Rebecca Root
{{Short description|English actress and stand-up comedian}}
{{use dmy dates|date=April 2015}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=April 2015}}
{{infobox person
| name = Rebecca Root
| image = Rebecca Root at the press conference of Sisters Brothers, 2018 Toronto Film Festival (44070760654).jpg
| caption = Root at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival
| birth_date =
| birth_place = Woking, Surrey, England
| alma_mater = Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
| occupation = {{hlist|Actress|comedian|voice coach}}
| years_active = 1995–present
| website = {{URL|rebeccaroot.co.uk}}
}}
Rebecca Root is an English actress, comedian and voice coach. She is most well-known for playing the leading role in the 2015 BBC Two sitcom Boy Meets Girl.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07k4tx0 |title=Boy Meets Girl |website=BBC online |accessdate=26 March 2018 }} She has performed the role of Siobhan in the National Theatre's touring production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
She was rated 18th in The Independent on Sunday{{'}}s Rainbow List 2014, which named her as an openly transgender actress in mainstream television, alongside others like Alexandra Billings, Laverne Cox and Adèle Anderson.
Biography
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Root was born in Woking, Surrey, England. She is the second child of an auxiliary nurse mother, while her father was a banker in Guildford. She has an older sister called Rachel and a younger sister, Rosalind, who is eight years her junior.
At 11 years old her family moved to rural Oxfordshire where she attended Bartholomew School in Eynsham. As a young person she performed with local drama groups as well as the prestigious National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, where she was a contemporary of actors Lucy Briers, Jonathan Cake, and Daniel Craig.{{cite web |url=https://www.essentialsurrey.co.uk/lifestyle/celebrity-interview/rebecca-root/|title=Interview: Transgender actress Rebecca Root|website=Essential Surrey & SW London|date=January 2015}}
She went on to graduate from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with a Master of Arts in Vocal Studies in 2012.{{cite web |url=https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/people/18661|title=Rebecca Root acting profile|website=National Theater}} Her thesis, "There and Back Again: Adventures in Genderland", has since been published in the peer reviewed journal Voice and Speech Review.
Career
After finishing her sixth form education in 1987, Root moved to London full time in order to train as an actor at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts spent the next decade as a jobbing actor, working in a range of television and theatre productions, notably in TV shows like Keeping Up Appearances and Casualty, and stage plays like The Lady's Not For Burning, Hamlet, and Tartuffe.
Before her breakthrough in 2015 playing a supporting role in the award-winning film The Danish Girl (her debut in film) and a lead role in the groundbreaking BBC Two romantic sitcom Boy Meets Girl, Root considered that she played roles described as “a romantic lead, debonair, knight, a soldier—typically and boringly ‘normal.’”{{cite web|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/09/rebecca-root-the-sisters-brothers|title=Trans Actress Rebecca Root Is Changing History in The Sisters Brothers—Or Maybe Just Revealing It|website=Vanity Fair|date=26 September 2018}}
In 2015 Root also starred in the BBC Radio 4 drama 1977,{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06r8gms|title=Drama: 1977|website=BBC online|date=3 December 2015 }} about the transgender popular composer Angela Morley who had become a household name to British radio audiences as Wally Stott. It followed the year in which Morley was enlisted to complete composition of the musical soundtrack to the film Watership Down in three weeks flat.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/entries/7c87da6e-c8b0-462e-86a9-b4227fdd25de|title=About so much more than 'a transgender woman in the 1970s' |website=BBC/blogs/writersroom|date=30 November 2015}} She has appeared in the Doctor Who audio series Stranded, part of the Eighth Doctor's adventures, playing Tania Bell, the Doctor's first openly transgender companion, and an operative of Torchwood monitoring the Eighth Doctor when he is trapped on Earth due to the TARDIS suffering damage.
Root is also a voice coach, teaching at the East 15 Acting School and from her home in Highgate, London. She started that career after she transitioned from male to female in 2003 and acting work became harder to find. Root also advertises voice therapy lessons specifically for transgender people to help them "find a voice they feel fits their gender".
Personal life
Root is a bisexual woman{{cite web |url=https://www.essentialsurrey.co.uk/lifestyle/celebrity-interview/rebecca-root/|title='Interview: Transgender actress Rebecca Root'|website=Essential Surrey & SW London|date=January 2015}} and currently resides in London with her partner, actress Elizabeth Menabney.
