Nina Baden-Semper

Nina Baden-Semper
Born1945 (age 78–79)
Trinidad
OccupationActress
Known forLove Thy Neighbour (1972–1976)

Nina Baden-Semper (born 1945) is a Trinidad and Tobago-born British actress best known for her role as Barbie Reynolds in the 1970s sitcom Love Thy Neighbour, produced by Thames Television.

Career

Born in Trinidad and Tobago, Baden-Semper was a dancer when she first came to Britain, before going on to act.[1]

In an acting career that spans more than 40 years, Baden-Semper has appeared in numerous radio, television, film and theatre productions and has toured worldwide in many plays. She has played varied stage roles in dramatic works that range from The Bacchae by Euripides, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme by Molière and The Blacks by Jean Genet to modern thrillers such as Wait Until Dark and Stepping Out, as well as comedy roles. She has been a television presenter for children’s programmes and also Morning Worship for the BBC, and has made numerous guest appearances on quizzes, talks and panel shows both nationally and internationally. Baden-Semper made two single releases and an album and was recently a rapper on a So Solid Crew video.[2]

Becoming known on television for appearing between 1972 and 1976 in the sitcom Love Thy Neighbour that also featured Jack Smethurst, Rudolph Walker and Kate Williams,[3] Baden-Semper has appeared in other character parts, including in the ill-fated revival of TV series Crossroads in 2002. In 2006, she guest-starred in the Doctor Who audio adventure Memory Lane. In the BBC Two black magazine showcase The A-Force, she appeared in the series entitled Brothers and Sisters as Elder Gittens' widow. Baden-Semper is also the cousin of American jazz, funk and soul music producer and artist George Semper.

In 2005, Baden-Semper appeared as Mary Seacole at a bicentenary exhibition at the Florence Nightingale Museum.[4]

Awards and honours

Baden-Semper has been the recipient of Joint Television Award and also Outstanding Female Personality, and was the subject of the ITV programme This Is Your Life on 12 March 1975.[citation needed] She was also given the Scarlet Ibis Award by the Trinidad & Tobago High Commission in London for meritorious service.

Filmography

Film
Television

References

  1. ^ Rodreguez King-Dorset, "The Pioneers", in Black British Theatre Pioneers: Yvonne Brewster and the First Generation of Actors, Playwrights and Other Practitioners, McFarland, 2014, p. 101, quoting Pearl Connor-Mogotsi: "She [Corinne Skinner] and Nina had come from Trinidad as dancers and went into acting afterwards. We all had to be so versatile. We had to do everything. Sing, dance, act, stand on your head...."
  2. ^ Biography at Celebrate!!! 2004.
  3. ^ "Love Thy Neighbour (1972-76)". Screenonline. BFI. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  4. ^ Kate Honeyford, "MGM 2005: Mary Seacole At The Florence Nightingale Museum", Culture24, 12 May 2005.