Ruby Rose Langenheim (born 20 March 1986) is an Australian actress, television presenter, and model. She gained prominence for her role in season three of the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black (2015–2016) and for portraying Kate Kane / Batwoman in the Arrowverse television franchise, including season one of the series Batwoman (2019–2020).
As a presenter, Rose hosted MTV Australia (2007–2011), before taking on several high-profile modelling gigs, including working with Maybelline in Australia. She also co-hosted various television shows, such as Australia's Next Top Model (2009) and The Project (2009–2011).
Rose made her film debut with a small role in Around the Block (2013). She later appeared in action films such as Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016), XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017), and John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017). Rose also co-starred in the musical comedy Pitch Perfect 3 (2017) and the monster film The Meg (2018).
Ruby Rose Langenheim was born in Melbourne on 20 March 1986, the daughter of 20-year-old single mother Katia Langenheim. She is the great-granddaughter of German actress Ellen Bang (1906–1981) and Australian soldier Alec Campbell (1899–2002), who became known as the last Australian survivor of the Battle of Gallipoli and lived to the age of 103. As a young child, she travelled frequently, living in rural Victoria, Tasmania, and Surfers Paradise before finally settling back in Melbourne. She attended University High School and Footscray City College.
Rose first joined the Girlfriend model search in 2002, for which she came in second to Catherine McNeil. She has featured predominantly within mainstream fashion titles, including Vogue Australia, InStyle, Marie Claire, Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Nylon and New York's Inked. She's been the Australian ambassador for JVC, Australian clothes company JAG, and luxury Danish label Georg Jensen. Rose is also the face of Maybelline in Australia, and since March 2016 has also been the face of Urban Decay.
In 2010, Rose collaborated with the Australian fashion label Milk and Honey to design a capsule fashion line. The collection, named Milk and Honey Designed by Ruby Rose, includes washed jeans, leather jackets and T-shirts. The clothing line was available in selected retailers in Australia. Rose also released a collaboration collection with street footwear brand Gallaz. In 2014, Rose began collaborating with Phoebe Dahl for their clothing range Faircloth Lane. In March 2017, Rose starred in Nike's latest campaign "Kiss My Airs" celebrating its Air Max Day. In May, Rose was the face of Swarovski 'Urban Fantasy' FW17 Collection launch.
VJ career and television personality
In order to land the job as a MTV VJ in Australia, Rose competed against 2000 other hopefuls in a three-week national search, as former VJ Lyndsey Rodrigues moved to the United States to co-host TRL. As part of the competition, she downed 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes against Jackass's Bam Margera, and kissed strangers on a busy Sydney street. She stated, "Being a model there is always something they want to change. Whether they want someone a little bit skinnier, a little bit taller, a little bit prettier, but MTV wants you to be yourself... not censoring anything and not conforming to anything."
In 2009, Rose won the ASTRA Award for Favourite Female Personality. She also travelled to Kenya to "highlight... [the] amazing work" done by Global Vision International. She appeared in the episode "Media Virgins", of season 5 of Australia's Next Top Model, acting as a guest judge, and also worked as a correspondent for the finale of the same show.
In July 2009, Rose along with Dave Hughes, Charlie Pickering, Carrie Bickmore and James Mathison hosted The 7pm Project, an Australian television news talk show produced by Roving Enterprises which aired weeknights on Network 10. She left the program to pursue her own hosting projects. In October 2009, it was announced that Fox8 had picked up the rights to UK format Ultimate School Musical, which features ordinary teenagers from a school attempting to put on a music production to a professional standard in just six weeks. The Australian version was produced by FremantleMedia Australia with Rose as host, and aired in 2010. Rose also hosted the Foxtel Mardi Gras for 3 consecutive years before becoming an official correspondent for Foxtel for the 2010 Winter Olympics. In October 2015, Rose hosted the 2015 MTV Europe Music Awards alongside Ed Sheeran in Milan.
Rose was selected in 2008 to act in the Australian comedy film Suite for Fleur. In 2009, she appeared on the first episode of Talkin' 'Bout Your Gen, representing Gen M alongside comedian Josh Thomas. She also appeared alongside Christina Ricci and Jack Thompson in the 2013 film Around the Block.
Rose credits her 2014 short film Break Free, which she produced herself, for the success of her acting career. In an interview with Variety, she described how she was not able to get a manager, agent, or audition; so she decided to create short films "as a way of being able to give myself something to do and to study my craft." The film went viral, getting millions of views in a short period of time.
2015–2018: Orange is the New Black and film stardom
In 2015, Rose joined the Orange Is the New Black cast in season 3. Rose played inmate Stella Carlin, "whose sarcastic sense of humour and captivating looks quickly draw the attention of some of Litchfield's inmates." Rose's performance was generally well received by the public and is considered to be her breakthrough role. She was also cast in a guest role, as the service robot Wendy, in the science fiction series Dark Matter.
In 2017, Rose appeared in three action film sequels: XXX: Return of Xander Cage alongside Vin Diesel, Resident Evil: The Final Chapter alongside Milla Jovovich, and John Wick: Chapter 2 alongside Keanu Reeves. She also played a musical rival in the comedy Pitch Perfect 3, which was released in December of that same year. Rose co-starred in the Warner Bros. film The Meg, a shark epic based on the novel of the same name, alongside Jason Statham; the film was released on 10 August 2018.
2019–2020: Batwoman and departure
On 7 August 2018, it was reported that Rose had been cast as Batwoman in an Arrowverse crossover. Her role as Kate Kane has been noted as the first openly lesbian lead superhero in television. Batwoman aired on The CW on 6 October 2019. Rose's casting as Batwoman was met by backlash and criticism on social media. DC Comics, which owns the rights to Batwoman, reintroduced the character in 2006 as a lesbian of Jewish descent. Some online commentators criticised Rose for not being Jewish, while the main focus of the scrutiny was the assertion that the fact she identifies as genderfluid made her "not gay enough" for the role. Rose quit Twitter and deactivated public commenting on her Instagram account following the backlash. Prior to leaving Twitter, she released a tweet responding to the negative reaction, stating, "Where on earth did 'Ruby is not a lesbian therefore she can't be batwoman' come from — has to be the funniest most ridiculous thing I've ever read." Rose called for unity between women and minorities, imploring women and the LGBTQ community to be kinder and more supportive of each other.
In Entertainment Weekly's 2019 LGBTQ special issue, Rose additionally discussed the backlash to her casting as the title character of the television series Batwoman. She said the opportunity to audition for Orange is the New Black came about because the show wanted to have a gender-neutral character, but that she has also received criticism because of her genderfluid identity, adding, "when I got cast as a lesbian in Batwoman, I didn't know that being a gender-fluid woman meant that I couldn't be a lesbian because I'm not a woman - not considered lesbian enough." She said that while her initial response was dismissive, she later considered if there was a way to remedy the situation so that others would not be offended by her identity, and pondered making up a term that does not offend people and would indicate that she is "fluid in (her) gender, but also a lesbian."