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Ruby Wax
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Ruby Wax
Ruby Wax (née Wachs; born 19 April 1953) is an American-British actress, comedian, writer, television presenter, and mental health campaigner. A classically trained actress, Wax began her career performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company, before co-starring on the ITV sitcom Girls on Top (1985–1986). She came to prominence as a comic interviewer, playing up to British perceptions of the strident American style on television shows including The Full Wax (1991–1994), Ruby Wax Meets... (1994–1998), Ruby (1997–2000), and The Ruby Wax Show (2002).
Wax holds both American and British citizenship and has resided in the United Kingdom since the 1970s. She was a script editor for the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012), also appearing in two episodes. In 2025, Wax was a contestant on the twenty-fifth series of the ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! finishing in eighth place.
In 2013, Wax gained a master's degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy from Kellogg College, Oxford. In 2015, she was appointed a visiting professor in mental health nursing at the University of Surrey. Wax was appointed an Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 Special Honours for services to mental health. Her memoirs How Do You Want Me? (2002) and Sane New World (2013) both reached number one on the Sunday Times bestseller list.
Wax was born Ruby Wachs and raised in Evanston, Illinois, the daughter of Edward and Berthe Wachs (née Goldmann). Her parents were Austrian Jews who left Vienna in 1938 because of the Nazi threat. Her father was a sausage manufacturer and her mother qualified as an accountant. Once settled in Chicago, her father changed the spelling of the family surname from Wachs to Wax.
Wax attended Evanston Township High School. She majored in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, leaving after a year without completing her degree.
Wax moved to the UK and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. 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 directed many 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. In 1981, Wax appeared as an American track fan in Charleson's breakthrough film, Chariots of Fire. She originally had a much larger role in the film, but it was cut down in editing.
Wax made a one-off appearance in a 1980 episode of The Professionals, Bloodsports, playing Lonnie, an American student. In 1981, she appeared in the follow-up to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, called Shock Treatment. In the film, Wax portrays Betty Hapschatt, who married Ralph Hapschatt in the first film. The same year, she Wax also appeared briefly as a secretary in Omen III: The Final Conflict.
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Ruby Wax
Ruby Wax (née Wachs; born 19 April 1953) is an American-British actress, comedian, writer, television presenter, and mental health campaigner. A classically trained actress, Wax began her career performing with the Royal Shakespeare Company, before co-starring on the ITV sitcom Girls on Top (1985–1986). She came to prominence as a comic interviewer, playing up to British perceptions of the strident American style on television shows including The Full Wax (1991–1994), Ruby Wax Meets... (1994–1998), Ruby (1997–2000), and The Ruby Wax Show (2002).
Wax holds both American and British citizenship and has resided in the United Kingdom since the 1970s. She was a script editor for the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012), also appearing in two episodes. In 2025, Wax was a contestant on the twenty-fifth series of the ITV reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! finishing in eighth place.
In 2013, Wax gained a master's degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy from Kellogg College, Oxford. In 2015, she was appointed a visiting professor in mental health nursing at the University of Surrey. Wax was appointed an Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2015 Special Honours for services to mental health. Her memoirs How Do You Want Me? (2002) and Sane New World (2013) both reached number one on the Sunday Times bestseller list.
Wax was born Ruby Wachs and raised in Evanston, Illinois, the daughter of Edward and Berthe Wachs (née Goldmann). Her parents were Austrian Jews who left Vienna in 1938 because of the Nazi threat. Her father was a sausage manufacturer and her mother qualified as an accountant. Once settled in Chicago, her father changed the spelling of the family surname from Wachs to Wax.
Wax attended Evanston Township High School. She majored in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, leaving after a year without completing her degree.
Wax moved to the UK and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow. 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 directed many 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. In 1981, Wax appeared as an American track fan in Charleson's breakthrough film, Chariots of Fire. She originally had a much larger role in the film, but it was cut down in editing.
Wax made a one-off appearance in a 1980 episode of The Professionals, Bloodsports, playing Lonnie, an American student. In 1981, she appeared in the follow-up to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, called Shock Treatment. In the film, Wax portrays Betty Hapschatt, who married Ralph Hapschatt in the first film. The same year, she Wax also appeared briefly as a secretary in Omen III: The Final Conflict.
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