Ruby Wax Keynote Speaker

Ruby Wax OBE is an American-British actress, Sunday Times bestseller, comedian, TV writer, lecturer and mental health campaigner with an impressive career spanning over five decades. Ruby is a highly engaging and popular corporate speaker who is a fortified mental health advocate and stalwart in the entertainment industry. 

Using her experience and Master’s Degree in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Ruby is a lecturer on business communication and helps public and private sector clients, including Skype and Deutsche Bank, address issues surrounding mental health and the ever-changing business and personal landscape. 

Ruby is an acclaimed author who has published several cognitive therapy and psychology books to help people understand mindfulness and deconstruct mental health stigma and complexity. Ruby Wax published her first Sunday Times best-selling book How Do You Want Me? in 2002 and remains an absolute fan favourite. Her follow up book Sane New World, is also a Sunday Times bestseller published in 2013; this was followed up by three more books, Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled (2016), How to be Human (2018) and And Now, for the Good News (2020). Her latest book, A Mindfulness Guide for Survival (2021), serves as a guide for navigating uncertainty, change and loneliness, and has received much critical acclaim as one of the most valuable books on the subject of being mindful of your mental health. 

In conjunction with being a mental health activist and illustrious author, Ruby has also made her mark in the entertainment and production industry through her comedy work and a long list of film and television appearances. Ruby’s acting career began on Broadway, where she worked with the Crucible Theatre and later the Royal Shakespeare Company. While at the Crucible Theatre, Ruby met Alan Rickman, where they would have a lasting writing and directing collaboration. She extended her career to television when she landed a role on the British sitcom Girls on Top in 1985 and then went on to host a few of her comedy chat shows in the late 80’s and early 90’s with titles like Ruby, Don’t Miss Wax, The Full Wax, Ruby Wax Meets…, and Wax on Wheels. 

Ruby also has some stagecraft accomplishments to her name with appearances in films like Tara Road, Shock Treatment, Chariots of Fire and The Omen III: The Final Conflict. She has accumulated writing credentials for her work on several projects, including Girls on Top, Ruby Wax Meets…, For 4 Tonight and Not the Nine O’Clock News. For over a decade, she was a scriptwriter on the television series Absolutely Fabulous, a script editor on Mirrorball, and a director on The Ruby Wax Show. 

In 2015 the University of Surrey appointed her as a Visiting Professor in Mental Health Nursing and Ruby was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her tireless campaigning for mental health. She was later elected as a Chancellor by the University of Southampton in 2019.

Ruby has led an esteemed career where she has entertained audiences with her comedic take on life, continues to be an advocate for mental health and its awareness, and uses her Frazzled Café Online and speaking engagements as a safe space for mental health issues or simply figuring out how to be more mindful in your everyday life.