Ruth Jones

Early life

Ruth Jones was born on 22 September 1966 in Bridgend in South Wales. Ruth went to Porthcawl Comprehensive School. Her father was a legal executive for British Steel Corporation, Port Talbot, and her mother was a child psychiatrist. She has two older brothers and a younger sister. Jones was brought up in Porthcawl where she attended the same school as Rob Brydon. After graduating from Warwick University with a degree in English and Theatre, she spent a year at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff.

After graduation Jones found it difficult to get acting work, and considered training as a solicitor. However she then received her first professional role in pantomime in Cardiff. She was also helped by Rob Brydon, who invited her to join an improv group in Bath; the group also included Julia Davis, with whom Jones would later appear in Nighty Night and Gavin & Stacey.

Career

She first worked in TV and radio comedy for BBC Wales in 1991. Theatre roles with the RSC and The National Theatre were followed by her performance in the hit British film, East Is East.

After this Jones appeared on television as Kelly in four series of ITV's comedy Fat Friends, where she met future Gavin & Stacey co-writer James Corden. She also appeared in several BBC comedies, playing Myfanwy in Little Britain, Magz in Saxondale and Linda in Nighty Night.

Jones achieved prominence in 2008 with the BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey, which she co-wrote with James Corden, and in which she took a lead role as Nessa Jenkins. The programme became a hit for BBC 3 and moved to BBC 1. Jones has said of it, "It wasn't as deliberate as us saying, 'Right, we're going to react against cynical comedy'. We just wrote what we wanted. And it just so happens that the show does generate a lot of warmth. People seem to like that, especially when things aren't terribly jolly. It's nice to have your cockles warmed." The series won a number of awards, including two BAFTAs and four British Comedy Awards. Jones and co-star Rob Brydon recorded "Islands in the Stream" (a song performed by their characters in the programme) as a single for Comic Relief in 2009; the song reached No. 1 in the chart.

In 2008 Jones narrated the 2008 TV film Chaos at the Zoo about Anna Ryder Richardson's Manor House Wildlife Park. The same year she featured in the two BBC One television period costume dramas, Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Little Dorrit, as well as two episodes of The Street. In December 2009 Jones starred in A Child's Christmases in Wales. In 2010 she starred in the BBC Four comedy The Great Outdoors alongside Mark Heap, and in December presented a one-off chat show on BBC Two, Ruth Jones' Christmas Cracker. In January 2011 she starred as Carry On actor Hattie Jacques in the BBC Four drama Hattie, which tells the story of Jacques' affair with her young driver John Schofield while she was married to Dad's Army actor John Le Mesurier.

In 2008, Jones co-founded Tidy Productions with producer David Peet. The company produced the series Jones presented on BBC Radio Wales in 2008-9, Ruth Jones' Sunday Brunch. In 2010, the company had comedy and light entertainment production credits with BBC Two and BBC Three. It has made two 90-minute comedy dramas for S4C and light entertainment shows for BBC Wales.

Jones's company has also produced the comedy drama Stella for Sky TV. The first series aired in 2012. It was Jones' first major comedy project since Gavin and Stacey; as well as producing, Jones created the series, stars in the title role, and wrote four episodes. Jones has stated that she was worried about comparisons to Gavin and Stacey when setting a second programme in Wales, leading to the decision to set Stella in the Valleys rather than the South Wales coast: 'I know people from the Valleys and it is just a joyously colourful place and full of characters. My sister is actually a GP up there and the stories are fantastic.' A second series of Stella was filmed in summer 2012 and aired in early 2013.

She lives in Cardiff with her producer husband David Peet, whom she met while working on a comedy pilot in the early 1990s. She has three grown-up step-children, Fiona, Louise and Alex.

Since October 2015, Jones along with Ben Miller and Will Close, appears in adverts for British supermarket Tesco as Jo with Miller as her husband Roger and Close as their son Freddie.

Recognition and awards

Jones was judged the Best Female Comedy Newcomer at the 2007 British Comedy Awards, and was also nominated for Best Television Comedy Actress. She was also recipient of the Ultimate Funny Woman award at the annual Cosmopolitan Ultimate Women of the Year Awards in November 2009. In July 2013 Jones received an honorary degree from the University of Warwick.

Jones was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to entertainment.

Production work

Music work

Charity work

In 2010, Jones took part in Channel 4's Comedy Gala, a benefit show held in aid of Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital, filmed live at the O2 Arena in London on 30 March.