Sarah Solemani

Sarah Solemani
Born	(1982-09-04) 4 September 1982 Camden, London, England
Occupation	Actress, writer, playwright
Children	1

Sarah Solemani (Persian: سارا سلیمانی‎‎, Hebrew: שרה סולימני) (born 4 September 1982) is an English film actress, writer, and playwright, best known for starring in the sitcom Him & Her and Bad Education and the 2015 drama film Hector.

Early life

Born in Camden, London, the daughter of two teachers, Solemani has a Persian Jewish father and her mother is of Northern Irish descent. Solemani grew up in North London. Her mother died when she was 16.

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 (Hons).

At Cambridge, she joined the Footlights and became social secretary during her first year, replacing Dan Stevens, and then vice president. Her contemporaries included the members of the sketch group Cowards, Jonny Sweet and Nick Mohammed.

Career

Theatre

Solemani was a member of the National Youth Theatre during her gap year, starring as Elaine in the West End theatre production of The Graduate.

Solemani 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. 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.

In 2011, she wrote The Baron which received the Old Vic New Voices Ignite award.

In 2012, she appeared as Maryam in the play The House of Bernarda Alba at the Almeida Theatre from 19 January to 10 March 2012. She wrote Up the Royal Borough, part of an evening of plays in response to Owen Jones' Chavs at the Lyric Hammersmith; it was performed to good reviews.

Television and film

Solemani's first film role was as a tableaux girl in Mrs Henderson Presents, which she performed during her third year of college.

Her first major TV role was as "Becky" in BBC Three sitcom Him & Her, which was first broadcast in November 2010. Three series have been filmed and a fourth started broadcast in November 2013.

In 2011, Solemani filmed a Channel 4 pilot comedy show, Coma Girl, alongside Katy Wix and Katherine Parkinson, which was broadcast on 9 September. The same year, Solemani and her comedy partner Olivia Poulet co-wrote a sitcom for the BBC, to be produced by Charlie Hanson. She had a role in BBC One's Uptown Downstairs Abbey for Comic Relief.

In 2012, Solemani starred in the BBC Three comedy, Bad Education, including its spin off movie The Bad Education Movie.

Solemani wrote and starred in an episode titled Aphrodite Fry in the Sky TV series Love Matters that aired in 2013. In 2014, an episode of The Secrets written by Solemani was broadcast on BBC One.

Print

Solemani has contributed to the New Statesman.

Awards and acclaim

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.

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.

In 2012, Solemani was named one of the year's Broadcast Hot Shots.

Personal life

Solemani married Daniel Ingram, a Sustainable Development Expert who was appointed Sir Nicholas Stern's Chief of Staff on the seminal Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, in Petah Tikva, Israel on 3 June 2012. On 18 December 2013, Solemani gave birth to a daughter, Soraya Rae.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2003	Red Cap	Gillian Jennings	TV series
2005	Mrs Henderson Presents	Vera	Film
2006	Undone	Edna	Radio series
2006	Hyperdrive	Alie	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	Bad Education	Miss Gulliver	TV series
2013	Love Matters	Aphrodite Fry	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	Film
2015	Hector	Sara	Film
2016	The Five	Pru Carew	TV series

Stage

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

External links

• Sarah Solemani at the Internet Movie Database

• Meet ... Daniel Ingram, Manager, BT Pension Scheme
• http://www.hs-owl.de/fb8/fileadmin/download_autoren/immissionsschutz/Stern-Report/Introduction.pdf
• "Love Matters" Aphrodite Fry (TV Episode 2013) - IMDb