She is also a passionate advocate for LGBT rights and is patron for the charities Diversity Role Models{{cite web | url=https://www.diversityrolemodels.org/about-us/patrons | title=Patrons }} and Liberate Jersey.{{Cite web |last=Jersey |first=Liberate |date=2017-07-08 |title=Liberate has its first patron |url=https://liberate.je/2017/07/08/liberate-has-its-first-patron/ |access-date=2023-03-18 |website=Liberate |language=en-US}}
Filmography
| class="wikitable sortable" |
| Year
! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|
| 1995
| The Engineer | Episode: "Hyacinth Is Alarmed" |
| rowspan="2"| 1996
| Eight for Eight Thirty | Julian | Short film |
| The Detectives
| Vet | Episode: "Back in Class" |
| 1997
| Casualty | Psychiatric SHO | 2 episodes |
| 2012
| Normal: Real Stories from the Sex Industry | Cynthia | Film premiered at the 2012 Raindance Film Festival |
| 2015–2016
| Judy |
| rowspan="2" | 2015
| 1977 | Angela Morley |
| The Danish Girl
| Lili's nurse | Root auditioned for the role of the transgender character Lili Elbe, but the role was given to actor Eddie Redmayne, with Root being given the role of Lili's nurse |
| 2017
| Doctor Who: Zaltys | Sable | Big Finish Doctor Who audio drama{{Cite web|url=https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-zaltys-1253|title=223. Doctor Who: Zaltys - Doctor Who - The Monthly Adventures - Big Finish|website=www.bigfinish.com|access-date=2019-12-21}} |
| 2017–2018
| Doctors | Samantha Eustace | 4 episodes |
| rowspan="3" | 2018
| Colette | Rachilde | |
| The Sisters Brothers
| Mayfield | |
| The Romanoffs
| Dana | Episode: "The One That Holds Everything" |
| rowspan="4" |2019
| Misabel (voice) | Episode #1.1 |
| Flack
| Allie Gregs | Episode: "Dan" |
| Last Christmas
| Dr. Addis | |
| Gallifrey: Time War 2
| Cantico | Big Finish audio drama boxset{{Cite web|url=https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/gallifrey-time-war-2-1794|title=10. Gallifrey: Time War 2 - Gallifrey - Big Finish|website=www.bigfinish.com|access-date=2019-12-21}} |
| 2020
| Doctor Who: Stranded | Tania Bell | Big Finish Doctor Who audio drama boxset{{Cite web|url=https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/paul-mcgann-comes-down-to-earth-with-a-bump-in-doctor-who-stranded|title=Paul McGann comes down to Earth with a bump in Doctor Who - Stranded - News - Big Finish|website=www.bigfinish.com|access-date=2019-12-21}} |
| 2020
| Miss Lonsdale | 2 episodes |
| 2021
| Creation Stories{{cite web|accessdate=2021-02-27|title=Creation Stories review: Alan McGee biopic - The Skinny|url=https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/creation-stories|website=www.theskinny.co.uk}} | Victoria | |
| 2021
| Police Officer | Season 3, Episode 6 |
| 2022
| Miranda |
| 2022
| DS Diana Aird | |
| 2022
| Wekatta | Video Game |
| 2023
| Sirona Ryan | Video Game |
| 2023–2024
|Principal Edwards |3 episodes |
| 2023
|Annika |Alex Carrigan |1 episode |
| 2023
|The Galley |Nicky |Video Game |
| 2024
|Cynthia Fitzsimmons |6 episodes |
| 2025
|Lelaine Akashi |1 episode |
References
{{reflist|refs=
{{cite news|url=http://www.bustle.com/articles/22954-eddie-redmayne-cast-as-transgender-do-we-need-another-straight-cisgender-dude-in-a-lgbtq|title=Eddie Redmayne Cast as Transgender — Do We Need Another Straight, Cisgender Dude in a LGBTQ Role?|first=Caroline|last=Pate|date=1 May 2014|newspaper=Bustle|accessdate=9 September 2015}}
{{cite news|url=http://www.enfieldindependent.co.uk/leisure/film_tv/11868199.Highgate_actress_Rebecca_Root_talks_being_transgender__her_BBC2_sitcom_and_starring_with_Eddie_Redmayne/|title=Highate Actress Rebecca Root talks being transgender, her BBC2 sitcom and starring with Eddie Redmayne|last=Enfield|first=Laura|date=23 March 2015|accessdate=14 April 2015|newspaper=Enfield Independent|publisher=Newsquest}}
{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/feb/04/bbc-sitcom-transgender-actor|title=BBC starts filming sitcom starring transgender actor|last=Ellis-Petersen|first=Hannah|date=4 February 2015|accessdate=14 April 2015|newspaper=The Guardian}}
{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/therainbowlist/rainbow-list-2014-1-to-100-9848457.html|title=Rainbow List 2014, 1 to 101|newspaper=The Independent on Sunday|date=9 November 2014|accessdate=14 April 2015}}
{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/11309020/Transgender-women-often-want-to-sound-like-Fiona-Bruce.html|title='Transgender women often want to sound like Fiona Bruce'|last=Merz|first=Theo|date=8 January 2015|accessdate=14 April 2015|newspaper=The Telegraph}}
}}
Further reading
- {{cite magazine|url=http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2014/09/tide-turning-transgender-actors|title=Is the tide turning for transgender actors?|first=J|last=Tebble|date=9 September 2014|magazine=New Statesman}} – includes an interview with Root.
External links
- {{Official website|http://rebeccaroot.co.uk/}}
- {{IMDb name|2340289}}
{{Portal bar|BBC|Comedy|Film|Radio|Theatre|Television|Biography}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Root, Rebecca}}
Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:21st-century English actresses
Category:Actresses from Oxfordshire
Category:Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
Category:British vocal coaches
Category:English transgender women
Category:English bisexual actresses
Category:English film actresses
Category:English radio actresses
Category:English stage actresses
Category:English television actresses
Category:English voice actresses
Category:English transgender actors
Category:Actresses from Woking
Category:British music educators
Category:English women music educators
Category:English LGBTQ comedians
Category:English women comedians
Category:Comedians from Surrey
Category:Comedians from Oxfordshire