Sydney Sweeney

Sydney Sweeney
Sydney Bernice Sweeney (born September 12, 1997) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles in the HBO drama series Euphoria (2019–present) and the first season of the anthology series The White Lotus (2021), which earned her nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards in 2022.
Sweeney first gained attention for appearing in the television series Everything Sucks! (2018), The Handmaid's Tale (2018), and the limited series Sharp Objects (2018). In 2019, she was featured in Quentin Tarantino's film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and in 2023, she gained praise for portraying Reality Winner in the film Reality.
Early life
Sydney Bernice Sweeney was born on September 12, 1997, in Spokane, Washington, to Lisa (Mudd) and Steven Sweeney. Her mother is a former criminal defense lawyer, and her father is a hospitality professional. She has one brother. Sweeney was raised in northwestern Idaho in the state's Panhandle region along the Washington border, at a rural lakeside home that her family has inhabited for five generations. Sweeney stated that she has a "religious family.”
Sweeney attended Saint George's School in Spokane. She was active in numerous athletics: "I was in every single sport possible", she said. "I was on the soccer team, the baseball team, the snow slalom ski team, I was wakeboarding." Sweeney also studied multiple languages and graduated with top grades. She became interested in acting after auditioning to be an extra in an independent film that was shooting in the Spokane area. To convince her parents to allow her to pursue acting, she presented them with a five-year business plan. Sweeney began to audition and book commercial acting jobs in Seattle and Portland, Oregon, where the family temporarily resided, until choosing to relocate to Los Angeles, California, when she was 14 years old.
Career
Sweeney began her career as guest star in TV shows such as 90210, Criminal Minds, Grey's Anatomy and Pretty Little Liars.
Sweeney starred as Emaline Addario on the Netflix series Everything Sucks!, which revolved around two groups of high school students in Oregon in 1996. She then appeared in the HBO miniseries Sharp Objects, recurring as Alice, a roommate whom Amy Adams's character meets at a psychiatric facility. Her character was originally supposed to have a smaller role, but the director kept bringing her in for more scenes. For the role, Sweeney studied stories of girls who suffered from mental illness and self-harming, and visited hospitals who had patients who self-harmed. She filmed Everything Sucks! and Sharp Objects concurrently, the former during the week and latter on weekends.
Sweeney had a role in the thriller film Under the Silver Lake in 2018. She had a recurring role during the second season of the dystopian drama series The Handmaid's Tale as Eden Spencer, a pious and obedient girl from the totalitarian and theocratic Republic of Gilead. She also starred as the heroine in the horror film Along Came the Devil. The next year, Sweeney appeared in the drama film Clementine, the coming-of-age film Big Time Adolescence, and Quentin Tarantino's dramedy Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
In June 2019, Sweeney began portraying Cassie Howard, a teenager with a promiscuous reputation, in the HBO drama series Euphoria. Of her performance, Variety wrote that "this role also proves that Sweeney’s one hell of a shapeshifter between her deft turns in this, The Handmaid’s Tale, Everything Sucks and Sharp Objects". She received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2022. Sweeney is the founder of production company Fifty-Fifty Films, launched in 2020. She starred in the TV film Nocturne in 2020. In 2021, Sweeney appeared in the first season of Mike White's anthology black comedy series The White Lotus, as a sardonic college sophomore, receiving critical acclaim for the role. For her portrayal of the character, she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie in 2022. Her accomplishments earned her a place on the Time 100 Next list for 2022.
In 2023, Sweeney starred as Reality Winner in Tina Satter's thriller drama Reality, which premiered at the 73rd Berlin Film Festival, where she received critical acclaim for her performance; Steph Green of IndieWire found the film "inventively mounted and extraordinarily tense" and labelled Sweeney as "the real deal". Jessica Kiang of Variety wrote that she played "Winner so convincingly that it’s hard to remember her as the sardonic, pampered teen in The White Lotus, or the nice-girl-turned-nasty in Euphoria". Sweeney next had a role in the crime thriller Americana, which premiered at the South by Southwest Festival in 2023.
Sweeney is set to star in the superhero film Madame Web, set in the Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) franchise. She will also star with Glen Powell in the romantic comedy Anyone But You, produce and star in the psychological horror film Immaculate and star alongside Julianne Moore in Echo Valley. In 2023, she was featured in the music video for the Rolling Stones' single "Angry", from their Hackney Diamonds (2023) album.
Personal life
Sweeney has been engaged to her longtime boyfriend, Chicago-based restaurateur Jonathan Davino, since February 2022.
Filmography
Film
Television
Podcasts
Web
Music video
Awards and nominations
References
External links
1997 births
Living people
Actresses from Idaho
Actresses from Spokane, Washington
Actresses from Washington (state)
American child actresses
American film actresses
American television actresses
American voice actresses
People from Spokane, Washington
21st-century American actresses
Brighton Hall School alumni