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Sarah Solemani

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Sarah Solemani
Born (1982-09-04) 4 September 1982 (age 42)
Camden, London, England
Occupation(s)Actress, writer, playwright
Years active2000–present
Spouse
Daniel E. Ingram
​
(m. 2012)​
Children2

Sarah Solemani (born 4 September 1982)[citation needed] is an English actress, writer and activist. She is best known for her role as Becky in the BAFTA winning sitcom Him & Her[1] and playing Renee Zellweger's best friend Miranda in Bridget Jones's Baby, for which she was nominated for an Evening Standard Best Actress Award. She also had roles in the British comedy TV series Bad Education and The Wrong Mans.

Early life

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Solemani was born in the London Borough of Camden and grew up in Crouch End.[citation needed] Her father is a Persian Jewish mathematics lecturer (now retired).[citation needed] After passing her A levels at the Henrietta Barnett School, she took a gap year before reading Social and Political Sciences (now the Human, Social and Political Sciences Tripos) at New Hall, Cambridge and graduating with an MA (Cantab).[2][3] At Cambridge, she joined the Footlights performance troupe, becoming social secretary during her first year and later vice president.[4]

Career

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Theatre

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Solemani was a member of the National Youth Theatre during her gap year, during which time she appeared as Elaine in the West End theatre production of The Graduate[4] and as Ayesha in the critically acclaimed National Theatre production of Sanctuary.

She was a member of the Young Writer's Group attached to the Royal Court Theatre, and a writer at the Young Vic Theatre. Two plays she wrote were produced at Soho Theatre.[2] Another of her works, The Cost of Things (2010), was presented at the Public Theater New York under the aegis of the Old Vic Theatre as part of the TS Eliot Project.[citation needed] In 2011, she wrote The Baron which received the Old Vic New Voices 'Ignite' award.[5]

In 2009, Solemani appeared in Simon Stephens' play Pornography at the Tricycle Theatre in London and, in 2012, as Maryam in The House of Bernarda Alba at the Almeida Theatre.[2] She wrote Up the Royal Borough, part of an evening of plays in response to Owen Jones' Chavs at the Lyric Hammersmith. It gained good reviews.[6]

Television and film

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Solemani's first film role was as a tableaux girl in Mrs Henderson Presents, which she performed during her third year of college.[2] Her first major TV role was as Becky in BBC Three sitcom Him & Her, which was first broadcast in September 2010, and ran for four series, before ending in 2013.[7]

From 2012 until 2014, Solemani starred as Rosie Gulliver in the BBC Three comedy, Bad Education,[8] including its spin off movie The Bad Education Movie and a one-off special in 2022. In 2013, she featured in the BBC and Hulu's The Wrong Mans alongside James Corden. She reprised the role for the show's second series.[9] She wrote and starred in an episode of the Sky TV series Love Matters, titled "Aphrodite Fry", that aired in 2013.[10] In 2014, she wrote the television film The Secrets. It aired on BBC One to critical acclaim.

In Hollywood, Solemani was chosen by Bill Hader and Alec Berg to be part of their writing team on Hader's new HBO show Barry. While working in the United States, she has found the American television industry has a more positive attitude towards commissioning work by women and featuring female characters in their series.[11]

In 2019 it was announced she would adapt Jo Bloom's novel Ridley Road into a television drama.[12] Published in 2014, Bloom's book was the result of research into the anti-Nazi London 62 Group and events involving it in the summer of 1962, with the group's activities serving as a backdrop, the title coming from the street in the East End where fascists held meetings and around which battles took place.[13][14] It was broadcast by BBC One in October 2021.[15] In 2022 she co-wrote and co-starred with Steve Coogan in Chivalry, a six episode comedy-drama about "sexual politics in the wake of the #MeToo movement" for Channel 4.[16][17][18]

Print

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Solemani has contributed to the New Statesman,[19] The Guardian, The Independent and Harper's Bazaar. She writes regularly for the publications Red and Glamour.[citation needed]

Awards and acclaim

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Solemani was awarded third place in the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust/New Statesman Prize for New Political Writing on the subject: "Do women's rights remain the privilege of the developed world?" in 2005.[20]

In 2011, Solemani won the Royal Television Society award for best Comedy Performance for her role in Him & Her along with her co-star Russell Tovey.[21] In 2012, Solemani was named one of the year's Broadcast Hot Shots.[22]

Activism

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Solemani is against the criminalisation of sex work, and has been a champion for sex workers' rights since 2002.[citation needed] She was nominated by the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) to represent them in Parliament in order to halt further efforts to criminalise clients. She was an active supporter of former shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in the 2015 Labour leadership contest. She has introduced Cooper at various Labour Party events and has contributed to her speeches.[citation needed]

Personal life

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Solemani married Daniel E. Ingram, a sustainable investment expert specialising in climate change,[23] in Petah Tikva, Israel, on 3 June 2012.[24][25] Their daughter was born in December 2013 and their son was born in May 2018.[26] Raised by an Orthodox Jewish father and a Plymouth Brethren evangelical mother, Solemani has formally converted to Judaism along with her husband.[27]

