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.^[1] She has played Carly Beaker, the mother of the title character in the Tracy Beaker franchise since 2004. In 2020, she began playing Violet, Dowager Viscountess Bridgerton in the Netflix series Bridgerton.^[2][3]

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 older brothers and a sister. She attended Polam Hall School.^[4][5] Gemmell later moved to London, where her father lived, to pursue acting.^[6] She trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.^[7]

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^[8] 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.^[9]

Gemmell appeared three times in the BBC's police drama Waking the Dead, playing different characters. Her first appearance was in 2002 in the episode "Special Relationships" as DI Jess Worral, a former lover of DSI Boyd. She next appeared on the show in 2008, as Linda Cummings, an exceptionally intelligent serial killer. She reprised the role of Cummings in "Endgame", the finale of the eighth series.^[10]

Gemmell starred in Episode 8 of Jimmy McGovern's BBC drama Moving On as Joanne, in November 2010.^[11] In November 2011, Gemmell played Lady Shonagon in the adaptation for BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour of The Pillow Book, by Robert Forrest. She appeared as Jen, the wife of an adulterous civil servant, in Channel 4 drama Utopia, in early 2013.

In 2015, Gemmell appeared in five episodes of the television series Penny Dreadful as Octavia Putney. In 2020, she began playing Lady Violet Bridgerton in the Netflix series Bridgerton.^[12][13]

In 2021, Gemmell reprised her role of Carly Beaker for My Mum Tracy Beaker.^[14]

Gemmell was married in Westminster, London, in 1997 to the actor Ray Stevenson (1964–2023), whom she met in 1995 during the filming of TV drama Band of Gold. The couple divorced in 2005.^[15]