Rachel Shelley (born 25 August 1969) is an Englishactress, audio producer and model. She is best known for playingHelena Peabody in the Showtime seriesThe L Word and Elizabeth Russell in the Oscar-nominatedBollywoodepicLagaan.

Rachel Irene Shelley was born on 25 August 1969 inWiltshire,England,United Kingdom, and was brought up primarily in Cambridgeshire. She is the youngest of four children, she has an older sister and two older brothers. Shelley spent three years inMalta as a child before attending school inHuntingdon. After graduating from theUniversity of Sheffield with a B.A. Hons in English and Drama in 1992, she joined a local theatre company inEdinburgh and set up a community theatre company inSheffield before moving toLondon to further her acting career.^[1][2][3]

Shelley is perhaps best known for playingHelena Peabody in the Showtime seriesThe L Word. Other parts include Elizabeth Russell in the Oscar-nominated Hindi filmLagaan in 2001, a woman whose tragic loss drives Charles Castle mad in the 1997 filmPhotographing Fairies. In 2012 and early 2013, she played the recurring role of Yvonne Rippon, a police superintendent who had a relationship with established character Nick Jordan, in popular BBC medical dramaCasualty. Shelley left the series on 19 January 2013.^[4] She played a pivotal role in the very first episode of the long-running ITV seriesGrantchester, oppositeJames Norton, and featured in the first series of the highly acclaimed Showtime seriesEpisodes oppositeMatt LeBlanc.

Apart from acting, Shelley has written articles forThe Guardian, ELLE magazine,The Big Issue andDIVA Magazine.^[5][6][7][8]She was a columnist for several years for DIVA magazine. Shelley graduated from Goldsmiths University with an MA in Radio Production. She has produced and edited adocumentary for BBC Radio 4 calledWhat We've Learnt About Grief, presented by Cariad Lloyd. Shelley producedRachel's Roving Reports for the weekly radio show Radio DIVA on Resonance for nearly three years, hosted by comedianRosie Wilby and actress Heather Peace. She now produces the weekly LGBTQIA podcastpodDIVA.

Shelley hosted the very first DIVA Awards in 2017, and went on to host two more times after this with co-host (actress) Victoria Broom.

Shelley has been nominated several times for Ally of the Year at the DIVA Awards. In 2024 she was presented with a 30 Years of DIVA Honouree award for ally-ship throughout her career.

Shelley was awarded the IOWF Award for Best Actress in 2017 (Different for Girls) and jointly won the 2024 OTT Award for Best Ensemble Cast (Netflix seriesKohrra).

She was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 2002 Popular Awards for Lagaan and for Best Actress in a feature film at the Genre Blast Film Festival 2021 (Blank).

Shelley lives inNotting Hill,London, with her partner since 1995, Matthew Parkhill, who is a TV writer, director and producer. They have a daughter named Eden, born 8 September 2009.^[9][10]

• Rachel Shelley atIMDb

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