Jenny Jules

Jenny Jules is an English actor whose career began at the Tricycle Theatre in Kilburn, London, where she trained as part of the venue's youth theatre programme. The Tricycle became a recurring home throughout her career, with credits there spanning August Wilson's Two Trains Running and Gem of the Ocean, both directed by Paulette Randall, as well as Walk Hard by Abram Hill, Wine in the Wilderness by Alice Childress, Lynn Nottage's Fabulation directed by Indhu Rubasingham, and The Colour of Justice, Richard Norton-Taylor's dramatic reconstruction of the inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence. In 1992, her portrayal of Mediyah in Pecong at the Tricycle earned her a Time Out Award. That same year she appeared alongside Helen Mirren in the second installment of Prime Suspect for Granada Television/ITV.

Jules has built a substantial body of work across London's major stages. Kathy Burke directed her in Debbie Tucker Green's Born Bad at the Hampstead Theatre, and she performed in Eve Ensler's Vagina Monologues more than 100 times in the West End and elsewhere. At the Almeida Theatre she took on leading roles in A Chain Play, Theodore Ward's Big White Fog, and Harold Pinter's The Homecoming, the latter two directed by Michael Attenborough. In 2009 she played Jane Pilkings in Wole Soyinka's Death and the King's Horseman at the National Theatre, and in 2012 she returned to the National to play Mavis in Michael Buffong's production of Moon on a Rainbow Shawl by Errol John. That same year she appeared as Regan in King Lear at the Almeida Theatre, again under Michael Attenborough's direction.

Indhu Rubasingham directed Jules in Lynn Nottage's Ruined at the Almeida in 2010, and the following year Jules reprised her role as Mama Nadi in Charles Randolph-Wright's production of the same play at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. Her performance in Ruined brought her the Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Best Actress in 2011. Her work in 2010 also included playing Ruth Younger in Michael Buffong's production of A Raisin in the Sun at the Manchester Royal Exchange, a performance that won her the Manchester Evening News Theatre Award for Best Supporting Actress.

In 2013, Jules spent much of the year as Cassius in Phyllida Lloyd's all-female production of Julius Caesar, which originated at the Donmar Warehouse in London before transferring to St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn. The following year she played Penny in Suzan-Lori Parks' Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3, first at The Public Theater in New York and subsequently at the American Repertory Theater in Boston.

Jules made her Broadway debut in 2016 as Tituba in Ivo van Hove's production of The Crucible at the Walter Kerr Theatre, a production that also starred Ciarán Hinds, Sophie Okonedo, and Saoirse Ronan. In March 2019 she assumed the role of Hermione Granger in the Broadway production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, taking over the part from Noma Dumezweni. Her Broadway appearances thus span both productions between 2016 and 2018, with the Harry Potter engagement extending into 2019. Since 1992, Jules has been married to actor Ralph Brown.