Born in
Miami and raised in
Buenos Aires and London, Taylor-Joy left school at the age of 16 to pursue an acting career. After portraying small television roles, she found success through the lead role in the acclaimed horror film The Witch (2015). Taylor-Joy starred in the horror film Split (2016), its sequel
Glass (2019), and the black comedy Thoroughbreds (2017), and won the
Trophée Chopard at the
2017 Cannes Film Festival.
Taylor-Joy appeared in the fifth and sixth seasons of the television crime drama Peaky Blinders (2019–2022), and played
Emma Woodhouse in the period drama Emma (2020), which gained her a Golden Globe nomination. In 2020, she received acclaim and international recognition for her performance as chess prodigy
Beth Harmon in the
Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit, winning a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as receiving a nomination for a Primetime Emmy. Taylor-Joy has since starred in the films Last Night in Soho (2021), The Northman (2022), The Menu (2022), and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023).
Early life
Taylor-Joy was born on 16 April 1996 in Miami, Florida, to Dennis Alan Taylor,[4] a former banker, and Jennifer Marina Joy, a psychologist. Her father is an Argentine of English and Scottish descent, the son of a British father and an
Anglo-Argentine mother.[5][6][7] Her mother was born in
Zambia to an English diplomat father, David Joy, and a Spanish mother from
Barcelona.[8] She has stated that her birth in Miami was a "fluke", since her parents had been vacationing in the city at the time; because of her birthplace, she holds American citizenship due to the country's jus solinationality law.[9] She is the youngest of six siblings, four of whom are from her father's previous marriage.[10]
Taylor-Joy lived with her family in
Buenos Aires and attended
Northlands School until the age of six, when the family relocated to the
Victoria area of London.[7][11] She is fluent in both Spanish and English.[7][10][12] Taylor-Joy experienced the move as "traumatic" and initially refused to learn English in hopes of moving back to Argentina.[13] She attended
Hill House International Junior School[14] and
Queen's Gate School, acting in school productions. She struggled socially at school, recalling:
I didn't really feel like I fit in anywhere. I was too English to be Argentine, too Argentine to be English, too American to be anything ... The kids just didn't understand me in any shape or form ... I used to get locked in lockers.[7]
Taylor-Joy initially trained in dance, studying ballet until the age of 15.[15] At age 17, she was scouted as a model by
Storm Management founder Sarah Doukas, while walking her dog outside
Harrods department store in
Knightsbridge, London.[7][16] She signed with the agency on the condition that acting remain her first passion and pursuit. During a modelling shoot promoting the television series Downton Abbey, which she had almost rejected because she was studying for her
GCSE examinations, Taylor-Joy was noticed by the Downton Abbey actor
Allen Leech while running errands for the crew and while reciting the
Séamus Heaney poem "Digging" for a forthcoming screentest. He later introduced her to his agent, with whom she signed as an actress.[17]
Career
2013–2019: Early work and breakthrough
Taylor-Joy was removed from the final cut of her first acting role as a background 'Feeder Girl' in the 2014 fantasy comedy-horror Vampire Academy, with her role left uncredited.[18][19] She made her television debut as Philippa Collins-Davidson in an episode of the detective drama series Endeavour, followed by a multi-episode arc in the 2015 fantasy-adventure drama series Atlantis.[20] That same year, she starred in The Witch, a period horror film directed by
Robert Eggers, which tells the story of a
Puritan family that encounters forces of evil in the woods beyond their
New England farm. It premiered at the
2015 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim.[21][22] The role was her breakthrough.[23][24]Anthony Lane of The New Yorker called Taylor-Joy "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."[25] She won the
Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Actor and the
Empire Award for Best Female Newcomer.[26][27]
Taylor-Joy reprised her role as Casey Cooke in the 2019 psychological superhero film Glass, the final film in the
