Netflix users have been counting down the days to the release of Missing You, the 10th TV adaptation of Harlan Coben’s popular mystery novels.
The latest series – released on New Year’s Day – stars Slow Horses actress Rosalind Eleazar, who plays Missing Persons detective Kat Donovan.
The five-part show follows Rosalind who is shocked to see her ex fiancé Josh (Ashley Walters) on a dating app 11 years after he disappeared from her life without a trace.
Josh’s reappearance forces her to dive back into the mystery surrounding her father’s (Lenny Henry)murder and leads her to uncover long-buried secrets from her past.
With the last Harlan adaptation, Fool Me Once, becoming one of Netflix’s biggest hits, it’s expected that Missing You will also break records and help the cast achieve worldwide fame.
So who is Rosalind Eleazar?
Who is Rosalind Eleazar? Everything you need to know about the Missing You star who is the daughter of a prominent politician and has links to King Charles (pictured in the show)
Missing You – released on New Year’s Day – stars Slow Horses actress Rosalind (pictured at the Emmys in September) who plays Missing Persons detective Kat Donovan
Rosalind was born in London in 1998, the daughter of a white British mother and a Ghanaian father.
Her mother Deborah was working for a Greek shipping company when she met Major Courage Quashigah, a senior politician in the Ghanaian government, at a New Year’s Eve party, and they went on to welcome Rosalind.
Yet the couple split shortly after Rosalind was born and she revealed in a chat with The Daily Mail’s You magazine in September that she only saw her father intermittently.
‘I grew up with my mum, I need to stress that because she sometimes says, “You always talk about your dad but never mention me in interviews,”‘ Rosalind explained.
While she enjoyed her early years in London when she was 13 she won a scholarship to the prestigious Scottish public school Gordonstoun – where King Charles was famously educated.
Although many would be proud to have such a prestigious institute on their CV, Rosalind confessed: ‘I get hounded about going to Gordonstoun, especially after the way it was depicted in The Crown.
‘For me it wasn’t a cruel, brutal place – my drama teacher Mr Williams is one of the reasons I’m here today.’
After Gordonstoun she read Mandarin and Spanish at Nottingham University and was also in more regular contact with her father.
The five-part show follows Rosalind who is shocked to see her ex fiancé Josh (Ashley Walters) on a dating app 11 years after he disappeared from her life without a trace
Rosalind was born in London to a British mother and a Ghanaian father but aged 13 she won a scholarship to the prestigious Scottish public school Gordonstoun – where King Charles was famously educated (Pictured with Prince Philip and Captain Tennant at Gordonstoun in 1962)
Rosalind’s father was Major Courage Quashigah, a senior politician in the Ghanaian government, and the pair did not have much contact in her early years
In 2007 she visited him in Ghana, where he was by then minister for health and the pair rebuilt their relationship.
Tragically, soon after the trip he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and died in 2010.
While their relationship was at times fractious, the similarities between Rosalind and the father she barely knew are striking.
He grew up in poverty and got a scholarship to the British Army’s officer training academy at Sandhurst, where he won the Best Overseas Cadet Award.
Before he became a government minister, he worked for the Ghanaian intelligence services, while Rosalind famously played the role of a dysfunctional MI5 agents in Apple TV series, Slow Horses.
‘I know I’m only a TV spy, but that’s weird, isn’t it?’ she remarked. ‘I doubt he would have been a slow horse, though.’
Yet it took a while for Rosalind to find her way into acting after the trip with her father.
Following his dad’s death, she went back to Ghana to meet his side of the family. She even landed a job in TV production, helping to launch a Ghanaian version of The X Factor.
Rosalind shone in her breakthrough film role as Agnes in Armando Iannucci’s 2019 breakout film The Personal History of David Copperfield (pictured with Dev Patel and Hugh Laurie)
Rosalind famously played the role of a dysfunctional MI5 agents in Apple TV series, Slow Horses (pictured with co-star Jack Lowden)
It was then she rediscovered her love of performing.
‘Whenever I was auditioning people, I had this intense feeling: “that’s what I want to do.”‘, Rosalind explained.
‘I’d acted through school and university, but then stopped. It took an old friend from uni back in the UK to ask me, “Why have you given up on what you love?” to change things.’
In 2012, aged 24, Rosalind returned to the UK, applied to Lamda (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) hours before the deadline and won a place.
It’s now nine years since she graduated, and she has been acclaimed for work on both stage and screen.
She won an award for her performance in Uncle Vanya at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre directed by Ian Rickson in 2020 (‘In Eleazar, Rickson’s found gold’ noted The Mail on Sunday).
Rosalind went on to shine in her breakthrough film role as Agnes in Armando Iannucci’s 2019 breakout film The Personal History of David Copperfield.
‘That was my first big film role, and I was among acting royalty,’ she recalled. ‘When Tilda Swinton calmed my nerves just by touching my hand, that was a genuine ‘Is this real?’ moment.’
She looks set to become a household name with her latest role in Missing You but is worried about what the overnight exposure could bring – the most recent Harlan adaptation Fool Me Once has more than 98 million viewers and gave lead Michelle Keegan international fame.
She looks set to become a household name with her latest role in Missing You but is worried about what the overnight exposure could bring (pictured with on-screen dad Lenny Henry)
Rosalind pictured with Missing You co-stars Jessica Plummer and Mary Malone at the series photocall in November. Missing You is out now on Netflix
‘From the outside, certain levels of fame can look daunting,’ Rosalind confessed. ‘But I know how lucky I am to have the chance to fulfil certain dreams.’
Rosalind who is married to film producer Gabriele Lo Giudice admitted to Fabric that timing helped play a part in her accepting the role.
She admitted: ‘Luckily for me, I got the job before it came out, or I might have been like, “Oh my God, this is too frightening!”
‘I’m glad I didn’t know; it was really nice to try something different – this is the most commercial project I’ve done. It was great.’
Rosalind will next be seen on season four of Slow Horses.
Missing You is out on New Year’s Day on Netflix.
