Romola Garai is a 41-year-old British actor and film-maker. She has appeared in the 2007 film Atonement, the BBC series Emma (2009) and The Hour (2012). Most recently, she has starred in the film One Life and the second series of the crime drama Vigil, which tracked a police investigation on a military base in the Middle East. She also wrote and directed the 2022 horror film Amulet. Next up, Garai stars in the UK premiere of Nachtland, a play by the German playwright Marius von Mayenburg, directed by Patrick Marber, which opens at the Young Vic next month. She lives in London and has two children with the actor Sam Hoare.
I interviewed Suranne Jones before Vigil season two and she said you were “hysterical”. She was adamant you should do more comedies…
Oh, that’s so nice. It’s obviously a boring truism to say Suranne’s a really fantastic actress, but she is a really fantastic actress. Also, Vigil was an incredible opportunity for me to do something quite different. It was really fun to be in military uniform, in beret and sunglasses and have a gun, and be telling people what to do. I was having such a jolly time that maybe that was infectious.
