Gerda Stevenson

Gerda Stevenson (born April 10, 1956) is a Scottish actress, director and writer. Known for her wide-ranging works in media, her notable stage roles include the title character in Edwin Morgan's English translation of Racine's Phèdre, and Lady Macbeth. In film, she starred alongside Celia Imrie in Margaret Tait's Blue Black Permanent (1992) and played the mother of Murron MacClannough in Braveheart (1995) winning the BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actress for the former. She was described by The Scotsman in 1999 as "Scotland's finest actress". In 2002, she played Helen Gilmore in the soap opera River City.

In addition to her screen and stage work, Stevenson is also a playwright, poet, and frequently appears on radio as a reader of short stories and as an actress in adaptations. Her play Federer vs. Murray has toured New York City and her poetry collection If This Were Real was published by Smokestack Books in 2013. In 2019, her poems illustrated the paintings of her one-time neighbour, Scottish painter Christian Small, in the book Inside & Out - The Art of Christian Small, published by Scotland Street Press. She was a contributing writer to the 2024 book Feminist Theatre Then & Now: Celebrating 50 years.

Her radio work consists of several performances of poems and songs by Robert Burns for the BBC, as well as numerous radio dramas: Self-Control by Mary Brunton as Laura Montreville; For the Love of Willie by Agnes Owens as Liza; The Heart of Midlothian by Sir Walter Scott for BBC Radio 4, nominated for a Sony Award in 2008, as Jeanie Deans; and Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. She has also written radio dramas including: Island Blue, Secrets: The Punter's Tale, Secrets: The Escort's Tale and The Apple Tree. She directed the Afternoon Play The Price of a Fish Supper.