diff --git a/CHANGELOG.txt b/CHANGELOG.txt
index eaafe2943..ef66f1608 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.txt
+++ b/CHANGELOG.txt
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@ Changelog
  * Fix: Searching a specific page model while filtering it by either ID or tree position no longer raises an error (Ashia Zawaduk)
  * Fix: Scrolling an over-long explorer menu no longer causes white background to show through (Alex Gleason)
  * Fix: Removed jitter when hovering over StreamField blocks (Alex Gleason)
+ * Fix: Non-ASCII email addresses no longer throw errors when generating Gravatar URLs (Denis Voskvitsov, Kyle Stratis)
 
 1.1 (15.09.2015)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS.rst b/CONTRIBUTORS.rst
index 07e2e0fbc..30dce507d 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS.rst
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS.rst
@@ -75,6 +75,8 @@ Contributors
 * Josh Barr
 * Sævar Öfjörð Magnússon
 * Ashia Zawaduk
+* Denis Voskvitsov
+* Kyle Stratis
 
 
 Translators
diff --git a/docs/releases/1.2.rst b/docs/releases/1.2.rst
index 63a8b0b95..6ac263447 100644
--- a/docs/releases/1.2.rst
+++ b/docs/releases/1.2.rst
@@ -93,6 +93,7 @@ Bug fixes
  * Searching a specific page model while filtering it by either ID or tree position no longer raises an error (Ashia Zawaduk)
  * Scrolling an over-long explorer menu no longer causes white background to show through (Alex Gleason)
  * Removed jitter when hovering over StreamField blocks (Alex Gleason)
+ * Non-ASCII email addresses no longer throw errors when generating Gravatar URLs (Denis Voskvitsov, Kyle Stratis)
 
 Upgrade considerations
 ======================
diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailadmin/templatetags/gravatar.py b/wagtail/wagtailadmin/templatetags/gravatar.py
index 204aa59df..6507da9df 100644
--- a/wagtail/wagtailadmin/templatetags/gravatar.py
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailadmin/templatetags/gravatar.py
@@ -10,7 +10,6 @@
 import hashlib
 
 from django import template
-from django.utils.six import b
 from django.utils.six.moves.urllib.parse import urlencode
 
 register = template.Library()
@@ -28,13 +27,16 @@ class GravatarUrlNode(template.Node):
             return ''
 
         default = "blank"
-        size = int(self.size) * 2 # requested at retina size by default and scaled down at point of use with css
+        size = int(self.size) * 2  # requested at retina size by default and scaled down at point of use with css
 
-        gravatar_url = "//www.gravatar.com/avatar/" + hashlib.md5(b(email.lower())).hexdigest() + "?"
-        gravatar_url += urlencode({'s': str(size), 'd': default})
+        gravatar_url = "//www.gravatar.com/avatar/{hash}?{params}".format(
+            hash=hashlib.md5(email.lower().encode('utf-8')).hexdigest(),
+            params=urlencode({'s': size, 'd': default})
+        )
 
         return gravatar_url
 
+
 @register.tag
 def gravatar_url(parser, token):
     bits = token.split_contents()
diff --git a/wagtail/wagtailadmin/tests/tests.py b/wagtail/wagtailadmin/tests/tests.py
index e7cf405c1..e73e930be 100644
--- a/wagtail/wagtailadmin/tests/tests.py
+++ b/wagtail/wagtailadmin/tests/tests.py
@@ -1,8 +1,13 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
+from __future__ import unicode_literals
+
 import json
 
 from django.test import TestCase, override_settings
 from django.core.urlresolvers import reverse
 from django.core import mail
+from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
 
 from taggit.models import Tag
 
@@ -41,6 +46,15 @@ class TestHome(TestCase, WagtailTestUtils):
         self.assertIn('no-store', response['Cache-Control'])
         self.assertIn('max-age=0', response['Cache-Control'])
 
+    def test_nonascii_email(self):
+        # Test that non-ASCII email addresses don't break the admin; previously these would
+        # cause a failure when generating Gravatar URLs
+        get_user_model().objects.create_superuser(username='snowman', email='☃@thenorthpole.com', password='password')
+        # Login
+        self.client.login(username='snowman', password='password')
+        response = self.client.get(reverse('wagtailadmin_home'))
+        self.assertEqual(response.status_code, 200)
+
 
 class TestEditorHooks(TestCase, WagtailTestUtils):
     def setUp(self):