Rachel Shelley was born in Swindon, England on 25th August (the year remains a closely guarded secret, but Rachel is in her 30's). She has lived in various places in England and abroad. She went to university in Sheffield and graduated with a BA (hons) in English and Drama.

Rachel was a well established actress in the United Kingdom with successful movies under her belt, such as "Photographing Fairies" (1997) with Ben Kingsley, "Everybody Loves Sunshine" (1999) with David Bowie, and "Lagaan" (2001) which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film. In 2004 she auditioned for, and got, the part of Helena Peabody in the hugely successful lesbian drama series "The L Word". She joined a well established cast for the second series to play the daughter of a multi-millionaire art collector, who comes between the shows most popular couple, Bette Porter and Tina Kennard. Helena was the quintessential English bitch. Even though she had the role of the baddie in the second series, Rachel was enormously popular and she is just about to start filming the sixth season.

Rachel has also been doing other projects while working on The L Word including 2 episodes of "Ghost Whisperer", the film "Gray Matters" with Heather Graham and she has just finished filming a British Horror film called "The Day"

This web site is dedicated to Rachel's career in film and television.
Rachel produced a series of 3 articles for The Guardian Newspaper in Britain. The first written in 2001 highlights her experiences in India during the making of the film "Lagaan" the second in 2002 when she was in Hollywood for the Oscars and the final one in 2005 about her experiences on The L Word. Click on the links below to read the full articles.