page_title: Daisy Ridley
section_title: 2013–2015: Early roles and Star Wars breakthrough
hierarchical_section_title: Daisy Ridley / Career / 2013–2015: Early roles and Star Wars breakthrough
caption_attribution_description: English: Rey's costume from Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens on display at the Star Wars and the Power of Costume traveling exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, Michigan (United States).
context_page_description: Daisy Jazz Isobel Ridley is an English actress who rose to international prominence through playing the lead role of Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy: The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker.
  She has also featured as the title character of the romantic drama Ophelia, appeared in the mystery film Murder on the Orient Express, and lent her voice to the animated Peter Rabbit.
context_section_description: Ridley began her career with minor roles in the television programmes Youngers, Toast of London, Silent Witness, Mr Selfridge, and Casualty. She appeared in the short film Blue Season, which was entered into the Sci-Fi-London 48-Hour Film Challenge. Ridley played the lead in film three of Lifesaver, an interactive film which was nominated for a BAFTA Award. She also appeared in the music video for Wiley's song "Lights On", playing the character of Kim. Ridley made her film debut in the 2015 British independent horror film Scrawl, after her scenes from the British comedy film The Inbetweeners 2 were removed in the final cut.
  In April 2014, Ridley's casting as Rey, one of the lead characters in The Force Awakens, was announced. She was chosen for the film in February 2014. At the time of her casting she was, according to Rolling Stone, a "total unknown." Her choice by director J. J. Abrams was seen as a repeat of George Lucas's move of casting relatively unknown actors for the lead roles in the first Star Wars film in 1977.
  Ridley began filming her scenes in May 2014 at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, and prior to the film's release in December 2015, she appeared at the launch of a set of Star Wars postage stamps issued by the UK postal service Royal Mail, with her character Rey featuring on a stamp along with the droid BB-8. With international revenues of over $2 billion, The Force Awakens was a major box-office hit and the highest-grossing film of 2015. After an early screening of the film, Brian Viner of the Daily Mail called Ridley the "real star of the show", adding that her performance as Rey should "send her career into orbit." Her performance received critical acclaim, with Richard Roeper describing her portrayal as "a breakout performance" and adding "Ford has a terrific father figure chemistry [shared] with Ridley and [John] Boyega".
caption: Ridley’s costume from Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015) on display at the Detroit Institute of Arts
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