Filmography

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Film and television

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Year Title Role Notes
2003 Red Cap Gillian Jennings TV series
2005 Mrs Henderson Presents Vera Film
2006 Undone Edna Radio series
2006 Hyperdrive Alien 1 TV series
2007 Living with Two People You Like Individually... But Not as a Couple Antonia TV series – pilot
2007 Roman's Empire Jenny TV series
2007 Suburban Shootout Donna TV series
2010–2013 Him & Her Becky TV series
2011 Silent Witness Mary Olivant TV series – episode 109 ("The Prodigal")
2011 Psychoville Emily TV series
2011 Coma Girl Siobhan TV series – pilot
2011 Uptown Downstairs Abbey Lady Mary TV series – special for Comic Relief
2012 The Borgias Magdelena TV series
2012 Skins Celia Champion TV series
2012–2014, 2022 Bad Education Miss Gulliver[8] TV series
2013 Love Matters Aphrodite Fry[28] TV series – episode 109 ("Aphrodite Fry")
2013–14 The Wrong Mans Lizzie Green TV series
2013 Crackanory Narrator TV series
2014 The Secrets Charlotte TV series
2015 The Bad Education Movie Miss Gulliver[8] Film
2015 Hector Sara Film
2016 The Five Pru Carew TV series
2016 Bridget Jones's Baby Miranda Film
2017 No Offence DCI Christine Lickberg TV series
2017 The Pact Amy TV pilot
2018 Wild Honey Pie! Rachel Griffiths Film
2019 How to Build a Girl Angie Film
2019 Greed Melanie Film
2020 Inside No 9 Emily TV series - episode "Death Be Not Proud"
2021 Ridley Road TV series - writer
2022 Chivalry Bobby TV series: also co-creator and co-writer
2025 Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy Miranda Film

Stage

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Year Title Role Notes
2000 The Graduate Elaine Gielgud Theatre[29]
2007 Burning Cars Hampstead Theatre[30]
2009 Pornography Tricycle Theatre[31]
2012 The House of Bernarda Alba Maryam Almeida Theatre[32]

References

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  1. ^ "Him & Her – Sarah Solemani plays Becky" (Press release). BBC Press Office. 10 September 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d Gilbert, Gerard (21 January 2012). "Where are all the female comics?". The Independent. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  3. ^ "Alumnae Achievements" (PDF). The Dolphin (33). Cambridge: New Hall: 12. Summer 2007.
  4. ^ a b Simon Round (16 September 2010). "Interview: Sarah Solemani". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  5. ^ "The Directors". Young Vic. 9 December 2011. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  6. ^ Carmel Doohan (17 October 2012). "Chavs at Lyric Hammersmith". Exeunt Magazine.
  7. ^ "Him & Her Series 4". BBC Three. Retrieved 21 November 2013.
  8. ^ a b c "Bad Education". BBC Three. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  9. ^ Ellen E Jones (23 December 2014). "Our boys from Bracknell hit the ground running on a trip to the Texas badlands". The Independent. Retrieved 30 August 2020.
  10. ^ "Sky Living to show 6 one-off comedies". Custard TV. 15 November 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  11. ^ Solemani, Sarah (20 October 2017). "'The TV and film industries are toxic – and it starts in the audition room'". The Guaradian. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  12. ^ "Gripping New Thriller Ridley Road Announced for BBC One". RED Production Company. 22 August 2019.
  13. ^ Bloom, Jo (2014). Ridley Road. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN 978-1-78022-824-2. OCLC 892869290.
  14. ^ Whiteside, Shirley (29 November 2014). "Ridley Road by Jo Bloom, book review: An ambitious, but not wholly successful debut". The Independent.
  15. ^ Solemani, Sarah (2 October 2021). "Ridley Road: how Britain's untold Nazi horrors inspired my TV thriller". The Guardian.
  16. ^ Kanter, Jake (13 January 2020). "Steve Coogan & Sarah Solemani Team For #MeToo Comedy 'Chivalry' For Britain's Channel 4". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  17. ^ Conlan, Tara (13 January 2020). "Steve Coogan and Sarah Solemani to explore #MeToo in comedy drama". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  18. ^ Warner, Sam (13 January 2020). "Steve Coogan to explore #MeToo era in new Channel 4 comedy drama". NME. Retrieved 13 January 2020.
  19. ^ "Sarah Solemani". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 1 October 2010.
  20. ^ "New Political Writing Prize 2005". Barry Amiel & Norman Melburn Trust. Archived from the original on 20 June 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  21. ^ "RTS Announces Winners for the Programme Awards 2011" (Press release). Royal Television Society. Archived from the original on 19 July 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  22. ^ "Broadcast Hot Shots 2012". Broadcast. August 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  23. ^ "Meet ... Daniel Ingram, Manager, BT Pension Scheme". www.sri-connect.com. 14 August 2012. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  24. ^ "Social & Personal" (PDF). New London Bulletin. New London Synagogue. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 May 2012.
  25. ^ Liat Elkayam (29 June 2012). "Departures/Arrivals: Who took off from and landed at Ben Gurion Airport this week?". Haaretz. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  26. ^ Lamont, Tom (7 September 2014). "Sarah Solemani: 'Russell Tovey? He came to my hen do'". The Guardian.
  27. ^ Hayes, Martha (24 September 2016). "Interview Sarah Solemani: 'I had to hide my pregnancy. I worked until I was due'". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  28. ^ "Love Matters" Aphrodite Fry (TV Episode 2013) - IMDb
  29. ^ Darren Dalglish (23 October 2001). "The Graduate at Gielgud Theatre". LondonTheatre.co.uk. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  30. ^ "Darings Pairings at Hampstead". The British Theatre Guide. 5 September 2007. Archived from the original on 12 November 2012. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  31. ^ Billington, Michael (7 August 2009). "Pornography, Tricycle, London". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
  32. ^ Daisy Jestico (30 January 2012). "Theatre Review: The House of Bernarda Alba at Almeida Theatre". Islington Gazette. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
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