Gerda Stevenson (born April 10, 1956) is a Scottish actress, director and writer.
Known for her wide-ranging works in media, her notable stage roles include the title character in Edwin Morgan's English translation of Racine's Phèdre, and Lady Macbeth. In film, she starred alongside Celia Imrie in Margaret Tait's Blue Black Permanent (1992) and played the mother of Murron MacClannough in Braveheart (1995), winning the BAFTA Scotland Award for Best Actress for the former. Stevenson was described by The Scotsman in 1999 as "Scotland's finest actress".
In addition to her screen and stage work, Stevenson is also a playwright, poet, and frequently appears on radio; as a reader of short stories and as an actress in adaptations.
Stevenson was born on April 10, 1956, in the small village of West Linton in Peeblesshire, Scotland, where she was raised. Her father was Scottish musician and composer Ronald Stevenson.
Stevenson's play Federer vs. Murray has toured New York City and her poetry collection If This Were Real was published by Smokestack Books in 2013. In 2019, her poems illustrated the paintings of her one-time neighbour, Scottish painter Christian Small, in the book Inside & Out - The Art of Christian Small, published by Scotland Street Press. She was a contributing writer to the 2024 book Feminist Theatre Then & Now: Celebrating 50 years.
Her radio work consists of several performances of poems and songs by Robert Burns for the BBC, as well as numerous radio dramas: Self-Control by Mary Brunton as Laura Montreville; For the Love of Willie by Agnes Owens as Liza; The Heart of Midlothian by Sir Walter Scott for BBC Radio 4, nominated for a Sony Award in 2008, as Jeanie Deans; and Sunset Song by Lewis Grassic Gibbon. She has also written radio dramas including: Island Blue, Secrets: The Punter's Tale, Secrets: The Escort's Tale and The Apple Tree. She directed the Afternoon Play The Price of a Fish Supper.
In 2002, she played Helen Gilmore in the soap opera River City.
Stevenson won a BAFTA Best Film Actress Award for her role in Margaret Tait's feature film Blue Black Permanent, and has been twice nominated for the CATS awards.
Stevenson directed the film The Storm Watchers, the script for which was written by George Mackay Brown, for the St. Magnus International Festival. She wrote and directed the film Paper Portraits (2025), about workers in the Midlothian paper-making industry, for Penicuik Community Arts Association.
Stevenson was married to Scottish Gaelic poet Aonghas MacNeacail from 1980 until his death in 2022. They have two children.
Her sister, Savourna Stevenson, has recorded works on the Scottish harp, the clÃÂ rsach.
She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.