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Actor

1967-01-02 · Bristol, England · Female

22 series in the catalog

Ruth Katrin Gemmell (born October 1967) is an English actress. She first starred in the film Fever Pitch (1997). On television, she subsequently appeared in Tracy Beaker (2004–) franchise as Carly Beaker, the BBC One series EastEnders (2009) and Inside Men (2011), the Channel 4 series Utopia (2013–2014), and the ITV war drama Home Fires (2015–2016). She gained further prominence through her role in the Netflix period drama Bridgerton (2020–).

Early life and education

Ruth Katrin Gemmell was born in Bristol and grew up in County Durham, first in Barnard Castle before moving to Darlington with her mother upon her parents' divorce. She has three older brothers and a sister. She attended Polam Hall School, where she gained her first experience in acting, in school plays. Gemmell later moved to London, where her father lived, to pursue acting. She trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.

Career

Gemmell has played roles in both theatre and TV dramas. She played the leading female role in Fever Pitch, based on Nick Hornby's memoir of the same name, starring opposite Colin Firth and had another leading role in the comedy/drama 2 January (2006). She played the recurring character of Detective Constable Kerry Cox in the first series of the BBC police procedural Silent Witness, which premiered in 1996. She returned to the series as different characters in 2006 and 2014.

In 2004, she starred in Tracy Beaker's Movie of Me as the mother of the title character. From January 2009, she became a recurring character in EastEnders as Debra Dean, the absentee mother of Whitney Dean. In August 2009, she starred as Rebecca Sands in two episodes of The Bill.

Gemmell appeared three times in the BBC's police drama Waking the Dead. playing different characters. Her first appearance was in 2002 in the episode "Special Relationships" as DI Jess Worral, a former lover of DSI Boyd. She next appeared on the show in 2008, as Linda Cummings, an exceptionally intelligent serial killer. She reprised the role of Cummings in "Endgame", the finale of the eighth series.

Gemmell starred in Episode 8 of Jimmy McGovern's BBC drama Moving On as Joanne, in November 2010. In November 2011, Gemmell played Lady Shonagon in the adaptation for BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour of The Pillow Book, by Robert Forrest. She appeared as Jen, the wife of an adulterous civil servant, in Channel 4 drama Utopia, in early 2013.

In 2015, Gemmell appeared in five episodes of the television series Penny Dreadful as Octavia Putney. In 2020, she began playing Lady Violet Bridgerton in the Netflix series Bridgerton.

In 2021, Gemmell reprised her role of Carly Beaker for My Mum Tracy Beaker.

Personal life

Gemmell was married in Westminster, London, in 1997 to 2005 to the actor Ray Stevenson, whom she met in 1995 during the filming of TV drama Band of Gold. She remarried in 2015 to someone who she described as an old friend. She moved from her east London home to his small village in the Midlands.