Ruth Gemmell

Ruth Gemmell is an English actress who grew up in County Durham and trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art before moving to London to pursue acting. She took the leading female role in Fever Pitch (1997), playing opposite Colin Firth, and later had another lead in the comedy drama 2 January. Her early television work included the BBC police procedural Silent Witness, playing Detective Constable Kerry Cox in its first series, a part she returned to in different roles in 2006 and 2014. She starred as the title character's mother in Tracy Beaker's Movie of Me and appeared in EastEnders as Debra Dean, and she made three separate appearances in Waking the Dead. Other credits include Utopia, Penny Dreadful and Home Fires. Since 2020 she has played Lady Violet Bridgerton in the Netflix period drama Bridgerton, and she reprised the role of Carly Beaker in My Mum Tracy Beaker.