Early life

Ruth Gemmell was born in Darlington

Darlington

Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, part of the ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It lies on the small River Skerne, a tributary of the River Tees, not far from the main river. It is the main population centre in the borough, with a population of 97,838 as of 2001...

, Durham

County Durham

County Durham is a ceremonial county and unitary district in north east England. The county town is Durham. The largest settlement in the ceremonial county is the town of Darlington...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. She has three brothers. She attended an all girls school in Darlington called Polam Hall

Polam Hall

Polam Hall is an independent school located in the town of Darlington, County Durham, England. The Head is John Moreland.-History of Polam Hall :...

.
Her parents divorced when she was a child and she moved with her mother to Darlington from Barnard Castle

Barnard Castle

Barnard Castle is an historical town in Teesdale, County Durham, England. It is named after the castle around which it grew up. It sits on the north side of the River Tees, opposite Startforth, south southwest of Newcastle upon Tyne, south southwest of Sunderland, west of Middlesbrough and ...

.
Later she moved to London, to live with her father, to pursue her acting dream. She states; "I moved to London because I assumed you had to go to drama school there...I didn't know any better. Having not lived with my dad before I thought it was an ideal opportunity, which is crazy now!"
She trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art

Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art

The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, formerly the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, was a drama school, and originally a singing school, in London. It was one of the leading drama schools in Britain, and offered comprehensive training for those intending to pursue a...

 in London.

Personal life

Gemmell was married in Westminster

City of Westminster

The City of Westminster is a London borough occupying much of the central area of London, England, including most of the West End. It is located to the west of and adjoining the ancient City of London, directly to the east of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and its southern boundary...

, London, in 1997 to actor Ray Stevenson

Ray Stevenson (actor)

George Raymond "Ray" Stevenson is a Northern Irish-born English film and television actor. He is known for playing Titus Pullo in the BBC/HBO television series Rome , and in film as Dagonet in King Arthur and as Frank Castle/The Punisher in Punisher: War Zone and The Super Hero Squad Show...

, whom she met in 1995 during the filming of TV drama Band of Gold

Band of Gold (TV series)

Band of Gold is a television drama series written by Kay Mellor and produced by Granada Television. It wasoriginally shown on ITV between 1995 and 1997...

. The couple divorced in 2005.

Career

Gemmell has played a variety of roles mainly in theatres and TV dramas. She played the leading female role in the 1997 film Fever Pitch

Fever Pitch (1997 film)

Fever Pitch is a 1997 film starring Colin Firth based loosely on the book of the same name by Nick Hornby.-Synopsis:Hornby adapted the book for the screen and fictionalized the story, concentrating on Arsenal's First Division championship-winning season in 1988-89 and its effect on the...

 starring opposite Colin Firth

Colin Firth

SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...

 and had another leading role in the comedy/drama 2 January (2006).
In 2004 she starred in Tracy Beaker's Movie of Me as the mother of the title character, who abandoned her when she was a baby, leading her to spend life in a children's home.

From January 2009 she became a recurring character in EastEnders as Debra Dean; the mother of a teenage girl who, identically to her role in Tracy Beaker's Movie of Me, abandoned her daughter when she was an infant.

Ruth appeared in EastEnders

EastEnders

EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...

 as a recurring character, Debra Dean, the mother of already established character Whitney Dean

Whitney Dean

Whitney Dean is a fictional character from the BBC One soap opera EastEnders, played by Shona McGarty. The character is the adoptive daughter of long-running character Bianca Jackson , and was introduced in April 2008 when Palmer returned to the series after a six year absence...

. She first appeared for one episode in January 2009 and returned to the soap for a week in June 2009.
Ruth, proved to be a hit with viewers in her portrayal of Debra, and returned to EastEnders in July 2009. She was due to reprise her role in EastEnders once again in September 2010, just in time for her character's son's wedding, however the scenes were cut from the show before it aired.

In August 2009, she starred as Rebecca Sands in two episodes of The Bill

The Bill

The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...

