Anya Taylor-Joy
Anya Taylor-Joy is the wide-eyed, genre-defying actress who went from indie horror darling to global superstar in about five years flat.
Anya Taylor-Joy: The Face You Can’t Look Away From
Born April 16, 1996, Anya Taylor-Joy is an American-British-Argentine actress whose breakout role as Thomasin in Robert Eggers’ 2015 folk horror The Witch announced her as one of the most arresting screen presences of her generation. She followed that with M. Night Shyamalan’s Split (2016), Thoroughbreds (2017), and Emma (2020), building a reputation as an actress who thrives in psychological intensity and period drama alike.
The role that made her a household name globally was Queen’s Gambit chess prodigy Beth Harmon in the 2020 Netflix miniseries The Queen’s Gambit, which broke Netflix viewing records and earned her a Golden Globe. From there, the trajectory only accelerated: Last Night in Soho (2021), The Northman (2022), Amsterdam (2022), and her voice role as Princess Peach in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023).
Taylor-Joy cemented blockbuster status with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024), playing the young Imperator Furiosa, a role that required her to carry an entire prequel origin story and deliver on the promise of Charlize Theron’s iconic performance in Fury Road. She succeeded by most accounts, and the conversation around her has never been louder.
People search for her constantly because her look, those famously large, wide-set eyes and aristocratic bone structure, is as talked-about as her talent. She also represents a genuinely unusual background: born in Miami, raised partly in Buenos Aires, schooled in London, fluent in multiple cultures. She is, by almost any measure, one of the most distinctive stars working today.