SAMANTHA RENKE | AREA STUDIES (GERMAN), 2008, BOWLAND


Tall Dreams for a Little Person


Samantha Renke is an award-winning actress, writer, presenter, disability activist, inclusion and equality consultant and keynote speaker. Born with the condition osteogenesis imperfecta, more commonly known as brittle bone condition, Samantha has both embraced and celebrated this aspect of her life, while not shying away from its implications or the obstacles a disabling world throws at her.


Samantha’s acting career has been diverse and successful. In 2014, she won the Susan Mullen Award for Best Actress at the Los Angeles Diversity Film Festival, and she has also starred in a series of successful adverts for Maltesers, which focus on the real-life experiences of disabled people. She is also a go-to celebrity guest for a wide range of popular TV and radio shows, including Celebrity Antiques Road Trip, Loose Women, Rip Off Britain, Sunday Morning Live, Front Row and Word of Mouth.


Photo credit Nicky Johnston


After graduating from Lancaster, Samantha initially went into teaching. It didn’t take long for her to realise, though, that she had a talent for advocacy and acting and the ability to offer a strong voice in support of under- represented groups.


As a passionate activist and ambassador, she has represented, among other causes, Scope, Enhance the UK and Ferne Animal Sanctuary, and she has been a guest speaker for a wide variety of organisations, including the National Education Union, Viacom, British Red Cross, Santander, and UNICEF. She writes regularly on the experience of being disabled and the impact of ableism, bullying and patronising attitudes, often through her columns in Metro and Enable Magazine.


4 | STEPS 2024


In July 2023 she came back to the University to receive her Outstanding Alumni Award and we took the opportunity ask a few questions about life after Lancaster University:


What made you choose Lancaster for your degree?


I was looking at UCLAN, Liverpool and Lancaster originally. At the time I had a co-dependent relationship with my Mum, and although I was a bright young person, I was lacking in independence. We tend to infantalise disabled people and don’t often give them the tools they need to transition from child to adult. We tend to use education and academia as a way to make them avoid growing up and living independently. I was not independent and very much reliant on my Mum, which can be common for many deaf, disabled or neurodivergent people.


I loved my college life and really wanted to continue into Higher Education, so I was keen to find a university course. I knew I wanted to study languages as I am a people person, and I had grown up with different cultures at home. My mum is German and my stepdad is Algerian, so I knew languages would lead me to meet more people.


However, I knew I couldn’t do the year abroad as part of a language degree course as I was due to have spinal fusion surgery during that study year and, whilst other universities weren’t so flexible, Lancaster was happy to make it work.


I felt that Lancaster, being a campus, was a nurturing environment and a great next step. Being thrown into the big, bad world isn’t for everyone and I have a unique situation and we all have differing needs. Lancaster felt ‘fancy’ with its Wednesday afternoon sports activities and college system. There was a grandiose feel about it, and it gave me that sense of ‘you deserve this’.


What is your fondest memory of your time at Lancaster?


Probably the summer school for European studies where we visited Munich for a week. It was like a small UN exercise where we had to come up with a manifesto. We were working as a team and representing the University and when I was on a plane with a group from my University, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride.


What was the most valuable part of your student experience?


At Lancaster I felt I was pushing the limitations of what I believed about myself. These were some of my hardest years and I often struggled with imposter syndrome. I never felt I had raw talent, so being a degree student was a real achievement for me. University acted as a father figure to force me to push myself.


How did your career progress?


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