.

Ruth has appeared three times in the BBCs police drama Waking The Dead, playing two 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 in the episode Sins of seventh season in 2008 as Linda Cummings, an exceptionally intelligent serial killer. Gemmel reprised the role of Cummings in Endgame, the fourth episode of the eighth season of the show. The storyline had Cummings manipulating Boyd and revealed that Cummings' accomplice was responsible for the drugs overdose that killed Boyd's son Luke. The role reprisal of Cummings is a first in the shows history.
Gemmell's ex-husband Ray Stevenson has also appeared in the show as consultant child abductor in the episode Fugue State.

Ruth starred in Episode 8 of Jimmy McGovern

Jimmy McGovern

Jimmy McGovern is a BAFTA award-winning English television scriptwriter from Liverpool.-Early career:McGovern started his career working on Channel 4's soap opera Brookside in 1982, tackling many social issues such as unemployment.-Successes:...

's BBC drama Moving On

Moving On (TV series)

Moving On is a British television series consisting of standalone contemporary dramas first shown on daytime BBC One. Although originally broadcast in an early-afternoon slot, less than a month after the initial airing the first series was repeated to an evening audience...

 playing the role of Joanne, in November 2010.

In November 2011 Ruth played Lady Shonagon in the adaptation for BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour of "The Pillow Book", by Robert Forrest.

Television work

• Band of Gold
  Band of Gold (TV series)
  Band of Gold is a television drama series written by Kay Mellor and produced by Granada Television. It wasoriginally shown on ITV between 1995 and 1997...
  
   (1995)
• The Bill
  The Bill
  The Bill is a police procedural television series that ran from October 1984 to August 2010. It focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work...
  
   (1999, 2003, 2009)
• Silent Witness
  Silent Witness
  Silent Witness is a BBC crime thriller series focusing on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes. First broadcast in February 1996, the series is still airing to the present day, with a fifteenth series expected to air in January 2012. The series was...
  
   (1996, 2006)
• Dalziel and Pascoe (2002): For Love Nor Money
• Spooks
  Spooks
  Spooks is a British television drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 – 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a...
  
   (2003) Without Incident / President's Visit (Miranda)
• Tracy Beaker(2004) (Carly Beaker)
• Midsomer Murders
  Midsomer Murders
  Midsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was...
  
   (2005)
• A Touch of Frost (2006)
• Waking the Dead
  Waking the Dead (TV series)
  Waking the Dead is a British television police procedural crime drama series produced by the BBC featuring a fictional Cold Case Unit comprising CID police officers, a psychological profiler and a forensic scientist. A pilot episode aired in September 2000 and there have been a total of nine series...
  
   (2008, 2009)
• Summerhill
  Summerhill (TV series)
  Summerhill is a British children's television drama about the famously radical Summerhill School. Written by Alison Hume and directed by Jon East, it was first broadcast on the CBBC Channel in January 2008 and was subsequently nominated for three children's BAFTA awards - Best Drama, Best Writer ...
  
   (2008)
• EastEnders
  EastEnders
  EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
  
   (2009, 2010-) (Debra Dean)
• Primeval
  Primeval
  Primeval or primæval may refer to:* Primeval, a British science fiction television series.* Primeval , a 2007 film* Primeval , a score of music from the BBC TV series Doctor Who...
  
   (2009)
• Lewis (2009): Your Sudden Death Question
• Casualty
  Casualty (TV series)
  Casualty, stylised as Casual+y, is a British weekly television show broadcast on BBC One, and the longest-running emergency medical drama television series in the world. Created by Jeremy Brock and Paul Unwin, it was first broadcast on 6 September 1986, and transmitted in the UK on BBC One. The...
  
   (2010): 'No Place Like Home' (Kate Margolin)
• Moving On
  Moving On (TV series)
  Moving On is a British television series consisting of standalone contemporary dramas first shown on daytime BBC One. Although originally broadcast in an early-afternoon slot, less than a month after the initial airing the first series was repeated to an evening audience...
  
