(she/her)
For The Diversity Trust, Samantha is the Disability Lead and a Consultant in Disability Awareness
Samantha Renke is an actress, presenter, speaker, writer and disability rights campaigner who was named as number 3 in The Shaw Trust Power 100 List of 2020 – a list of the UK’s most influential disabled people. She was nominated as Campaigner of the Year in the 2019 European Diversity Awards and Celebrity of the Year in the 2020 National Diversity Awards.
She is a columnist for the Metro and has written a multitude of articles on what it is like to be disabled in a disabling world, as well as several sociocultural criticisms on patronising attitudes, body image, bullying, LGBTQ+ issues, ableism and the financial and social costs of being disabled.
Additionally, Samantha has written for Huffington Post and PosAbility magazine. She also featured in the highly successful series of adverts for Maltesers based on real-life experiences of disabled people. An experienced speaker, she has spoken at events for companies and organisations across the board, such as the National Education Union, Houses of Parliament, British Red Cross, Santander and Reed Smith. Amongst her many media appearance, she was featured on The Disability Paradox (BBC Four).
Samantha is an ambassador for Scope, a patron of Head2Head Theatre and the disability lead for Paramount (formerly Viacom). Samantha won The Susan Mullen Award for Best Actress at the Los Angeles Diversity Film Festival in 2014.
Samantha’s debut book, You Are The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread, was published in 2022 by Penguin Books under its Happy Place Books imprint which is curated by Fearne Cotton. Samantha’s advice is: “Be free and unapologetically you”.
In addition to working for the Diversity Trust as a consultant, Samantha also has her own company titled, ‘Samantha Renke’.