AllMovie

Classically trained actress Rowena King received formal dramatic instruction in Great Britain, at the London Drama School. From there, King transitioned to ensemble work with the esteemed Royal Shakespeare Company and became a frequent presence on U.K. television, in series programs including Just a Gigolo, Tales of the South Seas, and Full Stretch. King's big-screen appearances officially commenced in the early '90s, and she displayed a predilection for choosing unique, dynamic, and challenging material -- evidenced, for example, by her film-stealing turn as Amelie in John Duigan's South Seas erotic melodrama Wide Sargasso Sea (1992) and a rare lead as Rachel Morris in Welsh director Julian Richards' harrowing pagan horror outing, Darklands (1997). Her collaboration with Kenneth Branagh, as an attendant in the director's controversial four-hour screen version of Hamlet (1996) drew on the actress' Shakespearean background but provided her with relatively little screen time. King enjoyed a period of increased television activity during the late '90s and early 2000s, which included parts in the series Wonderful You and Breaking News, then moved back into films with supporting work in such features as A Perfect Day (2006) and The Bucket List (2007).