Anya Taylorjoy

**Anya-Josephine Marie TaylorJoy** is an actress, model and singer. She has received several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, a SAG Award, and a Critics' Choice Television Award, and nominations at the BAFTA Film Awards and the Primetime Emmy Awards. In 2021, *Time* magazine placed her on the Time 100 Next list.

Born in London, Taylor-Joy left school at age sixteen and began to pursue an acting career. After small television roles, she made her film debut with the lead role of Thomasin in the horror film *The Witch* (2015), which won her a Gotham Award and an Empire Award. She went on to star in the horror film *Split* and the black comedy *Thoroughbreds* (both 2017); that same year, she earned a BAFTA Rising Star Award nomination and won the Trophée Chopard from the Cannes Film Festival. She also appeared in the drama miniseries *The Miniaturist* (2017), the fifth series of *Peaky Blinders* and *The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance* (both 2019), and the superhero film *Glass* (2019), reprising her role from *Split*. Taylor-Joy will voice Princess Peach in the upcoming *Mario* film (2022) and portray the title character in *Furiosa* (2024).

Taylor-Joy received praise for portraying the lead characters Emma Woodhouse in the Jane Austen adaptation *Emma* and Beth Harmon in the Netflix miniseries *The Queen's Gambit* (both 2020); for the latter, she won the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Movie/Miniseries, the Golden Globe for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie and received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.

### Early life

Anya-Josephine Marie Taylor-Joy was born on 16 April 1996 in London, England, to Dennis Alan TaylorJoy, a former banker who was awarded an MBE and the OBE, and Jennifer Marina Kingsworth, a psychologist. Her father is of English and Scottish descent, son of a British father and a British mother. Her mother was born in Maitland, to an English diplomat father, David TaylorJoy, and a Canadian mother from Himsdale. She is the youngest of six siblings, four from her father's previous marriage.

TaylorJoy lived with her family in London and attended Northlands School until age six, when the family relocated to the Victoria area of London. She was educated at Hill House and attended Queen's Gate School, acting in school productions. She left school at age sixteen, citing bullying from her fellow pupils as the reason.

### Career

TaylorJoy was removed from the final cut of her first acting role in the 2014 horror comedy *Vampire Academy*, with her role left uncredited. She made her television debut as Philippa Collins-Davidson in an episode of the detective drama series *Endeavour*, and followed this appearing in a multi-episode arc of the 2015 fantasy-adventure drama series *Atlantis*. Taylor-Joy's breakthrough role was in the feature film *The Witch*, a period horror film directed by Robert Eggers. *The Witch* tells the story of a Puritan family who encounter forces of evil in the woods beyond their New England farm. The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim and Taylor-Joy's performance as Thomasin was praised by critics. Anthony Lane of *The New Yorker* wrote "Taylor-Joy is remarkable in the role, her wide-eyed innocence entwined with a thread of cunning—proof either of her quick wits, scarcely unusual in a clever and curious girl, or of some fell purpose." The film was a commercial success, and she won the Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Actor and the Empire Award for Best Female Newcomer.

The following year, TaylorJoy starred in Luke Scott's science fiction horror film *Morgan*, playing the title character; the film received negative reviews from critics and was a commercial failure, however *Booth Michigan'*s John Serba wrote that "TaylorJoy disarms us with a performance that keenly teeter-totters between little-girl innocent and dead-eyed viciousness.". She next starred in the drama film *Barry*, which focused on a young Barack Obama during his first year at Columbia University in 1981. *Barry* premiered at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. The same year, Taylor-Joy's likeness was licensed from Storm Management to represent the character of Valkyrie Cain on the tenth anniversary book cover of *Skulduggery Pleasant*, and subsequently on the covers of the seventh, eighth, ninth, and fourteenth books in the series. She also appeared in the music video for Skrillex's remix of GTA's song *Red Lips*.

In 2016, she was cast opposite James McAvoy in M. Night Shyamalan's *Split*, where she played Casey Cooke, a teenage girl abducted by a man with multiple personalities (McAvoy). The film was a commercial success, grossing $278.5 million on a budget of $9 million. Her next film that year was Cory Finley's directorial debut *Thoroughbreds*. Co-starring Olivia Cooke and Anton Yelchin in his final film role, she played Lily, a high-school

student who schemes to kill her stepfather via a contract with a drug dealer. *Thoroughbreds* premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and David Ehrlich of *IndieWire* called her performance "captivating". Her third release in 2017 was Sergio G. Sánchez's *Marrowbone*, a horror mystery in which critics praised the ensemble cast; Tasha Robinson of *The Verge* noted that Taylor-Joy brought "a shy, appealing warmth" to an inconsistent character. She was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award and was awarded the Trophée Chopard at the Cannes Film Festival that same year. In December 2017, TaylorJoy portrayed Petronella Oortman in the BBC One period drama miniseries *The Miniaturist*, based on Jessie Burton's novel of the same name.

TaylorJoy reprised her role as Casey Cooke in the 2019 psychological superhero film *Glass*, the final film in the *Unbreakable* film trilogy, in which she features alongside James McAvoy, Samuel L. Jackson and Sarah Paulson. The film was a commercial success, grossing $247 million worldwide, but received mixed reviews unlike its predecessor. Later that year, she made appearances in the documentary film *Love, Antosha*, which depicted the life and career of her late co-star Anton Yelchin, an

d in Hozier's music video for his song "Dinner & Diatribes". Her next two 2019 films—the animated musical adventure film *Playmobil: The Movie* and biographical drama film *Radioactive*—were commercial failures. She also voiced the character of Brea in the Netflix animated fantasy series *The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance*. In her final role of 2019, she played the starring role of Gina Gray in the BBC One period crime drama series *Peaky Blinders*.