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Ruth Wilson
Born	13 January 1982 (1982-01-13) (age 28) Ashford, Surrey, England  United Kingdom

Ruth Wilson (born 13 January 1982) is an English actress, perhaps best known for her BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated performance in the title role of Jane Eyre.

Biography

Wilson was born in Ashford, Surrey and raised with three older brothers in Shepperton, Surrey.^[1] She attended Notre Dame School and sixth form at Esher College.^[2] As a teenager, Wilson worked as a model, and went on to study history at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 2002. In 2003, she appeared as a player on the BBC gameshow "Time Commanders" (in the episode "The Battle of Pharsalus"). She graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in July 2005. Afterwards, she co-founded Hush Productions. While at Nottingham she was also involved in the student drama New Theatre which later won an award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Student Theatre' at the National Student Drama Festival 2008. She currently lives in London.^[3]

Career

Prior to her role in Jane Eyre, Wilson had only one professional screen credit, in Suburban Shootout, a situation comedy. Since then, Wilson has stated she is "going to better auditions. People are starting to see me, when they wouldn't have done, before - suddenly you have done a big show, and have got a bit more standing."^[4]

In 2006-2007 she filmed the second series of Suburban Shootout, a new Marple mystery for ITV, and Stephen Poliakoff's BBC television drama Capturing Mary as the young Mary.

In 2007 she appeared in Gorky's Philistines, playing Tanya, at the National from May until August 2007 - and learned to play the piano for the role.^[5] She also narrated the audio book of Lauren St John's novel "The White Giraffe". In June 2007, Wilson presented the 2007 Lilian Baylis Awards.^[6] In November 2007 she gave a radio interview on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour ^[7]

Other projects in 2007 included the narration of an audio book of the children's novel "Dolphin Song by Lauren St John; a guest appearance in the sitcom Freezing as Alison Fennel (transmitted on BBC2, 21 February 2008); narration of the documentary The Polish Ambulance Murders (transmitted on BBC4, 5 February 2008); and the portrayal of a mentally ill doctor in the dramatised documentary The Doctor Who Hears Voices^[8] (transmitted on UK Channel 4, 21 April 2008), a story which follows controversial psychologist Dr Rufus May as he treats a junior doctor diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

During the winter of 2007 Wilson took six months off. She said: "I simply want to take a break and catch my breath. But I also think that, sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is to deliberately keep some time free and see what the world throws at you."^[9]

From 23 July to 3 October 2009 she appeared as Stella in the Donmar revival of A Streetcar Named Desire.^[10]. On November 15, 2009 AMC Television and ITV will premier the 2009 TV miniseries remake of The Prisoner, in which Wilson plays the Village doctor, "Number 313."^[11] Starting on BBC1 on 6 December 2009, she plays "Queenie" in an adaptation of Andrea Levy's Small Island^[12].

Awards and nominations

Wilson's performance in Jane Eyre earned her four nominations for Best Actress awards in 2007, from the Broadcasting Press Guild, BAFTA television awards^[13][14] Satellite Awards and the 2008 golden globes. She also came second in a BBC viewers poll for Best Actress of 2006.

Selected credits

Wilson in her breakthrough role as Jane Eyre

Wilson played Lady Macbeth in Hush Production's inaugural production - Macbeth at the Lakeside Theatre - while they were in their final year at university.

While at LAMDA she appeared in a student production of CP Taylor's Good, which transferred to the Sound Theatre for a short run in 2005.

Wilson has also appeared in the short films In The Dark and The Rounds,^[21] as characters unknown.

Notes

External links

• Ruth Wilson at the Internet Movie Database
• Jane Eyre - Articles & Interviews