year for her performance in Angel.¹² Romola was also nominated for the Prix Lumiere award¹³ (the French equivalent of the Golden Globes) as Best Female Newcomer for Angel, making her the first British actress to be nominated for a Prix Lumiere

The same year she also starred in the Oscar-nominated movie Atonement as the teenaged Briony Tallis alongside James McAvoy and Keira Knightley. The movie 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.¹⁴ 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 calling her a "woman on the edge of stardom",¹⁵ and This Is London calling her "superlative", and stating that the play was "distinguished by the illuminating, psychological insights of Miss Garai's performance."¹⁶ 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 Plummer and Eddie Redmayne.¹⁷ The movie had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.¹⁸ In 2009, she worked on a television adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma - the 4 hour-long mini-series premiered on BBC One in October 2009, co-starring Michael Gambon and Jonny Lee Miller.¹⁹

She is attached to play iconic American First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in Flying Into Love;²⁰ she will also appear in Hettie Macdonald's feature Nova Scotia, in which she plays a character called Lucy Hay,²¹ and in director Gareth Bryn's Driven, which is written by Catrin Clarke.²² Romola has also signed to play the female lead in I was Bono's Doppelgänger alongside Charlie Cox and Bill Nighy.²³ Filming was set to begin in August 2009.

In 2009 The Sunday Times Magazine named her as one of Britain's Rising Stars²⁴ alongside Matthew Goode, Andrea Riseborough, Hugh Dancy, Eddie Redmayne and many others. Past recipients of this honor include Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Michael Sheen. 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 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."²⁵

Garai would like to diversify into writing,⁵ especially for the theatre, which remains her first love.

Personal life

Garai, who is of Hungarian Jewish descent, lost most of her ancestors in the Holocaust – there are no known family ties left in Eastern Europe. Her great grandfather immigrated to England in order to escape the Nazis and keep the family safe. Garai's great-grandfather left Budapest for New York in the 1920s, then moved to London where he founded the Keystone Press Agency.²⁶ Romola admits she has "not yet" been to Hungary and feels modern, cosmopolitan and British.⁹ Garai lives in London and in 2009 finished her degree in English Literature with the Open University.²⁷

Garai guards her private life: "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."²⁸ She states ,"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."²⁸

Garai enjoys traveling and cooking in her spare time calling it 'therapeutic'²⁹ in many ways. She has visited Hong Kong, Malaysia, Italy, Austria, Morocco and Switzerland, and 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.²⁹ Garai is very close with directors Francois Ozon and Stephen Poliakoff, both of whom she occasionally calls for career advice.⁹

Filmography

• Nicholas Nickleby (2002) as Kate Nickleby
• Daniel Deronda (2002, miniseries) as Gwendolen
• Tea With Mr Rochester (2003, radio) as the reader
• I Capture the Castle (2003) as Cassandra Mortmain
• Calico (2004, stage play) as Lucia Joyce
• Inside I'm Dancing (also known as Rory O'Shea Was Here) (2004) as Siobhan
• Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights (2004) as Katey Miller
• Vanity Fair (2004) as Amelia Sedley
• The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant (2005, mini series) as Mary
• Scoop (2006) as Vivian
• Renaissance (2006, voice only) as Ilona Tasuiev
• As You Like It (2006) as Celia
• Amazing Grace (2006) as Barbara Wilberforce
• The Real Life of Angel Deverell (2007) also known as Angel
• Atonement (2007) as Briony (age 18)
• These Are The Times: A Life of Thomas Paine (2008, radio) as Carney
• King Lear (2008, stage play) as Cordelia
• The Other Man (2008) as Abigail
• 1939 (2009) as Anne Keyes
• Emma (2009, mini series) as Emma Woodhouse

References

External links

• Romola Garai at the Internet Movie Database
• Romola Garai Online
• Capturing Romola: A Romola Garai Fansite
• Telegraph.co.uk Interview with Romola Garai