Tara Fitzgerald Biography.

Tara was born on the 18th September 1967 in Cuckfield with brown eyes to an Irish mother (Sarah) & Italian born father (Michael Callaby) who separated when Tara was 4 yrs old.

When they went to live with their Aunt & Uncle in London, together with her two younger sisters, Arabella (who was born in the Bahamas) & Bianca. She is the grandniece of the actress Geraldine Fitzgerald. Her mother who once worked as a waitress is a portrait photographer.

Her father an unsuccessful artist who killed himself when she was 11 yrs old. Tara as a child went to six primary schools as far apart as Stratford-upon-Avon, London & the Bahamas (taken there by both parents to see her mother's father a Dublin lawyer, who had settled there for tax purposes). She left Sixth form college after only a year & tried earning a living as a waitress like her mother had done many years earlier, she even toured Europe looking to find herself.

She finally decided on London's Drama Centre from which she graduated in July 1990 to find almost immediate (2 weeks) success with HEAR MY SONG. At 19 whilst in a solid relationship with a medical student she suffered an ectopic pregnancy which haemorrhaged and aborted.

Had a 5 year relationship with Dorian Healy of ITV's Soldier, Soldier which ended in 1997. Was reported in 1997 to be a celebrity fan of Chelsea Football Club. Quoted as describing Grimethorpe the setting for Brassed Off as 'the asshole of nowhere' which she later apologised for.
Starring roles in several successful television productions during 1991 and 1992 followed. Tara received critical acclaim for The Black Candle, Six Characters in Search of an Author, The Camomile Lawn, and Anglo-Saxon Attitudes. Her next major step was a co-starring role in the West End play, Our Song, where she acquitted herself nightly opposite one of the legends of the London stage, Peter O'Toole. This success was followed by a role opposite Hugh Grant in the Australian hit film, Sirens, for which the Australian Film Institute nominated Tara as Best Actress in a Lead Role.

An American mini-series, Fall From Grace, was followed by the Irish film, A Man of No Importance, which found Tara sharing honors with Albert Finney. Then came the two widely different television productions Cadfael: The Leper of St. Giles and The Vacillations of Poppy Carew.

Tara was back co-starring with Hugh Grant in The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill but Came Down a Mountain before she embarked upon another major change of pace by playing Ophelia opposite Ralph Fiennes in Hamlet on the London and Broadway stages. Ralph received the notoriety, but Tara received the award for Best Supporting Actress from the New York Critics Circle.

Tara's next success was co-starring with Ewan McGregor in the highly acclaimed comedy drama Brassed Off. Then it was back to BBC television for The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, The Woman in White, and The Student Prince, all of which were featured on the U.S. mainstay, Masterpiece Theatre. Tara's next theatrical film was Conquest, which was produced in Canada. Back on the British side of the Atlantic, Tara starred in the contemporary Little White Lies and the Daphne Du Maurier swashbuckler (also featured on Masterpiece Theatre) Frenchman's Creek, for which she received the award for Best Actress at the 1999 Reims International Television Festival.

A major part in the film Childhood (which, regrettably, has never been released) was followed by the harrowing role of a stalked woman in the psychological drama In the Name of Love. Radio dramatizations have included A Handful of Dust, Look Back in Anger, The African Queen, and most recently, Laughter in Leningrad.

Tara has been heard as the voice of the narrator in such diverse television mini-series as Wild Thing (Animal Life), The Final Day (Celebrity Deaths), Vice - Inside Britain's Sex Business (Self-explanatory), Reputations (Biographies), Omnibus: A Long Time Ago, The Story of Star Wars (TV Special), and most recently, The Changemakers.

You also will hear Tara's great voice doing radio and television advertisements for products ranging from Johnson's Facial Wipes to Norwich Union Insurance.

Tara's recent cinematic appearances have included co-starring with Rutger Hauer in New World Disorder, and starring opposite Rhys Ifans and Joseph Fiennes in Rancid Aluminium.
During this period, Tara appeared on stage in the title role of Antigone, and as Blanche Du Bois in A Streetcar Named Desire.

In 2001, Tara appeared as the female lead in the World War II drama, Dark Blue World, a Czech film by Academy Award winning director Jan Sverák (Kolya). She currently can be seen on the big screen in I Capture the Castle, a romantic comedy based upon the 1948 novel by Dodie Smith (101 Dalmatians).

Tara's recent television work has included a starring role in Echoes, a segment of the highly regarded psychological drama series Murder in Mind. She also played the leading female role in Love Again, a dramatization of the life of British poet Philip Larkin, which was telecast on the BBC in July.

Tara has completed work on Secret Passage opposite John Turturro, a period drama which is set in Venice during the Spanish Inquisition, and Five Children and It, a family adventure film based on Edith Nesbit's classic 1902 novel, which is was released in the U.K. on October 22, 2004.
During the late winter and early spring of 2004, Tara completed a very successful tour of the United Kingdom playing the role of Nora Helmer in A Doll's House, for which she received high critical acclaim. In the fall of 2004, she began a tour in the role of Mara Hill in a new comedy Clouds, by Michael Frayn.

During her career, Tara has picked her roles cautiously, always seeking to play the role of a strong woman. She feels that playing characters who have weak and insipid parts do not provide her with the motivation that the role of a strong woman can deliver. She has been remarkably successful in a variety of genre ranging from historical costume dramas (The Woman in White, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, and Frenchman's Creek), to contemporary psychological suspense dramas (Little White Lies and In The Name of Love), as well as comedy dramas (Brassed Off and Conquest), and offbeat comedies (Sirens and The Vacillations of Poppy Carew). Her fine performance in the World War II drama Dark Blue World and her recent work on stage give further evidence of her acting versatility.