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Rebecca Root

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Rebecca Root
Root at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival
Born
Woking, Surrey, England
Alma materRoyal Central School of Speech and Drama
Occupations
  • Actress
  • comedian
  • voice coach
Years active1995–present
Websiterebeccaroot.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.[1] 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.[2]

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.[3]

She went on to graduate from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama with a Master of Arts in Vocal Studies in 2012.[4] Her thesis, "There and Back Again: Adventures in Genderland", has since been published in the peer reviewed journal Voice and Speech Review.

Career

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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,[3] 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.’”[5]

In 2015 Root also starred in the BBC Radio 4 drama 1977,[6] 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.[7] 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,[8] 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[3] and acting work became harder to find.[9] Root also advertises voice therapy lessons specifically for transgender people to help them "find a voice they feel fits their gender".[10][11][12][13]

Personal life

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Root is a bisexual trans woman[14] 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[15] and Liberate Jersey.[16]

Filmography

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Year Title Role Notes
1995 Keeping Up Appearances The Engineer Episode: "Hyacinth Is Alarmed"
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[17]
2015–2016 Boy Meets Girl Judy BBC TV series[18]
2015 1977 Angela Morley BBC Radio 4 drama[6]
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,[9][19] with Root being given the role of Lili's nurse
2017 Doctor Who: Zaltys Sable Big Finish Doctor Who audio drama[20]
2017–2018 Doctors Samantha Eustace 4 episodes
2018 Colette Rachilde
The Sisters Brothers Mayfield
The Romanoffs Dana Episode: "The One That Holds Everything"
2019 Moominvalley Misabel Episode #1.1
Flack Allie Gregs Episode: "Dan"
Last Christmas Dr. Addis
Gallifrey: Time War 2 Cantico Big Finish audio drama boxset[21]
2020 Doctor Who: Stranded Tania Bell Big Finish Doctor Who audio drama boxset[22]
2020 The Queen's Gambit Miss Lonsdale 2 episodes
2021 Creation Stories[23] Victoria
2021 Sex Education (TV series) Police Officer Season 3, Episode 6
2022 This is Christmas Miranda Film[24]
2022 The Rising DS Diana Aird
2022 Horizon Forbidden West Wekatta Video Game
2023 Hogwarts Legacy Sirona Ryan Video Game
2023–2024 Heartstopper Principal 3 episodes
2023 Annika Alex Carrigan 1 episode
2023 The Galley Nicky Video Game
2024 Monsieur Spade Cynthia Fitzsimmons 6 episodes

References

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  1. ^ "Boy Meets Girl". BBC online. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  2. ^ "Rainbow List 2014, 1 to 101". The Independent on Sunday. 9 November 2014. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  3. ^ a b c "Interview: Transgender actress Rebecca Root". Essential Surrey & SW London. January 2015.
  4. ^ "Rebecca Root acting profile". National Theater.
  5. ^ "Trans Actress Rebecca Root Is Changing History in The Sisters Brothers—Or Maybe Just Revealing It". Vanity Fair. 26 September 2018.
  6. ^ a b "Drama: 1977". BBC online. 3 December 2015.
  7. ^ "About so much more than 'a transgender woman in the 1970s'". BBC/blogs/writersroom. 30 November 2015.
  8. ^ Gill, Nicola (22 September 2015). "Rebecca Root interview: 'I'm not fighting myself any more'". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 September 2015.
  9. ^ a b Enfield, Laura (23 March 2015). "Highate Actress Rebecca Root talks being transgender, her BBC2 sitcom and starring with Eddie Redmayne". Enfield Independent. Newsquest. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  10. ^ Merz, Theo (8 January 2015). "'Transgender women often want to sound like Fiona Bruce'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  11. ^ Root, Rebecca. "Biography". Rebecca Root. Archived from the original on 6 November 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  12. ^ Sherwin, Adam (21 August 2014). "BBC2 commissions Britain's first transgender sitcom Boy Meets Girl". The Independent. Retrieved 28 April 2015.
  13. ^ Root, Rebecca (2009). "There and Back Again: Adventures in Genderland". Voice and Speech Review. 6 (1). Voice and Speech Trainers Association: 144–155. doi:10.1080/23268263.2009.10761517.
  14. ^ "'Interview: Transgender actress Rebecca Root'". Essential Surrey & SW London. January 2015.
  15. ^ "Patrons".
  16. ^ Jersey, Liberate (8 July 2017). "Liberate has its first patron". Liberate. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  17. ^ Root, Rebecca. "News and upcoming events". Rebecca Root. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  18. ^ Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (4 February 2015). "BBC starts filming sitcom starring transgender actor". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  19. ^ Pate, Caroline (1 May 2014). "Eddie Redmayne Cast as Transgender — Do We Need Another Straight, Cisgender Dude in a LGBTQ Role?". Bustle. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  20. ^ "223. Doctor Who: Zaltys - Doctor Who - The Monthly Adventures - Big Finish". www.bigfinish.com. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  21. ^ "10. Gallifrey: Time War 2 - Gallifrey - Big Finish". www.bigfinish.com. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  22. ^ "Paul McGann comes down to Earth with a bump in Doctor Who - Stranded - News - Big Finish". www.bigfinish.com. Retrieved 21 December 2019.
  23. ^ "Creation Stories review: Alan McGee biopic - The Skinny". www.theskinny.co.uk. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  24. ^ "Kaya Scodelario and Alfred Enoch to star in Sky rom-com This Christmas". Radio Times.

Further reading

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