Romola Sadie Garai ( born 6 August 1982) is an English actress and model. In 2009, The Sunday Times Magazine named her as one of Britain's Rising Stars alongside Matthew Goode, Andrea Riseborough, Hugh Dancy, Eddie Redmayne and others.
In January of that year she travelled to the Syrian-Iraqi border to make a short film titled No Man's Land for the UNHCR, highlighting the plight of 800 Palestinian refugees living in the Al-Tanaf refugee camp. Of her visit to the refugee camps Garai states, "My trip to a refugee camp in Syria destroyed any hope that the horrors of Iraq might end, or that we are doing enough to help its victims." Garai has been hailed by her Glorious 39 director Stephen Poliakoff as "the next Kate Winslet" and someone who will "dominate British cinema" in the future.
Garai has signed on to star alongside actress Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess in Lone Scherfig's One Day. She will also play the part of a single junkie mom in the indie Brit flick Junkhearts with Eddie Marsan and Tom Sturridge, and the upcoming BBC Two drama, The Hour, with Dominic West and Ben Whishaw.
Garai stars in the four-part BBC drama The Crimson Petal and the White based on the novel by Michel Faber.
