Carmen Munroe

Carmen Munroe OBE (born 12 November 1932) is a British actress, born in Berbice, Guyana. Since the early 1950s she has been a resident of the UK. She made her West End stage debut in 1962 and has since played an instrumental role in the development of black British theatre and representation on small screen. She has had high-profile roles on television in The Fosters (1976–77), Mixed Blessings (1978–80) both on ITV and on stage in Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, Alice Childress's Trouble in Mind and James Baldwin's The Amen Corner.

She is however best known for her role as Shirley, the wife of eponymous barber Desmond Ambrose, played by Norman Beaton, in the British TV sitcom Desmond's (1989 to 1994), written by Trix Worrell.

Some of her other roles include a part in the 1967 Doctor Who story The Enemy of the World; a part in General Hospital; and she was for a time a presenter of Play School.

She is one of the founders of Talawa the UK's leading black theatre company, which she established in 1985 together with Mona Hammond, Inigo Espegel and Yvonne Brewster.

In 2005/06 she acted in a series of three African American plays at the Tricycle Theatre, Kilburn. The plays...
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