Kiruna Stamell is an Australian-British actress born with a rare form of dwarfism, who challenges stereotypes and breaks down barriers. This article highlights about her life, career, and personal achievements, including her acting roles, family, and activism.
Kiruna Stamell was Born with rare dwarfism
Kiruna Stamell was born on March 13, 1981, in Paddington, New South Wales, Australia. She is currently 41 years old. Stamell moved to Birmingham in 2011. She has been loving there since then.
Stamell was born with a rare form of dwarfism, which has influenced her life and career significantly. Her height is 3′ 9″ or 1.14 m. Despite facing many challenges, she never let her height define her identity or limit her potential. She trained in ballet, modern dance, and tap and discovered her passion for acting while studying at the University of New South Wales.
Kiruna was born to her high school teacher’s parents
Kiruna Stamell was born in Sydney to Kerry and George Stamell, who both worked as high school teachers, and she also has two sisters Peta and Melanie.
She has Dwarf twin sisters
Kiruna is not the only one in her family who has dwarfism. Her twin sisters, Peta and Melanie, also have a unique form of dwarfism.
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Growing up, they all had to overcome prejudice and discrimination due to their physical differences. However, all three siblings have gone on to achieve success in their respective fields.
Dwarfism creates a shared bond among the Stamell sisters
Peta and Melanie, Kiruna Stamell’s younger twin sisters, were found to have the same medical condition despite no previous record of dwarfism in their family. It took doctors two years to diagnose their condition, which was peculiar.
Kiruna believes that their shared experience with dwarfism has created a strong connection between the three of them. She expressed, “Having this condition turned out to be a significant advantage for me and my sisters. We were able to share an experience that would have otherwise been quite isolated.”
Creating Opportunities for People with Disabilities with her sisters
Peta, Kiruna’s younger sister, is the Managing Director of Little Products Pty Ltd, which creates and markets products for children with disabilities, dwarfism, and other conditions. Peta has accumulated three years of work experience at the BBC, where she served as a production runner for the ‘Ouch’ program and worked as an assistant in TV and multiplatform production management.
Additionally, she spent two years working as a researcher for the same organization. Together with Melanie, they created the light switch adaptor through a Kickstarter campaign, which helps people with disabilities to reach light switches.
Her first significant role in the movie Moulin Rouge
Her breakout role came in the form of the movie Moulin Rouge and she has since worked alongside esteemed directors from Australia and Europe, including Shaun Parker. She discovered her passion for acting while studying dance, theater, and film at the University of New South Wales.
Likewise, Her career in British television took off in 2009 when she made her on-screen debut as Phoebe Tunstall in the BBC drama series All the Small Things. She has also appeared as Sandra Fielding in EastEnders, starred in Channel 4’s Cast Offs, and played Amy in BBC 2’s Life’s Too Short. This became possible for her when she also received funding to pursue a study of plays by Shakespeare and Jacobean authors at LAMDA.
For almost two decades, Stamell has lived in England and has been residing in Birmingham since 2011. She frequently appears as a guest broadcaster on the BBC program Ouch! and has been actively involved in the disability arts movement, being a founding member of the Australian company Atypical Theatre. she is co-directs the production firm A Little Commitment Ltd alongside her husband Gareth Berliner.
Stamell made her first appearance on the BBC soap drama Doctors in January 2023, playing the role of receptionist Kirsty Millar.
Kiruna Stamell is married to Gareth Berliner
In 2012, Kiruna Stamell tied the knot with Gareth, a writer, comedian, and actor. Gareth has acted in numerous theater, television, and film projects, and in 2014, he ventured into the realm of professional acting with Pirate and Parrot.
He is also recognized for his appearances in Doctor Who, Coronation Street, and EastEnders, as well as his success as a popular stand-up comedian. He started his professional comedic career in 2005, performing across the UK and Europe, and additionally collaborates with incredibly humorous individuals, presenting a stand-up comedy show in the Cracking Up NHS-funded production.
To commemorate their ninth anniversary on September 22, Gareth shared a collection of photos featuring him and his wife on Instagram where he wrote:
Celebrating 9 years with my forever love @kirunastamell! 💕 BTW, her Instagram got hacked, so please bear with us as we work on getting it fixed.
Marriage has surprised me in the best way possible. After years of enjoying my freedom and wandering, I never imagined how fulfilling it would be to have a solid foundation to anchor my life to.
Kiruna Stamell, you are my rock and you make my world a better place. Here’s to many more years together! 😘 #topwife
Gareth adores his partner, Kiruna, for her intelligence, beauty, and acting prowess, and is unfazed by her height or physical appearance.
The couple enjoys posting humorous dance videos on TikTok. Moreover, the pair serves as executive producers for A Little Commitment Ltd., established in 2014. The company produces small-scale theatrical tours of the original Pirate and Parrot children’s production.
Kiruna Stamell meets a lot of discrimination on the street
“I encounter a lot of bias in public,” Kiruna stated. “People take photos of me, record videos of me. I will have insults hurled at me from passing vehicles.” “This sort of unexpected mistreatment can be similar to somebody recording you and using derogatory language like ‘f***ing midget’,” Peta explained. “It’s not a matter of being hypersensitive, it’s clearly offensive language.”
