Romola Garai

Romolo Garai is a British actress and model. Her debut role came in the 2000 British television movie The Last of the Blonde Bombshells, in which she played a younger version a character portrayed by Judi Dench.http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/Romola-Garai/biography/ She was nominated for a 2011 Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television for her role in the adaptation of the Jane Austen novel Emma.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/classic/index.html

Garai was born in Hong Kong to a journalist mother and bank executive father and lived in Singapore until she was 10.http://www.askmen.com/celebs/women/actress/romola-garai/ In her teens she appeared in school plays and joined the National Youth Theatre in England. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1804669664/bio She studied English in college and originally intended to pursue acting on summer breaks only, until a casting director noticed her and hired her for The Last of the Blonde Bombshells.http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/Romola-Garai/biography/

In 2009, Garai played the leading role of Emma Woodhouse in the four-part BBC adaptation of Emma.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/emma/index.htmlhttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt1366312/ The mini-series co-starred Michael Gambon and Jonny Lee Miller, and focused on Woodhouse’s abilities to serve as a romantic matchmaker for others and her own struggles at finding love.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/emma/index.html The New York Times called Garai’s performance “irresistible.”http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/arts/television/22emma.html

Garai was part of the cast of the 2002 movie Nicholas Nickleby, playing the role of the title character’s sister Kate.http://www.allmovie.com/work/nicholas-nickleby-272633 The cast of the film was honored by the National Board of Review for the Best Acting by an Ensemble.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0304801/awards

• 2000 The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (TV)
• 2002 Nicholas Nickleby
• 2003 I Capture the Castle
• 2004 Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights
• 2004 Vanity Fair
• 2004: Rory O'Shea Was Here
• 2005: Midsummer Dream
• 2006 Scoop
• 2006 As You Like It
• 2006: Renaissance
• 2006 Amazing Grace
• 2007 Angel
• 2007 Running For River
• 2007 Atonement
• 2008: The Other Man
• 2009: Glorious 39
• 2009: Emma (TV)

The filmmakers were obsessed with having someone skinny. I just thought, why didn't they get someone like Kate Bosworth, if that's what they wanted? An actress like that wouldn't worry about whether or not the political ideas were being sensitively or subtly dealt with. They'd do the job, smile and look pretty on the cover of Teen Vogue. There I am, 135 pounds and trying to make art! I was so wrong for it! — Interview with The Telegraph discussing her role in Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3558305/Romola-Garai-on-a-roll.html

He is a beautiful looking man but you are soon sitting down between scenes, having a cigarette, comparing blisters and talking about your agent. — On her Nicholas Nickleby co-star Charlie Hunnam. http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/story/romola-garai.s-.unsexy.-hunks

It was just an error of judgment that people told me at the time. They said it's not the right attitude but I needed to make that mistake. If you take a job that will enable you to do the work you really want to do, you're negating that experience, and if you don't enjoy yourself you have no reason to be there. — Discussing Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights with The Herald-Sun.