Lorna Gayle

Lorna Gayle made her acting debut in 1998 with Babymother, which was “...the first truly Black British musical;” according to Screen Online. Lorna played herself, or rather Lorna Gee, as she is known in the world of Reggae music.

Before graduating from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in 2003,  Gayle  received much recognition for her contribution to the British Reggae industry, including two BBC Radio London Awards for Best Female D.J. (Jamaican term for lyricist) in 1985 and 1986. 1985 proved to be a successful year for Lorna Gee, when Gotta Find a Way remained at the top of the Reggae charts for six weeks.

In September 2006  Gayle  finished a run at the Royal Court Theatre, where she appeared in Tanika Gupta’s much-publicised Sugar Mummies (Director: Indhu Rubasingham). During February and March of 2006 Lorna played Tituba in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s version of Arthur Miller’s classic The Crucible (Director: Dominic Cooke). Another classic character played by Lorna was that of Calpurnia in the 2005 production of To Kill a Mockingbird (Director: Joanna Reed, Salisbury Playhouse).

Amongst other leading and supporting roles,  Gayle has worked with Clean Break, who “...use theatre for personal and political change, working with women whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system” (clean break) on prison drama Compact Failure (Director: Sarah Esdaile, 2004).

Gayle has previously appeared in popular soap operas and television dramas such as Eastenders (BBC, Dominic Keavey) and Canterbury Tales (BBC, Marc Munden).Lorna’s current projects include the film Dangerous Parking (Director: Peter Howitt) for which shooting began in October 2006.

She also appeared in the 2006 Brittany Murphy Romantic Comedy, Love and Other Disasters (Director: Alek Keshishian) Lorna made a return appearance in late 2007 in feature film, Run Fat Boy, Run (Director: David Schwimmer), in which fellow British actress Thandie Newton plays lead. 

In addition,  Gayle plays an unsuspecting mother in Debbie Tucker-Green’s short film Spoil (Director: Tom Harper) which was screened on Channel Four early 2008.