Fay Ripley

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Fay Ripley bigraphy, stories - English actress, television presenter, cookbook author

Fay Ripley : biography

25 February 1966 –

Fay Ripley (born 26 February 1966) is an English actress and recipe author. Born in Wimbledon, London, Ripley is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (1990). Her first professional role was in the chorus of a pantomime version of Around the World in 80 Days. Ripley’s early film and television appearances were limited, so she supplemented her earnings by working as a children’s entertainer and by selling menswear door-to-door. After her scenes as a prostitute were cut from Frankenstein (1994), Ripley gained her first major film role playing Karen Hughes in Mute Witness (1995).

In 1996, Ripley was cast in her breakthrough role of Jenny Gifford in the ITV series Cold Feet. Initially a supporting role in the pilot episode, Ripley’s character was expanded when a series was commissioned in 1998. She stayed with the show for three full series before leaving to take more varied roles and to spend more time with her family. She returned for a guest appearance in the fifth series. After leaving Cold Feet, Ripley played a succession of leading roles in comedies and dramas including Green-Eyed Monster (2001), I Saw You (2002), The Stretford Wives (2002), and Dead Gorgeous (2002). Each role won her critical acclaim. In 2006, she filmed a leading role in the ITV drama Bon Voyage, before taking time away from acting after the birth of her second child. Ripley returned to television in 2009, starring as human resources manager Christine Frances in the ITV comedy drama Monday Monday, and Nicola Perrin alongside Martin Clunes in BBC One’s Reggie Perrin.

Since 2009, Ripley has authored two recipe books; Fay’s Family Food in 2009 and What’s For Dinner? in 2012. She is married to actor Daniel Lapaine, with whom she has two children—a daughter and a son—and is an advocate of several charities and causes.

Breakthrough roles

In 1996, Ripley auditioned for Granada Television’s Cold Feet, a television pilot about the romances of three couples living in Manchester. She believed she was reading for the role of Rachel, the "young, pretty one", and was surprised to discover that she was wanted for Jenny, the "northern housewife". In the audition, she performed with an inelegant approximation of a local Manchester accent. The producers found her approach to the role refreshing from other actresses, who were seen as too "finger-wagging". Ripley won the role, and appeared opposite John Thomson and James Nesbitt in the programme.Tibballs, Geoff (2000). Cold Feet: The Best Bits…. London: Granada Media: p. 12. ISBN 0-233-99924-8. After the pilot won an award, ITV’s director of programmes commissioned a series of Cold Feet, so Ripley worked on improving her character’s accent by speaking to locals and mimicking their speech.Smith, Rupert (2003). Cold Feet: The Complete Companion. London: Granada Media: p. 75. ISBN 0-233-00999-X. Her supporting character from the pilot episode was given a bigger role in the series; in the first episode (broadcast in 1998), Jenny gives birth to her first child. At that time, Ripley had never experienced childbirth, so copied birth scenes she had seen in other television series.Tibballs, p. 35. An Independent review of the first series in November 1998 noted, "Fay Ripley has a range of quirky mannerisms that are more reminiscent of Elaine in Seinfeld than of any other Brit-com woman."Barber, Nicholas (22 November 1998). "". The Independent (Independent Newspapers): pp. 9–10 (TV features section). The character also gained Ripley public recognition; after being noticed by a member of staff in Marks & Spencer, she was so pleased that she invited the woman to dinner.

Ripley’s performance in the first series won her a nomination for Best TV Comedy Actress at the British Comedy Awards 1999.Staff (17 November 1999). "". BBC News Online. Retrieved 12 August 2008. For her performance in the third series (2000), in which her character separates from her husband and dates another man (played by Ben Miles), she was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress."". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 12 August 2008. During pre-production of the fourth series (2001), Ripley announced to the producers that she would be leaving the show, partly because she did not want to spend five months living in Manchester away from her home in London and wanted to spend more time with her husband, and partly to take other roles which she would otherwise not be able to do. She asked the writer Mike Bullen to either kill off Jenny or have her lose a limb. Bullen refused and instead wrote a plot in which Jenny moves to New York. Ripley returned to the series for a guest appearance in the final episode (2003). She had originally planned not to return to the show, but reprised the role so she could have an on-screen record of the final stages of her pregnancy with her first child.