Kiruna Stamell

Bio

Kiruna Stamell is an Australian-British actress.  Stamell debuted on British television in 2009 when she appeared as Phoebe Tunstall in the six-part BBC drama series All the Small Things, and has made appearances on Eastenders as Sandra Fielding, starred in Cast Offs for Channel 4, and in 2011 as Amy in Life’s Too Short, opposite Warwick Davis for BBC2.

Kiruna’s first professional role came as La Petite Princess in Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge.  She went on to perform with some of Australia’s leading theatre companies, including her role as King Duncan in Macbeth for Sydney Theatre Company, and Cordelia in King Lear for Round Earth.  She also appeared in the Australian short film Love Hurts before moving to the UK in 2005.

She went on to be cast in a number of professional stage roles in the UK, performing with the Quarantine Theatre Company and Graeae Theatre Company. She then renewed her interest in dance, with a secondment to the renowned CandoCo. Her performance as Frieda in Graeae’s Whiter Than Snow was widely praised; The Guardian’s Lyn Gardner wrote that “as the diminutive heroine… Kiruna Stamell is outstanding.”

Stamell also toured extensively throughout Europe with Campo, formerly known as Victoria, with their production of For All The Wrong Reasons.

In 2013, she appeared in Giuseppe Tornatore’s film, The Best Offer, and a year later, starred in a production of Great Britain for the National Theatre. In the late 2000s, Stamell was a frequent guest presenter on the BBC’s Ouch! podcast.   She was a regular presenter on the Australian children’s educational series Play School (ABC Australia) from 2018 to 2020.

2020 also saw her cast in The New Pope in the recurring role of Badessa Clarsura, a series created and directed by Paolo Sorrentino for Sky Atlantic, HBO and Canal+.   In 2022, Kiruna starred in the Starz series The Serpent Queen in the series regular role of Mathilde, and in January 2023, Stamell began appearing as receptionist Kirsty Miller in the BBC series Doctors as a new cast regular. Alongside co-stars Richard Atwill and Isaac Benn, Stamell she nominated for the Best Family accolade at the 2023 British Soap Awards. Since then, she has appeared in The Listeners, and then on Piglets as regular character Aunty Nooch.

Recent theatre roles include Fi in The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs at The Soho Theatre, Marie Louise in Cyrano de Bergerac opposite James McAvoy, at the Playhouse Theatre London, Guildenstern in Hamlet and Bessie Lee in Jane Eyre, both at the Octagon Theatre. Other theatre include Sleeping Beauty at Hackney Empire, The Government Inspector at Birmingham Rep, and Everyman, An Oak Tree, and Great Britain all at The National Theatre.