Unbreakable film trilogy, appearing with McAvoy,
Samuel L. Jackson and
Sarah Paulson.[38] It was a commercial success, grossing $247 million worldwide,[39] Later that year, she appeared in the documentary film Love, Antosha, on the life and career of her late co-star Anton Yelchin; and in
Hozier's music video for his song "Dinner & Diatribes".[40][41] Her next two 2019 films, the animated musical adventure film Playmobil: The Movie and biographical drama film Radioactive, were commercial failures.[42] She also voiced the character of Brea in the fantasy series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.[43] In her final role of 2019, she played the starring role of Gina Gray in the BBC One period crime drama series Peaky Blinders.[44]
2020–present: Mainstream success
In 2020, Taylor-Joy starred as
Emma Woodhouse in
Autumn de Wilde's directorial debut Emma, an adaptation of
Jane Austen's
1815 novel of the same name. Reviewing the film,
Peter Travers of Rolling Stone deemed Taylor-Joy "incandescent".[45]The Guardian critic
Mark Kermode described Taylor-Joy as having created an "admirably spiky character who is less likable than some of her screen predecessors, and all the better for it".[46] She received a Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance.[47] Taylor-Joy also portrayed
Illyana Rasputin/Magik, a Russian mutant and sorceress, in the superhero horror film The New Mutants. It was originally intended for release in April 2018 but experienced several delays; it was released in 2020.[48]
In 2022, Taylor-Joy reunited with The Witch director Robert Eggers for a starring role opposite
Alexander Skarsgård in the historical epic The Northman. Based on the old Scandinavian legend of
Amleth, the film was described as "a
Viking revenge saga set in Iceland at the turn of century".[63] It received a positive critical reception.[64][65] Taylor-Joy then appeared in
David O. Russell's period comedy
Amsterdam, which received mixed reviews and failed commercially.[66][67] Released the following month was
Mark Mylod's black comedy thriller
The Menu, in which Taylor-Joy starred opposite
Nicholas Hoult and
Ralph Fiennes.[68] The film garnered largely positive reviews,[69][70] and her performance gained her a Golden Globe Award nomination.[71] The following year, Taylor-Joy had a voice role as
Princess Peach in the animated film The Super Mario Bros. Movie.[72]
Taylor-Joy began a relationship with American musician
Malcolm McRae, frontman of the rock band More, in 2021. They married on 1 April 2022 in
New Orleans.[75] They held a second wedding during the last weekend of September 2023 at the
Palazzo Pisani Moretta in
Venice, Italy.[76][77]
Public image
The Hollywood Reporter named Taylor-Joy on their list of 2016 Hollywood's Rising Stars 35 and Under, and she was included in a similar list compiled by
W magazine in 2017.[78][79] In 2019, she appeared on the annual
Forbes 30 Under 30 list, a compilation of "the brightest young entrepreneurs, innovators and game changers in the world".[80] In 2020, she was named "Breakthrough Entertainer" of the Year by the
Associated Press and "Breakout Star of 2020" by the New York Post.[81] In 2021, Time magazine included Taylor-Joy on its 100 Next list of "emerging leaders who are shaping the future", with a tribute written by former
World Chess ChampionGarry Kasparov.[82]
^
abTaylor-Joy is a dual national of the United Kingdom and United States, born in Miami to an Argentine-British father and British-Spanish mother, and raised in Argentina and the United Kingdom. Sources conflict on her citizenship status in Argentina, regarding whether she is an Argentine national or merely a legal permanent resident of Argentina without citizenship.[2][3]
^Craik, Laura (27 March 2016). "Anya Taylor-Joy casts her spell". The Sunday Times.
Archived from the original on 31 May 2022. Retrieved 1 February 2023. At its Sundance premiere in January last year, critics hailed it as a "horror masterpiece", but it's much more than a horror film.
^Spangler, Todd (23 November 2020).
"'The Queen's Gambit' Scores as Netflix Most-Watched Scripted Limited Series to Date". Variety.
Archived from the original on 24 November 2020. Retrieved 25 November 2020. The way Netflix reports viewing is based on the number of viewers who have watched at least two minutes of a piece of content, which is very different from how the TV industry measures audience