Ruby Rose Langenheim was born 20 March 1986 and is an Australian model, actress, and television presenter. Rose came to attention as a presenter on MTV Australia (2007–2011), followed by several high-profile modelling gigs, notably as the face of Maybelline New York in Australia. In addition, she has co-hosted various television shows, most notably Australia’s Next Top Model (2009) and The Project on Network Ten (2009–2011).
Rose pursued a career in acting from 2008 onwards. She had a small role in the drama Around the Block (2013), and came to global attention for her role in season three of the Netflix series Orange Is the New Black (2015–16). She has also had large roles in the action films Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016), XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017) and John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) and has co-starred in the musical comedy Pitch Perfect 3 (2017) and the monster film The Meg (2018).
She was born in Melbourne, the daughter of Katia Langenheim, a 20-year-old single mother and artist, whom she describes as one of her role models. As a young child, she travelled frequently, living in rural Victoria, Tasmania, and Surfers Paradise before finally settling in Melbourne. As a teenager, she attended University High School and Footscray City College. Rose is the goddaughter of Indigenous Australian boxer Lionel Rose and the great-granddaughter of Alec Campbell, who was the last surviving Australian Battle of Gallipoli soldier.
Rose first joined the Girlfriend model search in 2002, for which she came in second to Catherine McNeil. In 2010, she 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, designing ethical street-wear for their clothing range Faircloth Lane. She has featured predominantly within mainstream fashion titles, including Vogue Australia, InStyle Magazine, Marie Claire Magazine, Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Nylon and New York’s Inked Magazine. She’s been the Australian ambassador for JVC, Australian clothes company JAG and luxury Danish label Georg Jensen. Rose is the face of Maybelline New York in Australia.
Since March 2016, Rose has been the face of Urban Decay Cosmetics.
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.
In order to land her job as an 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. However, she enjoyed her job as a VJ compared to her previous job as a model.
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 airs weeknights on Network Ten. In October 2015, Rose hosted the 2015 MTV Europe Music Awards alongside Ed Sheeran in Milan.
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 describes 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.
In 2015, Rose joined the Orange Is the New Black cast in season 3. Rose played inmate Stella Carlin, “whose sarcastic sense of humor and captivating looks quickly draw the attention of some of Litchfield’s inmates.” Rose’s performance was generally well-received by the public. She was also cast in a guest role, as the service robot Wendy, in the science fiction series Dark Matter.
Rose came out as a lesbian at the age of 12. Because of her sexuality, she suffered verbal taunts and physical abuse from her schoolmates, which led to a suicide attempt. She was also sexually abused as a child by a relative, and has bipolar disorder and clinical depression. With regard to childhood gender nonconformity, Rose said she wanted to be a boy while growing up and that she was saving up money to physically transition from female to male. She said that it was in her mind as something she wanted to do and then she just did not. She even used to sleep on her front because she didn’t want to get boobs ever, which she thinks worked actually. She stated that modelling led her to discover androgyny, and allowed her to model with different gender expressions.
Rose is genderfluid, she also stated, however, that she prefers to continue using feminine pronouns. While if she had to choose a sex, she commented that she would choose to be male, she does not feel like she should have been born with different body parts. Seeing the desire her transgender friends had for transitioning, she asked herself if her need to transition matched theirs, and concluded that she is satisfied being gender neutral.
In 2014, Rose announced her engagement to fashion designer Phoebe Dahl; in December 2015, they ended their romantic relationship. Rose was in a relationship with singer Jess Origliasso of The Veronicas from October 2016 to April 2018, having previously dated in 2008.
Rose is a vegan; she suggested that people who want to help address climate change should consider what they are eating.
In 2019, Rose underwent emergency back surgery for a spine issue that led to two herniated discs caused by her work on a film set doing physical stunts. She said the surgery placed her at risk of being paralyzed.
