Sara Kestelman

Sara Kestelman is an English actress born on 12 May 1944 in London. Her father, Morris Kestelman, was an artist from a Jewish family with Russian origins, and her mother, Dorothy Mary Kestelman (née Creagh), worked as a dress designer.

Kestelman began her association with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1968, playing Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in 1970. The following year, that production transferred to Broadway, marking her appearance on Broadway in 1971. She remained with the RSC until 1973, when she took her first film role in Zardoz. During the 1970s she also appeared in Granada Television's daytime drama series Crown Court, in which she portrayed Barrister Ann Merritt Q.C. Her stage work during this period included Enemies at the Aldwych Theatre in London in 1971 and Lady Macbeth at Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 1972, a role she returned to with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982.

Kestelman has worked extensively with the Royal National Theatre, accumulating credits across the Lyttelton, Olivier, and other National Theatre stages throughout the late 1970s and 1980s. Productions during that period included Bedroom Farce in 1977, As You Like It in 1979 in which she played Rosalind, The Threepenny Opera in 1986, and The American Clock in 1986. Her West End credits include Lettice and Lovage in 1988 and Copenhagen in 1998, in which she played Margrethe Bohr at the Duchess Theatre.

In 1993 she played Fraulein Schneider in the London revival of Cabaret at the Donmar Warehouse, a performance for which she received the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1994. The following year she appeared in Fiddler on the Roof at the London Palladium.

On screen, Kestelman is known for her role as Lady Frances Brandon, the mother of Lady Jane Grey, in the 1986 film Lady Jane. She provided the voice of the character Kreia in the 2004 video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords and served as narrator for the 2005 game Shattered Union.

In 1996, The Do-Not Press published A Two Hander, a book of poetry Kestelman co-wrote with Susan Penhaligon.