Ruby Wax
| Ruby Wax OBE |
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|---|---|
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Wax at the 2016 Hay Festival
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| Birth name | Ruby Wachs |
| Born |
19 April 1953 Evanston, Illinois, United States |
| Years active | 1970s–present |
| Genres | Alternative comedy |
| Spouse | Ed Bye |
| Children | 3 |
Ruby Wax, OBE (born Ruby Wachs; 19 April 1953) is an American actress, mental health campaigner, lecturer, and author who holds both American and British citizenship.
A classically trained actress, Wax starred in the sitcom Girls on Top (1985–86), and came to prominence as a comic interviewer, playing up to British perceptions of the strident American style, in shows including The Full Wax (1991–94) and Ruby Wax Meets... (1994–98). She was the script editor for the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012), also appearing in two episodes. Her memoirs, How Do You Want Me? (2002), reached the Sunday Times best-seller list.
Wax pursued a distinguished academic career, graduating in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and in 2013 she gained a master's degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy from Oxford University. In 2015, she was appointed a Visiting Professor in Mental Health Nursing at the University of Surrey.
Wax was born and raised in Evanston, Illinois, the daughter of Jewish Austrians who left Austria in 1939 because of the Nazi threat. Her father became wealthy as a sausage manufacturer and her mother qualified as an accountant. She majored in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.
Wax moved to the UK and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. She started her acting career as a straight actress at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, where she began a long-standing writing and directing partnership with Alan Rickman, who later was to direct most of her stage comedy shows. In 1978, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, working alongside Juliet Stevenson in Measure for Measure, as Jaquenetta opposite Michael Hordern in Love's Labours Lost, replacing Zoë Wanamaker as Jane in The Way of the World and appearing in the Howard Brenton three-hander Sore Throats. While at the RSC, Wax also met and befriended Ian Charleson, and later contributed a chapter to the 1990 book, For Ian Charleson: A Tribute.
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