Ruth Wilson was born on January 13th 1982 in Ashford, Kent. As a child she lived with her parents and three older brothers in Shepperton, Surrey. They toughened her up, taught her the joys of rugby and cricket and, occasionally, rammed her head into doors: ‘We fought a lot, played rough games, pulled hair. I learned to hold my own.’ Ruth has also admitted that watching her two brothers go to “a theatre club outside school” was part of why she first wanted to become an actor. “I remember watching one of my brothers in something that moved me so much I wanted to do it.”

She attended Notre Dame School and sixth form at Esher College. As a teenager, Ruth worked as a model, and went on to study history at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 2003. She graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in July 2005. Afterwards, she co-founded Hush Productions. While at Nottingham she was also involved in student drama at New Theatre (Nottingham) which later won an award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Student Theatre’ at the National Student Drama Festival 2008.

Just a year after leaving drama school Ruth’s big break came when she played Britain’s most beloved governess, Jane Eyre opposite Toby Stephens’ Mr Rochester. The role yielded Bafta and Golden Globe nominates and after it’s success Ruth stated that she was “going to better auditions. People are starting to see me, when they wouldn’t have done, before—suddenly you have done a big show, and have got a bit more standing.” Ruth also admitted that it was “so hard to have a big break early” in her “career but getting that opportunity was amazing.”

In 2006–7 she filmed the second series of Suburban Shootout, a new Marple mystery for ITV, and Stephen Poliakoff’s BBC television drama Capturing Mary as the young Mary. In 2007 she appeared in Gorky’s Philistines, playing Tanya, at the National from May until August 2007—and learned to play the piano for the role. Other projects in 2007 included the narration of an audio book of the children’s novel “Dolphin Song” by Lauren St John; a guest appearance in the sitcom Freezing as Alison Fennel (transmitted on BBC2, 21 February 2008); narration of the documentary The Polish Ambulance Murders (transmitted on BBC4, 5 February 2008); and the portrayal of a mentally ill doctor in the dramatized documentary The Doctor Who Hears Voices (transmitted on UK Channel 4, 21 April 2008), a story which follows controversial psychologist Dr Rufus May as he treats a junior doctor diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

During the winter of 2007 Wilson took six months off. She said: “I simply want to take a break and catch my breath. But I also think that, sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is to deliberately keep some time free and see what the world throws at you.”

From 23 July to 3 October 2009 she appeared as Stella in the Donmar revival of A Streetcar Named Desire performance for which she won an Olivier award. On November 15, 2009 AMC Television and ITV premiered the 2009 TV miniseries remake of The Prisoner, in which Wilson played the Village doctor, “Number 313.” and dyed her hair red for the role. “I thought, she’s a bit of an odd character, a little bit on the edge, let’s make her red. I loved it and I’ve kept it ever since.”

After filming finished on The Prisoner Ruth took off on safari with her co-stars Hayley Atwell and Sarah Stewart, driving on their own in a hatchback and running into a pride of lions. ‘It was hilarious. Three actresses in a Corsa in a huge national park. Elephants were walking past, giraffes, rhinos… I was driving back and we were singing and then we saw seven lions at the side of the road, two males and five females. One male looked like Scar out of The Lion King. He turned and these eyes just bored into you. It was brilliant.’

Starting on BBC1 on 6 December 2009, she played “Queenie” in an adaptation of Andrea Levy’s Small Island, which also aired in the United States on PBS in 2010. “It’s a unique piece of TV that we haven’t really explored yet in this country,” says Wilson. “It was the start of multiculturalism in Britain. We tend to look at the war here through the eyes of the stoic Brits. The racism is never analysed.”

In 2010 she appeared in the UK psychological police drama Luther as psychotic Alice Morgan, starring with Idris Elba.“I’ve had more positive comments about that show that I’ve had about anything I’ve done,” she says  ”I love the fact that it’s bold and completely unrealistic. I just loved the tongue-in-cheek element about the dialogue and thought you could have a lot of fun playing with it. It was completely different to everything I’d read before.”
From 10 June to 31 July 2010 Ruth starred as Karin in the Almeida Theatre production of Through a Glass Darkly, an adaptation for the stage of Ingmar Bergman’s Oscar-winning 1961 film. From August 4 to October 8, 2011, Ruth will star as the title role of Anna Christie, in the Donmar Warehouse’s production of Anna Christie, alongside Jude Law as a prostitute who embarks on a sea voyage with her estranged father. o prepare for the title role, Ruth travelled to Minnesota, at her own expense, “to get Anna’s accent, but also to research the area where she’s from. I spent two days digging up information in a library and talking to professors, I felt like a kid in a sweet shop.”