Ruby Wax
At the 2007 BAFTA awards
Birth name	Ruby Wachs[1]
Born	(1953-04-19) 19 April 1953 (age 59)[2] Evanston, Illinois, USA
Nationality	American
Years active	1970s-present
Genres	Alternative comedy
Spouse	Ed Bye

Ruby Wax (born 19 April 1953) is an American comedian who made a career in the United Kingdom as part of the alternative comedy scene in the 1980s.

Early life[link]

Wax was born Ruby Wachs, the daughter of Jewish parents who left Austria in 1939 because of the Nazi threat.^[3] Her father became wealthy as a sausage manufacturer^[4] and her mother qualified as an accountant. Wax was raised in Evanston, Illinois in the 1950s and 60s. Wax elected to major in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

Early career[link]

Wax came to the UK and studied at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. She began her acting career as a straight actress at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, where she began a long-standing writing and directing partnership with Alan Rickman, who later was to direct most of her stage comedy shows.^[5] In 1978, she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, working alongside Juliet Stevenson in Measure for Measure, as Jaquenetta opposite Michael Hordern in Love's Labours Lost, replacing Zoë Wanamaker as Jane in The Way of the World^[5] and appearing in the Howard Brenton three-hander Sore Throats.^[6] While at the RSC, Wax also met and befriended Ian Charleson, and later contributed a chapter to the 1990 book, For Ian Charleson: A Tribute.^[7]

Wax made a one-off appearance in a 1980 episode of The Professionals, Bloodsports, playing Lonnie, an American student. In 1981, she appeared in the follow up to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, called Shock Treatment. In the film, Wax portrays Betty Hapschatt, who got married to Ralph Hapschatt in the first film. Wax also appeared briefly as a secretary in Omen III: The Final Conflict.

Comedic Work[link]

Her popularity in terms of comedy came from her interviewing technique: she was always forthright, brash and loud, conforming to the British stereotype of an American. Her physical appearance matched this image, with red hair and blood-red lipstick. She cemented this trademark image in 1985, when she starred as loud-mouthed American actress Shelley DuPont on the British sitcom Girls On Top. According to a BBC Arena documentary narrated by Dawn French it was Wax's role as backstage interviewer at Amnesty International's 1987 benefit show The Secret Policeman's Third Ball that eventually boosted her career to a higher level.^{[citation needed]}