Samantha Renke
Actress and Campaigner
Samantha Renke is an actor, presenter, journalist and disability campaigner. While still studying at university she became a trustee for the Brittle Bone Society. Samantha trained to be a teacher and taught languages in secondary schools, before deciding to follow her dream and become an actress.
She says: “From a very young age I realised I had a gift of the gab – my innate confidence broke down barriers I experienced being disabled. I love people and making them smile, thus challenging their perceptions and stereotypes of disability. I feel truly blessed to now be a role model for the disabled community.”
Samantha is known for funny, complex roles with tons of personality. Her first lead role was starring in the independent film Little Devil, a part she won Best Actress for at the LA Diversity Film Festival. In the UK she is perhaps best known for her role on a Malteasers advert and as resident disability columnist for the Metro.
Samantha is keenly aware that although around 20% of the UK’s population identify as having a disability or additional needs, representation of disability in the media makes up only around 3%. She says “I want to encourage more budding disabled actors to follow in my tyre prints and I also want the media industry to understand that disabled people deserve to be represented in an authentic way.”
Samantha Is a regular columnist and guest on panel shows including Jeremy Vine, loose women and on 5 Talk Radio DriveTime with Eamonn Holmes. She has presented rip off Britain and recently appeared in celebrity antiques road trip. Samantha has recently launched her podcast LifeDownLow’Ed with fellow actor Dan Edge.
She is a Patron of the Head2Head Theatre, an Ambassador for Parallel London, and the Non-Executive Director of Born This Way Media.
From a very young age I realised I had a gift of the gab – my innate confidence broke down barriers I experienced being disabled. I love people and making them smile, thus challenging their perceptions and stereotypes of disability. I feel truly blessed to now be a role model for the disabled community.
I want to encourage more budding disabled actors to follow in my tyre prints and I also want the media industry to understand that disabled people deserve to be represented in an authentic way.