Ria Zmitrowicz

Playwright and actor Luke Barnes, whom Zmitrowicz met through the NYT, cast her in his play Chapel Street, which premiered at The Old Red Lion, Islington before going on to play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and the Bush Theatre. This helped Zmitrowicz secure an agent.[3] She then landed a role in Arinzé Kene's God's Property alongside Kingsley Ben-Adir at Soho Theatre.[2]

In 2015, she played Chloe Coverly in Arcadia with the English Touring Theatre[4] and Mary Warren in The Crucible at the Royal Exchange, Manchester. The latter earned her a nomination at the Manchester Theatre Awards.[5] She also appeared in Four Minutes Twelve Seconds.

In 2019 she starred in the plays Three Sisters with Pearl Chanda and Patsy Ferran[6] and The Doctor with Juliet Stevenson at the Almeida Theatre,[7] as well as The Welkin with Maxine Peake at the National Theatre in 2020.[8] Her performance as Sami in The Doctor, a role she originated, earned Zmitrowicz a WhatsOnStage Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Play.[9] She returned to the Royal Court in 2022, starring in The Glow.[10]

In 2013, she played Wilma Grey in the two-part ITV crime drama Murder on the Home Front. She also had a recurring role as Jodie in the E4 comedy-drama series Youngers.[11] The following year, she joined the cast of the sitcom The Midnight Beast as Hope for its second series, also on E4, and the ITV period drama Mr Selfridge as Sarah Ellis, a recurring role she would play for the latter three series.

Zmitrowicz made her feature film debut with a small role in the 2015 film Kill Your Friends.

She starred as Amber Bowen, one of the titular victims, in the BAFTA-winning three-part BBC One miniseries Three Girls, based on a true story with the names changed.[12]

In 2018 Zmitrowicz was named a Breakthrough Brit in the BAFTA awards.[13][14]

She plays Roxy Monke in the 2023 Amazon Prime adaptation of Naomi Alderman's science fiction novel The Power.[15]