Skip to main content Skip to navigation

Summer Degree Congregations 2013 - Wednesday 17

Wednesday 17 July 2013

Congratulations to all our graduands from the following Faculties, who are receiving their degrees today:

Morning ceremonies @11am
  • Warwick Business School
  • Film and Television
Afternoon ceremonies @ 3pm
  • Economics
  • Classics and Ancient History

We hope you have a wonderful day! You can view the storify from day two #warwickgrad

We would also like to pass on our congratulations to Ms Ruth Jones and Mr Adrian Lester our Honorary Graduands.


Today's Honorary Graduands

ruth

Ruth Jones, Honorary Doctor of Letters (11am)

Ruth Jones is an actress, writer and producer. Born in Bridgend, South Wales, she studied Theatre Studies and Dramatic Arts at the University of Warwick between 1985 and 1988. She went on to study acting at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. Her first professional acting role was with Dominic Cooke's theatre company Pan Optic playing the countess in a national tour of The Marriage of Figaro. Ruth’s subsequent success meant that she quickly became a household name. Perhaps best known for co-scripting and starring in the multi-award winning hit TV comedy Gavin and Stacey, for which she won the Best Female Comedy Newcomer award at the British Comedy Awards in 2007.

In 2009 Ruth scooped the Sian Phillips Award by Bafta Cymru, which recognises Welsh men or women who have made a significant contribution in either a film or network television programme. She was also made a Fellow of the Royal Welsh College of Music and drama in 2009. She has appeared on television in many other programmes including Fat Friends, Little Britain, Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Torchwood, The Street and played comedy actress Hattie Jacques in biopic Hattie. She also starred in movies East is East and Very Annie Mary.

Ruth has performed on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. She even has a chart-topping single to her name, after she recorded the Bee Gees hit Islands in the Stream with Gavin and Stacey co-star Rob Brydon to raise money for Comic Relief. Aside from acting and writing, Ruth and her husband, David Peet, run independent television production company tidy productions. The company produces comedy and comedy drama and is based in Cardiff and London. They are currently working on the third series of comedy drama Stella for Sky, with Ruth in the title role and which is filmed in Wales. A Christmas special has also been commissioned.


adrian
Adrian Lester, Honorary Doctor of Letters (3pm)

Adrian Lester is an award-winning actor, director and writer who is currently receiving phenomenal reviews for his appearance in the title role of Othello at the National Theatre. He won the coveted Critic’s Choice Award for Best Actor earlier this year for his portrayal of Ira Aldridge in Red Velvet at the Tricycle Theatre, for which he also received an Evening Standard Theatre Award nomination.

Adrian was born in Birmingham in 1968 and began acting with the Birmingham Youth Theatre at the age of 14. He went on to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London for three years. Adrian’s acting career quickly began and he appeared on stage with the Royal National Theatre in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. His subsequent theatre experience includes major roles in Company, As You Like it, Six Degrees of Separation, Kiss of the Spider Woman, a Winter’s Tale, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the title role in Peter Brook’s 2000 production of Hamlet, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and of course the title roles of both Othello and Henry V for the National Theatre.

His entry to the big screen was playing the lead role in the major film Primary Colours, in which he appeared alongside John Travolta and Emma Thompson. Adrian has since gone on to star in a multitude of films including The Day After Tomorrow, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Dust and Case 39.

Adrian regularly appears on our TV screens too, for example with significant roles in: Merlin (BBC1), Sleep with Me (ITV), Ghost Squad (Channel 4), Being Human (BBC), Ballet Shoes (BBC1), Bonekickers (BBC1) and Channel 4’s Empire’s Children and hard hitting, and the award winning TV drama, Storm Damage. He also blended TV and theatre when he appeared in the BBC2 TV documentary When Romeo Met Juliet together with his wife Lolita Chakrabarti as acting mentors to the pupils of two Coventry schools involved in a production of Romeo and Juliet. Adrian’s achievements were celebrated when Adrian was appointed Office of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for Services to drama.








 

Outstanding Student Contribution Awards 2013 winners


 

Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence