Ruthie Henshall

Valentine Ruth Henshall was born on 7 March 1967 in Orpington, London. Her father, David, worked as a journalist and later served as editor of the East Anglian Daily Times, a Suffolk morning newspaper. Before beginning her professional career, Henshall trained at Laine Theatre Arts in Epsom, Surrey. Her first stage appearance came at the age of 19 in the Cascade Revue at the West Cliff Theatre in Clacton-on-Sea. Known professionally as Ruthie Henshall, she works as an actress, singer, and dancer, with a career centered primarily in musical theatre.

Henshall's West End debut came in 1987 when she was cast in Cats, performing the roles of Jemima, Demeter, Griddlebone, and Grizabella. Around the same period, she joined a touring production of A Chorus Line as Maggie. In 1988, at age 21, she was cast as one of the bar girls in Miss Saigon at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and subsequently originated the role of Aphra in Children of Eden at the Prince Edward Theatre. The summer of 1989 brought her to the Chichester Festival Theatre, where she performed in works by Shakespeare and Molière, as well as the musical Valentine's Day, based on George Bernard Shaw's You Can Never Tell. In 1992, she was cast as Fantine in Les Misérables, and later that year recreated the role for the production's 10th Anniversary Concert at the Royal Albert Hall.

Her first starring role arrived with the 1993 West End transfer of the Broadway production Crazy for You, which opened at the Prince Edward Theatre. Her performance as Polly Baker earned her the first of five Olivier Award nominations. In 1995, Henshall starred as Amalia Balash in the London revival of She Loves Me, winning the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical. That same year, she performed a concert of Gershwin songs at London's Royal Festival Hall. In 1996, she took on the role of Nancy in Cameron Mackintosh's revival of Oliver! at the London Palladium. The following year, she originated the role of Roxie Hart in the West End transfer of the Broadway revival of Chicago, earning her third Olivier nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.

Henshall made her Broadway debut in 1999 as Velma Kelly in Chicago. Her Broadway credits also include Stephen Sondheim's Putting It Together and Miss Saigon. She returned to the Broadway production of Chicago in 2010 to play Roxie Hart. Off-Broadway, she appeared in The Vagina Monologues.

In August 2001, Henshall took the title role in the stage musical adaptation of Peggy Sue Got Married, which opened in London to mixed reviews and closed after eight weeks. Despite the short run, her performance earned her a fourth Olivier nomination. She later succeeded Maria Friedman in the role of Marian Halcombe in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Woman in White, performing from July 2005 through February 2006. In 2008, she was cast in the title role of Marguerite, a new musical written by Michel Legrand, Herbert Kretzmer, Alain Boublil, and Claude-Michel Schönberg, which opened on 7 May 2008 at the Theatre Royal Haymarket before closing on 13 September 2008. That role brought her a fifth Olivier nomination.

Henshall returned to the role of Roxie Hart in Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre, London, opening on 14 December 2009 and completing her run on 24 April 2010, marking the second time she had played the role in London. In March 2011, she took on the role of Elvira in Blithe Spirit in the West End, following regional engagements in the same part. From 2014 to 2016, she played Mrs Wilkinson in the West End production of Billy Elliot the Musical, becoming the final actress to hold the role before the show's closure. In 2022, she played Fosca in a revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Passion at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester. In September 2025, she joined the West End revival of Cabaret as Fräulein Schneider.

Beyond the stage, Henshall guest-starred in a 2000 episode of Law & Order titled "Panic," playing an author named P.K. Todd. Her first feature film, a musical version of A Christmas Carol with Kelsey Grammer, aired on NBC in November 2004 and received a theatrical release in the UK and Europe. In January 2006, she appeared in the four-part BBC series The Sound of Musicals. In 2008, she replaced Natalia Bestemianova as a judge on the ITV1 series Dancing on Ice, alongside Robin Cousins, Karen Barber, Nicky Slater, and Jason Gardiner, and returned for a second series in 2009. In 2011, she appeared in an episode of the HBO comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm and played a lawyer in The Case, a five-part legal drama on BBC One. She also took the role of billionaire Stephanie Gaunt in the CBBC series Wizards vs Aliens in 2012. That same year, she and director Daniel Bowling co-authored the book So You Want to Be in Musicals? In 2020, Henshall participated in the twentieth series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here, finishing in 11th place after being eliminated on 29 November. In March 2021, she began appearing as Miranda Evans in the BBC soap opera Doctors.

Her solo recordings include The Ruthie Henshall Album, Pilgrim, and Love Is Here to Stay, a collection of Gershwin songs. She has also performed in Hey, Mr. Producer!, a celebration of Cameron Mackintosh's work, and toured Britain in the revue The Magnificent Musicals. In the summer of 2009, she performed two concerts with Kim Criswell entitled From Broadway to Hollywood at London's Cadogan Hall.

In her personal life, Henshall dated Prince Edward before becoming engaged to actor John Gordon Sinclair, a relationship that ended after she took the role of Velma Kelly in Chicago on Broadway. She later met actor and singer Tim Howar, her co-star in Peggy Sue Got Married, and the two married in 2004. They have two daughters together. The couple separated in August 2009 and divorced in January 2010.