Rita Wolf
Rita Wolf (born Rita Ghose,[1] 25 February 1960 in Calcutta, India) is a British-Indian actress and theatre producer, best known for her role as Tania in My Beautiful Laundrette (1985).
Life
Wolf moved to London as a child and trained at the Royal Court Youth Theatre alongside Tim Roth. She began her professional acting career in Hanif Kureishi's Borderline, a response to the 1981 race riots. She appeared on British television and in several London theatre productions, including the first professional production of Tara Arts, then had her first leading film role in Retake Film and Video Collective's 1984 movie Majdhar, where she played a young Pakistani woman abandoned by her husband in Britain. Since then, she has had major parts on stage and screen in both the United States and the United Kingdom. After playing Tania in My Beautiful Laundrette, she had television roles in Albion Market, Coronation Street, Tandoori Nights, Farrukh Dhondy's Romance, Romance and Calling the Shots, and Wing and a Prayer. She also appeared in Jack Gold's film The Chain, Steven Lisberger's Slipstream and Pratibha Parmar's Khush.[2]
In 1989, Wolf and writer Rukhsana Ahmad founded the Kali Theatre Company in London, a registered charity that has a goal to encourage, develop, promote and produce the works of Asian female writers. Wolf directed the company's first production, Song for a Sanctuary, written by Ahmad.[2] The Kali is supported in part by grants from the London Arts Board and the Arts Council of England.[3]
Wolf now lives in New York City with her two children, Kiran and Anjeli. Anjeli Chapman had a major role in The War Within. Kiran Chapman was featured in A Heartbeat to Baghdad, a play about the Iraq War.
Filmography
- Majdha (1984) as Fauzia Kahn
- The Chain (1984) as Carrie
- My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) as Tania
- Slipstream (1989) as Maya
- Khush (film) (1991)
- Girl 6 (1996)
- Second Generation (2003)
Television
- Wing and a Prayer (UK)
- Calling the Shots (UK)
- Coronation Street (UK) (1990) as Felicity 'Flick' Khan
- Law & Order (US)
- Tandoori Nights (UK)
- The Goodwife (US)
Theatre
- Borderline
- Homebody / Kabul
- The House of Bernarda Alba
- The American Pilot
- Chaos Theory
- An Ordinary Muslim
- The Michaels
References
- Jouhal, Tejinder (2003–14). "Wolf, Rita (1960-)". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
- Satinder Chohan (2002). "Wolf, Rita". In Alison Donnell (ed.). Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture. Routledge. p. 325. ISBN 978-1-134-70025-7.
- Kali Theatre
- BBC: "The bbc.co.uk Guide to Comedy", accessed 15 October 2005
- The Kali Theatre: "About Us: The People: Rita Wolf", accessed 14 October 2005
- The New York Times: "The New York Times: Movies: Rita Wolf", accessed 15 October 2005
The American Pilot