Ruby Wax Keynote Speaker

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, followed by Sane New World, a Sunday Times bestseller published in 2013. She went on to publish Mindfulness Guide for the Frazzled (2016), How to be Human (2018), And Now, for the Good News (2020) and A Mindfulness Guide for Survival (2021). Her latest Sunday Times bestseller, I’m Not as Well as I Thought I Was (2023), is a candid and darkly witty exploration of her life and experiences with mental health, offering reassurance to anyone who realises they aren’t as well as they thought.

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.