For the latest in our series spotlighting the women shaping film and television, we spoke with Catherine Wray, a 22-year-old British-Swedish actress.
For the latest in our series spotlighting the women shaping film and television, we spoke with Catherine Wray, a 22-year-old British-Swedish actress who has spent barely a year working professionally and has already lined up eight lead roles, a professional theatre debut, and her first feature. She is also, by her own cheerful admission, fluent enough to act in three languages. We talked about growing up between countries, being told she'd be waitressing for a decade, and why she treats the whole thing as a long game.
A director told me I should anticipate waitressing for ten years, because no one would 'take a random punt on a random blonde.' Since then I've been cast in eight lead roles.
I've lived in England for twelve years now, with only one year away when I went to study in Lyon. My mum is Swedish with Norwegian heritage, and I grew up in The Hague. My dad is from a naval family, so he spent his own childhood in Italy, Hong Kong, and Thailand. I also have extended family from Hungary and Cyprus, and in Switzerland and Croatia, so I'm really lucky to feel a strong connection to many places, even if I can't pinpoint one particular belonging. For the time being, I'm based in Oxford, where I'm studying for my Master of Studies in Creative Translation.
I always loved acting. My first role was Helen of Troy in the class play in Year 5 when I was nine, and I played Santa Lucia the next year for the Swedish Club play, so in a way the interest was always there. But in the Netherlands, and in my family, I didn't know anyone at all who acted or had any connection to that world. It wasn't a career path I was aware of. I thought I wanted to be a vet. That changed when I moved to the UK, because there's a whole tradition and lineage of actors who go through school and university and start acting more seriously afterwards. It was only then that I decided acting was something I really wanted for myself.
Yes, I do. Languages are basically my LAMDA, because learning a language takes you well beyond your comfort zone and places you inside someone else's perspective. There's rhythm and cadence and accent work involved, so in that sense it's like acting. As soon as I moved to England, I started learning French at school and continued at university, where I lived and studied literature in Lyon for a year. I taught myself Italian as a teenager because I felt a strong connection to the culture, especially to Naples through my dad's side of the family. I was obsessed with the Netflix series Baby, which is set in Rome, and I ordered books from Amazon and worked through them one by one. At university, I acted in a play called Repubblica, set in post-war Sicily, which we took to the Edinburgh Fringe, and I wrote and acted in a short film in Italian with the same director, filmed in Campobasso over five days in any location we could find, from the interior of a castle to the exterior of a local church. One of my next projects is a period-drama short set near Paris and shot in French, so my languages have definitely opened up more opportunities.
Theatre has taught me to trust my fellow actors, the production team, and myself. I recently played Johanna in Baal at The Courtyard Theatre in London during this year's Camden Fringe. Johanna is a really vulnerable, sensitive, ultimately self-destructive role, and it was both my first professional theatre credit and my first substantial role in a tragedy, so I had to trust my instincts about how my character would move, speak, and respond. The actor playing Baal was really experienced and kind, and the whole team was so warm that even in my audition I thought, "yes, I really want to work with them." Theatre has taught me to relax into a role and play with the process.
Short films have taught me patience and resilience. Acting, in my experience, is 80% waiting. The industry slogan on set is quite literally "hurry up and wait." You can send a self-tape and hear back weeks later, or not at all. When you get the role, it's wonderful, but then you have only days, sometimes hours, where you have any control over the process. You prepare, you turn up, you do your scenes, and then it's out of your hands as production edits and finishes the film. If it goes onto the festival circuit, you sometimes don't see your own work for a long time. But every experience is valuable, giving you something concrete to talk about at your next audition.
A feature is a different beast entirely, but it's probably my favourite. I've been cast in a lead role in an indie English-language feature in Paris for late 2026, and I'm so excited. After a year of mostly short films, I had a moment of shock when I saw the 200-page script, but that was also what made it feel real. There's much more dialogue with the director on a feature, because there are more scenes and ideas to discuss and more time to realise a shared vision. I've also been invited to work with British director Polly Steele on workshopping an upcoming feature. Features have taught me to take each day as it comes and enjoy every moment. You always learn so much, and you remember the people you work with forever.
There was an amazingly beautiful short I was part of called 'The Divine'. It will always hold a special place in my heart: it was my first paid acting role, my first lead in an English-language short, and it was filmed on the Jurassic Coast, which is local to me but so underrated in the UK that almost no one's heard of it. I'll never forget my first day on set, meeting the other actor and the whole crew and spending nearly a whole afternoon lying in the long grass on the cliffs at Old Harry Rocks to get the shot. I'd just come back from Lyon, and that was the moment that crystallised it: "Yes, I want to do this. I'm an actress, and I want to be one for as long as I can be."
I've been acting professionally for around a year. I didn't go to drama school, I don't have an agent, and I was balancing all of this with the final year of a non-acting degree. I haven't had nearly as much infrastructure or support as peers who went to drama school or have representation and connections, so I've had to learn not to compare myself and to just keep going. I graduated with my BA in July, and the difference in breathing space and focus has been like night and day. Being a working actress, but not yet a full-time working actress, has been tough, because I've had to balance so much at once without really having anyone in a similar position to compare notes with.
I haven't had nearly as much infrastructure or support as peers who went to drama school or have representation and connections, so I've had to learn not to compare myself and to just keep going.
My dream theatre roles would be Nina, Blanche, Hedda, Lady Macbeth, and Antigone. I'm really hopeful to play each of them at least once. Earlier this year, I was offered the role of Marie-Thérèse Walter in a Chinese short biopic in Chengdu about Picasso, but the timing would have jeopardised my final BA exams, so I had to turn it down. It was a really difficult decision, but I learned so much about her life, and I'd love to play her in the future. And to play a Bond Girl or a Bond Villain. That's a long way away, but it would be fun.
Absolutely. Earlier this year, a director at an off-West End theatre venue told me I would never get cast in more than a young company and that I should anticipate waitressing for ten years, because "it is highly unlikely anyone in the industry would take a random punt on a random blonde." So I've faced overt discouragement, not just on the basis of my gender but my appearance. Since then, I've been cast in lead roles in eight short films, including the period drama in France, plus the theatre production of Baal and my first feature. I'm only a year into acting properly, but I've already experienced real progress. My advice to anyone who feels underestimated is to be strategic and play the long game. Keep auditioning, keep working, keep growing, keep your long-term goals in focus, and take things project by project, day by day.
