Kate Dickie

Kate Dickie (born 1971) is a Scottish actress who has appeared in television series, stage plays and films. She is best known for her portrayal as the security camera operative Jackie in her starring debut Red Road, directed by Andrea Arnold, and for which she was given several awards as best actress, among other things at the BAFTA Scotland Awards and the British Independent Film Awards in 2006. Dickie also supports the theatre company Solar Bear, which is known for its collaborations with deaf people, in part in her role as the patron. --- Dickie was born in East Kilbride, Scotland but spent part of her childhood in different parts of Scotland (Dumfries and Galloway, Perthshire and Ayrshire) owing to frequent moves by her family. From an early age she discovered her passion for acting, which her parents also supported. Coming from a working class family (her father was a farmer and gardener) in which no family member had been in the arts before, she was embarrassed to call herself an actress since she was afraid to be called pretentious. Her desire for drama classes supported her to overcome her insecurities that appeared through the frequent school changes and helped her dealing with adjusting to new people and surroundings. After leaving school she went to college in Kirkcaldy to study for a national certificate in drama. In 1990, she won a place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and decided to stay in Glasgow. Dickie started to work in theatre and had the opportunity to perform with some of Scotland's best companies. She finally achieved her breakthrough in 2000 when she played a key role in an episode of the BBC Scotland / Raindog series Tinsel Town. Through Dickie's performance in her film debut Red Road (in which she plays a security camera operative who gets involved with peoples' everyday lives through her camera perspective and who begins to stalk a man for reasons relating to her past) with her former drama school mate and co-star Tony Curran, she gained more recognition as a serious actress. --- Dickie lives with her daughter Molly (born in 2004) and her partner Kenny, a sound technician, in Kelvinbridge.