Romola Garai Actress

One Day marks the fifth film that Romola Garai has starred in for Focus Features. The previous movies were Joe Wright’s award-winning Atonement, which earned her an Evening Standard British Film Award nomination for Best Actress; Woody Allen’s Scoop; Mira Nair’s Vanity Fair; and Damian O’Donnell’s Rory O’Shea Was Here (a.k.a. Inside I’m Dancing). The latter performance earned her a London Critics’ Circle Film Award as well as well as a British Independent Film Award nomination. In 2003, she was cited as one of Variety’s “10 Actors to Watch.”  

One Day also continues Ms. Garai’s tradition of starring in notable screen adaptations of novels. In addition to those previously mentioned, these have included Tim Fywell’s I Capture the Castle (from the Dodie Smith book), for which she received her first British Independent Film Award nomination; Douglas McGrath’s Nicholas Nickleby (from the Charles Dickens book); Tom Hooper’s miniseries Daniel Deronda (from the George Eliot book); and François Ozon’s Angel (from the Elizabeth Taylor book), in which she played the title role. Most recently, she starred as Jane Austen’s Emma Woodhouse in the miniseries Emma, directed by Jim O’Hanlon; for her portrayal, Ms. Garai received a Golden Globe Award nomination.  

Her other feature credits include Tinge Krishnan’s upcoming Junkhearts, with Eddie Marsan and Tom Sturridge; Stephen Poliakoff’s Glorious 39 (a.k.a. 1939); Richard Eyre’s The Other Man; Michael Apted’s Amazing Grace; Kenneth Branagh’s As You Like It; and Gillies Mackinnon’s telefilm The Last of the Blonde Bombshells, in which she played the younger incarnation of Dame Judi Dench’s character. Her other U.K. television credits include the series Attachments; John Strickland’s miniseries Perfect; and, soon to air, Marc Munden’s miniseries The Crimson Petal and the White as well as the new series The Hour.  

Ms. Garai notably starred on the London stage as James Joyce’s daughter Lucia in Calico, which was written by Michael Hastings and directed by Edward Hall; alternating, in the Royal Shakespeare Company productions of King Lear and Chekhov’s The Seagull, both staged by Trevor Nunn in the U.K. and also around the world; and, most recently, in Sean Holmes’ staging of Christopher Hampton’s adaptation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters.