birth_place nationality ethnicity parents birth_date article_title name
nigeria , africa british white british shirley -lrb- née rolles -rrb- and david firth 1962 kate firth
 kate firth
kate firth

kate firth -lrb- born 1962 -rrb- is a professional voice coach and stage actress , and sister to actors colin and jonathan firth .
she has a therapeutic counsellor background in the field of human communication , and extensive experience in theatre , psychology and applied linguistics .
she was born in nigeria in 1962 .
her parents , shirley jean -lrb- née rolles -rrb- and david norman lewis firth were both children of methodist missionaries in nigeria , and after their marriage worked as teachers there .
the family moved many times , from essex to billericay and brentwood , and then to st. louis , missouri -lrb- usa -rrb- for a year when kate was ten years old and her brother colin was twelve .
upon returning to england the family settled in winchester , where her father became a history lecturer at king alfred 's college and her mother was a comparative religion lecturer at king alfred 's college winchester -lrb- now the university of winchester -rrb- .
she attended queen mary college -lrb- 1982-85 -rrb- , san diego state university -lrb- 1990 -- 92 -rrb- , and middlesex university -lrb- 2011 -rrb- .
she initially pursued a career in acting , studying drama at university .
after an acting stint with the royal national theatre , she received a postgraduate diploma in voice studies from the central school of speech and drama and a postgraduate certificate in psychosynthesis therapeutic counselling .
she married after university and moved to california .
upon returning to england in 1992 , kate joined the bridge theatre company in sherringham .
she lives and works in london .
for `` the king 's speech '' -lrb- 2010 -rrb- , she coached her older brother colin to prepare for his role as king george vi in the award winning film and to master stammering .
