Who Is Romola Garai? Everything You Need To Know About The Adultery Star

ITV’s much anticipated series Adultery hit our screens on 25 October, following the scandalous story of a married mother, disaffected and harried after the loss of her business and her best friend, who embarks on a love affair with another man: an affair that’s particularly risky as it’s with the father of her son’s girlfriend. Adultery isn’t a good idea at the best of times, but in this case it feels particularly perilous. 

Created by Danny Brocklehurst, Adultery stars Romola Garai as Beth Brookes and Dominic West as Tom Kirkman, and follows the pair as they find themselves embroiled deeper and deeper into overly familial inner turmoil and scandal, and attempt to navigate lust and longing while keeping their families in tact. 

But who is Romola Garai? Here’s everything you need to know about the British actor, and where you might have seen her before. 

Beth (Romola Garai) in Adultery. © ITV Plc

Everything you need to know about Romola Garai

Romola Garai was born in Hong Kong in 1982 to British parents, Janet and Adrian Earl Rutherford Garai. Her father, a bank manager, is from a Hungarian-Jewish family, and as a child Garai moved from Hong Kong to Singapore, and then to Wiltshire when she was eight. 

The actor – who’s famed for her roles in period dramas and literary adaptations – attended Stonar School, a boarding school in Wiltshire, and then completed her A-Levels at City of London School for Girls before enrolling at Queen Mary University of London to study English Literature. 

At 18, she was cast in her first role in The Last of the Blonde Bombshells, and transferred her studies to the Open University, where she graduated with a first-class degree. 

She’s since starred in numerous Hollywood films, BBC dramas and West End theatre productions, and now lives in North London with her husband, actor Sam Hoare, and their two children. 

Where might you recognise Romola Garai from?

The Last of the Blonde Bombshells (2000)

Garai first entered the acting world with her performance in The Last of the Blonde Bombshells, in which a recently-widowed woman, played by Judi Dench, endeavours to reunite the members of her World War Two swing band. Garai plays a young Judi Dench in the film’s flashbacks, where she plays the saxophone with her fellow musicians. 

Two years later she starred in Nicholas Nickleby alongside Charlie Hunnam and Anne Hathaway in her first major film role.

Vanity Fair (2004)

In 2004, Garai starred as Amelia Sedley alongside Reese Witherspoon and Jim Broadbent in Mira Nair’s adaptation of Vanity Fair, the 1848 novel by William Makepeace Thackeray. Amelia is the close friend of Becky Sharp, an orphan who stays with Amelia’s family and tries to charm her brother, only for her chances to be scuppered by Amelia’s fiancé, the haughty George Osborne (played by Jonathan Rhys Meyers). 

Atonement (2007)

The award-winning film Atonement saw Garai nominated for Best Actress by the Evening Standard British Film Awards for her performance as an older Briony. Adapted from Ian McEwan’s 2001 novel, the film follows a wealthy family in the eve of, and then the middle of, the Second World War, and Garai delivers a heartbreaking depiction of love, loss, and the pervasive consequences of one’s actions. 

Emma (2009)

In 2009, she played the title role in the BBC’s mini-series take on Jane Austen’s comedy Emma, about the 20-year-old heiress who gains most of her satisfaction from scheming and meddling in other people’s lives and relationships. 

The same year, she travelled to Syria to make the short film No Man’s Land, which highlighted the plight of 800 Palestinian refugees living in the Al-Tanaf refugee camp.

The Hour (2011-2012)

In 2011, Garai, alongside Dominic West and Ben Whishaw, led the cast of The Hour, a historical drama on the BBC about a current-affairs show launched on the BBC during the Hungarian Revolution and the Suez Crisis. Garai played Bel Rowley, the show’s producer, trying to run the programme as the world around them descends into chaos. 

In 2011, she also starred opposite Irish actor Chris O’Dowd in The Crimson Petal and the White, a Victorian TV drama adapted from Michel Faber’s 2002 novel. 

The Miniaturist (2017)

Sticking to the literary adaptation-theme, in 2017 Garai starred in the BBC’s take on Jessie Burton’s 2014 novel The Miniaturist. Set in 1686 Amsterdam, the series follows Anya Taylor-Joy as 18-year-old Nella Oortman who’s arrived in the city to marry the wealthy merchant Johannes Brandt (Alex Hassell, who plays Rupert Campbell Black in Rivals). Garai plays Marin Brandt, Johnnes’ sharp-tongued sister.

Romola Garai and Dominic West in Adultery (C) Poison Pen Studios

Adultery (2026)

In her latest venture, Garai stars as Beth Brookes in Adultery. Created by Danny Brocklehurst, whose credits include Shameless and Brassic, the show is based around the equation that Garai’s character Beth puts to the audience at the beginning of the show: ‘Attraction, plus an obstacle, equals excitement.’ As she navigates the rocky sea that is sleeping with your child’s girlfriend’s father, she finds that said excitement may come at too high a price. Watch Adultery now on ITVX. 

Featured Image (C) Poison Pen Studios