Julie Fernandez
Julie Fernandez (born April 20, 1974) is a British actress, best known as Brenda, her award-winning role on the BBC comedy The Office.
Julie was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bone disease) and requires the use of a wheelchair. Her acting career began in 1992 when she starred as Vanessa Lockhead in the short-lived BBC soap opera Eldorado. She went on to play Sean Maguire's girlfriend in BBC1 drama Dangerfield before landing the role of Brenda in The Office.
Fernandez is a prominent disability rights campaigner in the United Kingdom and has supported campaigns for the Disability Rights Commission which she has described as the highlight of her career. She set up The Disability Foundation, a British pan-disability charity boasting one of the largest disability information databases in the UK. In January 2003, she co-hosted the opening ceremony for the European Year of People with Disabilities in Athens.
In 2004, Fernandez formed a television production company called The Wheelie Good Company and spent the time since working on exciting new programme ideas.
Quotes
On how she won her role as Brenda in The Office, "Very simple, actually. My agent saw a casting of it and sent my details in. I went up against other disabled people too; it was just the normal way of doing it. Like all castings, you walk into a room and there's two, three or four people in there with a camera. You get a script, you say your lines and you walk out again."
On the humour of The Office, "There's a guy called Howard in it, who's black. So I think between me as a wheelchair user and Howard as a black fella we get a lot thrown at us, so it's very funny. It's not always very politically correct, but then David Brent isn't"
On working on The Office, "There wasn't really an intimidating feel on set, and because it's a comedy we spent some time laughing"
On whether she had seen or heard of The Office before she won her role, "I had never seen or heard of it before! I'm a Sex and the City kinda girl!"