   (2010): 'Losing My Religion' (Joanne)

Film work

• Fever Pitch (1997)
• January 2nd (2006) http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B000O78EUW
• Good
  Good (film)
  Good is a British-German-Hungarian motion picture based on the stage play by C. P. Taylor and starring Viggo Mortensen, Jason Isaacs and Jodie Whittaker...
  
   (2008)

Theatre work

• The Weir
• Nabokov's Gloves
• The Turn of the Screw
• Othello
• Measure for Measure
• Uncle Vanya
• An Ideal Husband
• The Winter's Tale
• The Second Mrs Tanqueray
• The Importance of Being Earnest
• A Tale of Two Cities
• Death and the Maiden

She performed in Macbeth and King Lear for the Royal Shakespeare Company

Royal Shakespeare Company

The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...

 in 2004/2005.

Radio work

Date	Title	Role	Director	Station
–	The Pillow Book	Shonagon	Lu Kemp Lu Kemp She directed How to Tell The Truth by Chris Dunkley for the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough in 2003, and Almost Blue for the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith in 2005 which won The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award 2005. Previously she worked with TAG Theatre Company, Glasgow on a...	BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...  Woman's Hour Drama Woman's Hour Drama The Woman's Hour Drama is a BBC Radio 4 Arts and Drama production. It consists of 15 minute episodes, broadcast every weekday 10.45-11.00am , repeated 7.45-8.00pm. These tend to be plays which extend over a week, or multiple of 5 episodes...
–	The Pillow Book (series 2)	Shonagon	Lu Kemp Lu Kemp She directed How to Tell The Truth by Chris Dunkley for the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough in 2003, and Almost Blue for the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith in 2005 which won The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award 2005. Previously she worked with TAG Theatre Company, Glasgow on a...	BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...  Woman's Hour Drama Woman's Hour Drama The Woman's Hour Drama is a BBC Radio 4 Arts and Drama production. It consists of 15 minute episodes, broadcast every weekday 10.45-11.00am , repeated 7.45-8.00pm. These tend to be plays which extend over a week, or multiple of 5 episodes...
	The Vanishing	Lieneke	Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams (drama) Kirsty Williams is a radio drama director and producer for BBC Radio Drama at Pacific Quay, Glasgow.Her play Daniel and Mary received a Bronze Sony Radio Academy Award for Best Drama in 2010.-Radio Plays:Notes:-References:...	BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...  Saturday Play Saturday Play The Saturday Play is a regular feature on BBC Radio 4 and is described as "Thrillers, mysteries, love stories and detective fiction, as well as an occasional special series."The Saturday Play is part of the BBC's series...
–	The Pillow Book (series 3)	Shonagon	Lu Kemp Lu Kemp She directed How to Tell The Truth by Chris Dunkley for the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough in 2003, and Almost Blue for the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith in 2005 which won The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award 2005. Previously she worked with TAG Theatre Company, Glasgow on a...	BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...  Woman's Hour Drama Woman's Hour Drama The Woman's Hour Drama is a BBC Radio 4 Arts and Drama production. It consists of 15 minute episodes, broadcast every weekday 10.45-11.00am , repeated 7.45-8.00pm. These tend to be plays which extend over a week, or multiple of 5 episodes...
–	The Pillow Book (series 4)	Shonagon	Lu Kemp Lu Kemp She directed How to Tell The Truth by Chris Dunkley for the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough in 2003, and Almost Blue for the Riverside Studios, Hammersmith in 2005 which won The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award 2005. Previously she worked with TAG Theatre Company, Glasgow on a...	BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...  Woman's Hour Drama Woman's Hour Drama The Woman's Hour Drama is a BBC Radio 4 Arts and Drama production. It consists of 15 minute episodes, broadcast every weekday 10.45-11.00am , repeated 7.45-8.00pm. These tend to be plays which extend over a week, or multiple of 5 episodes...

External links

• Interview with Ruth Gemmell