Romola Sadie Garai (/ˈrɒmələ ˈseɪdi ˈɡæri/; born 6 August 1982) is a British film and television actress. She appeared in Amazing Grace, Atonement, and Glorious 39, and in the BBC series Emma, The Hour and The Crimson Petal and the White. She has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award twice and for a BAFTA award.
Garai was born in Hong Kong, to British parents. Her father's family is of Jewish background. Her mother, Janet A. (née Brown), brought up Romola and her three siblings. Her father, Adrian Earl Rutherford Garai (born 1945), is a bank manager. Garai's great-grandfather, Bernhard "Bert" Garai, an immigrant from Hungary, founded the Keystone Press Agency, a photographic agency and archive, in London, in the early 20th century.
Garai is the third of four siblings. Her family moved to Singapore when she was five, and returned to Wiltshire in England when she was eight. She attended an independent boarding school, Stonar School in Wiltshire and, at 16, moved to London to attend the City of London School for Girls, where she completed her A-levels. She appeared in school plays, and was with the National Youth Theatre until the age of 18, when she signed to play the younger version of Dame Judi Dench's character in the BBC Films/HBO co-production for television, The Last of the Blonde Bombshells.