Ruth Gemmell

Ruth Katrin Gemmell (born October 1967) is an English actress. She starred in the film Fever Pitch in 1997 which was followed by supporting roles in television series EastEnders, Casualty, Home Fires and Penny Dreadful. She has played Carly Beaker, the mother of the title character in the Tracy Beaker franchise since 2004. In 2020, she began playing Lady Violet Bridgerton in the Netflix series Bridgerton. Early life and education Ruth Katrin Gemmell was born in October 1967 in Bristol and grew up in County Durham, first in Barnard Castle before moving to Darlington with her mother upon her parents' divorce. She has three brothers. She attended Polam Hall School. Gemmell later moved to London, where her father lived, to pursue acting. She trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Career Gemmell has played roles in both theatre and TV dramas. She played the leading female role in Fever Pitch, based on Nick Hornby's memoir of the same name, starring opposite Colin Firth and had another leading role in the comedy/drama 2 January (2006). She played the recurring character of Detective Constable Kerry Cox in the first series of the BBC police procedural Silent Witness, which premiered in 1996. She returned to the series as different characters in 2006 and 2014. In 2004, she starred in Tracy Beaker's Movie of Me as the mother of the title character. From January 2009 she became a recurring character in EastEnders as Debra Dean, the absentee mother of Whitney Dean. In August 2009, she starred as Rebecca Sands in two episodes of The Bill.