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Rose, Gabrielle

Gabrielle Rose
Gabrielle Rose

Stage and screen actor, born in 1954 in Vancouver British Columbia. Her grandfather was L. Arthur Rose, English composer, playwright, Vaudeville artist, and author of the musical, Me and My Girl. As a child, Gabrielle fell in love with theatre watching A Midsummer Night’s Dream with her father in Regent’s Park, London. She studied theatre at the Bristol Old Vic, and worked in British theatres for ten years before returning to Canada. She has been acting in television since 1975, and in film since 1985, notably under the direction of Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter 1997). Her extensive film credits include the role of the aunt in Maudie (2016). She has been nominated for numerous Gemini and Geni Awards for her film work; and awarded three Leo Awards, the Whistler Film Festival Maven Award, Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Achievement, the Lorena Gale Woman of Distinction Award from UBCP/ACTRA, and the Sam Payne Lifetime Achievement Award. She was inducted into the BC Entertainment Hall of Fame in 2009.

On the stage, Gabrielle Rose has played a wide variety of roles, including: Mrs. Malaprop in The Rivals (Jessie Award for Best Supporting Actress); Hannah and Ethel Rosenberg in Angels in America (dir. Kim Collier); Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf; Helena Blavasky in The Secret Doctrine; Mary Stuart (2005); Polly in Other Desert Cities, Mary in Scar Tissue by Dennis Foon (2011); Sister Aloysius in Doubt (Arts Club Theatre 2008), Amanda in Private Lives, Theresa in Memory of Water (Jessie); Elizabeth in Elizabeth Rex (Jessie); Katherine and Aunt Sadie in All the Way Home; and Mary in The Full Light of Day by Daniel Brooks (Electric Company Theatre, 2019).

Gabrielle Rose has a considerable emotional range, and is wholly immersed in her character on stage. She is an advocate for strong women’s roles.

She lives with her husband, actor Hrothgar Mathews and their two sons in East Vancouver.

Profile by Anne Nothof, Athabasca University

Last updated 2019-01-08