Ruth Connell (born April 20, 1979) is a Scottish theatre, television,film actress and producer known for playing Rowena in The CW series Supernatural. She is also a former professional dancer and choreographer.  She was nominated as "Best Leading Actress" in the 2013 Broadway World Los Angeles Awards for her portrayal of Mrs Darling and Captain Hook at the Blank Theatre, Los Angeles in their award-winning production of Peter Pan; The Boy Who Hated Mothers.

  Early Life  

Born in Falkirk and raised outside Bonnybridge, she was the only child of Football manager and coach David Connell and teacher Fiona and has two step-brothers. She was sent to dancing lessons at age 4 to keep her cousin company. She showed promise and was accepted onto the Scottish Ballet's Vocational Dance Education Scheme. She performed many child roles with Scottish Ballet including the lead role of Clara in their Nutcracker. She won the titles of Scottish Junior Ballet Champion and Scottish Senior Ballet champion at Stage Festivals in Scotland as a teenager.

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  Career  

After working as a professional dancer with companies "The Curve Foundation", "Jazz Art UK" and with Leah Stein at "Dancebase" Edinburgh, Ruth attended The Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in London where she gained a BA (Hons) Degree in Acting. She was picked as "Critics Choice" by the adjudicator from The Stage Newspaper for her graduation showcase. After leaving Drama College she performed the lead role of "Grusha" in Bertolt Brecht's "The Caucasian Chalk Circle" which toured for "The Palace Theatre", Watford" in 2004. She toured the UK in 2005 with the Oxford Stage Company's (née Headlong) revival of "Men Should Weep" in the role of Isa. In 2006, she played the lead female roles of "Gretchen" and "Helen of Troy" in Faust Parts 1 and 2 at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh. The production was CATS nominated Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland.

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In 2007, she played a ballroom dancer "Lily" at the Citizens Theater's sell out production of Alex Norton's "No Mean City" and in 2008,  played the dual roles of Mrs Beaver/Mrs Mcready to glowing reviews The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe at The Royal Lyceum Edinburgh.

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Ruth was cast as a series regular in the ITV sitcom pilot Above Their Stations in 2009, which also starred Denis Lawson, Ashley Madekwe, Andrew Brooke and Simon Dudley shown on BBC 3.

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She is also credited with producing A Midsummer Night's Dream and "Hansel and Gretel" at the Avenue Theatre Company based in Greenwich during this time period as well as the short film “Sapphire Strange” and web series “John and Jane”.

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Since moving to the United States in 2011, she has had lead roles in the award winning indie film Folklore as well as in the feature films "The Cursed Man" based on the cult novel by Keith Rommel and "Hara Kiri" by Henry Alberto.  Other recent indie films include "Sienna Burning" by Andrea Shreeman, in which she plays twins, "For The Love of George" by Nadia Jordan and a comedy pilot "Open House" by Georgia Dolenz

She had a recurring role as "Rowena" on the CW TV drama Supernatural and was one of the longest running female characters on the show! 

She is a very popular and regular guest on the convention circuit due to her role on Supernatural. She appears at Creation cons, Fan Expos, ComicCons and Wizard World cons in the US and Canada as well as international conventions.

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Ruth has recently been cast as 'Night Nurse' on the new HBO Max show 'Dead Boy Detectives' which was picked up as a series in April 2022. She is currently filming the first season of the show in Vancouver, BC

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She lives in Los Angeles, and visits her family and friends in Scotland and England regularly.