• QUICK FACTS

 Born: August 6, 1982
 Place of Birth: Hong Kong
 Current Place of Residence: England
 Trivia: Romola has a good soprano voice and can play the violin.
 
• INTRODUCTION

Romola Garai. Intriguing name, huh? Well, her first name is the female version of Romulus, who was the founder of Rome, Italy. Apparently, her mum Janet liked it enough to bestow it upon her daughter. It's a bit difficult to pronounce. Her last name is Hungarian.
Great-grandfather was Jewish émigré Bert Garai, who founded the Keystone Press Agency in London in 1924.

She was born in Hong Kong, where her father Adrian worked for a British bank. She spent her formative years there, with a two-year interlude in Singapore. The family shipped back to England when she was eight. She attended Stonar School, an all girls school, where she was given nicknames like Romster and CD-Rom. Romola was interested in the performing arts early on, and took speech and drama lessons with Vivienne and Rosemary McEwan and participated regularly in the annual Mid-Somerset festival in Bath. School productions, under the direction of Graham Billing, included 'Blitz', which allowed her to give voice to her singing talents, encouraged by her teacher, Miss Brett.

Romola moved to London with her older sister to complete her A levels at the City of London School for Girls where her performance as Isabella in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure was 'spotted' and she was invited to audition for the part of the young Judi Dench in the TV film 'The Last of the Blonde Bombshells', alongside established actors Ian Holm, June Whitfield and Olympia Dukaksis. The success of this production began her career.

Two television roles followed. The put upon office junior Zoe in 'Attachments' and the young girl discovering her past in 'Perfect' with Michelle Collins playing her birth mother. She also took up modeling.

Romola planned on receiving a degree in English at Queen Mary's College but after several film and TV roles abandoned her ambition of becoming a journalist like her mother. The film and TV roles included playing Gwendolen Harleth in Daniel Deronda, Cassandra Mortmain in I Capture the Castle, and Kate Nickleby in Nicholas Nickleby.

In 2004, she was everywhere. In theaters three times (Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, Vanity Fair, and Inside I'm Dancing), on stage in her West End debut, and on the small screen in the US when Daniel Deronda re-broadcasted in April on the PBS Masterpiece Theater. What has all this accomplished? It's hard to tell yet, Romola may not be as well known as the other young British actress, Keira Knightley, but she has proved her acting ability with the films I Capture the Castle and Inside I'm Dancing and the offers and work continue to come.

 

 

back to Main