Anya Taylor-Joy

Anya Taylor-Joy Bio

Anya-Josephine Marie Taylor-Joy (born 16 April 1996) is an American actress known for her work in film and television. Born in Miami, Florida, and raised in Buenos Aires and London, she first drew critical attention for her role in the horror film The Witch (2015) and has since earned international recognition for her performances in Split, Emma, and the Netflix miniseries The Queen’s Gambit. Her career continues to expand with starring roles across major studio productions, genre films, and prestige television. She is widely regarded as one of the most distinctive screen actors of her generation.

Early Life and Background

Anya-Josephine Marie Taylor-Joy was born in Miami, Florida, to Dennis Alan Taylor, 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. Her mother was born in Zambia to an English diplomat father, David Joy, and a Spanish mother from Barcelona. Taylor-Joy is the youngest of six siblings, four of whom are from her father’s previous marriage. She has stated that her birth in Miami was unplanned, as her parents had been vacationing in the city, and she holds American citizenship through the country’s jus soli nationality law.

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. She attended Hill House International Junior School and Queen’s Gate School, where she took part in school productions. Taylor-Joy initially trained in dance, studying ballet until the age of fifteen. At sixteen, she left school, and shortly afterward she was scouted as a model by Storm Management founder Sarah Doukas while walking her dog near Harrods in Knightsbridge, London. She signed with the agency on the condition that acting remain her first pursuit.

Path to Acting

During a modeling shoot promoting the television series Downton Abbey, Taylor-Joy was noticed by the actor Allen Leech, who later introduced her to his agent. She signed with the agency as an actress, marking the formal beginning of her professional career. Taylor-Joy made her acting debut in the 2014 fantasy comedy-horror Vampire Academy, although her scenes as a background Feeder Girl were dropped from the final cut. 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.

That same year, Taylor-Joy landed her breakthrough role 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. The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim, and Anthony Lane of The New Yorker described Taylor-Joy as remarkable in the role. She won the Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Actor and the Empire Award for Best Female Newcomer for her performance, establishing her as a rising talent in independent cinema.

Anya Taylor-Joy Career

Early Career (2015–2017)

Following the success of The Witch, Taylor-Joy starred in Luke Scott’s science fiction horror film Morgan, playing the title character, and the drama film Barry, which focused on a young Barack Obama during his first year at Columbia University. 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. The film was a commercial success, grossing 278.5 million dollars on a budget of 9 million dollars. Her next releases included the black comedy Thoroughbreds, which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, and the horror mystery Marrowbone. In December 2017, she portrayed Petronella Oortman in the BBC One period drama miniseries The Miniaturist.

Taylor-Joy’s performances during this period earned her a nomination for the BAFTA Rising Star Award and the Trophée Chopard at the Cannes Film Festival in 2017. She also lent her likeness to represent the character Valkyrie Cain on book covers of the Skulduggery Pleasant series. These early roles demonstrated her range across horror, drama, science fiction, and period pieces, while building a reputation for compelling and unconventional character work.

Breakthrough (2019–2021)

Taylor-Joy reprised her role as Casey Cooke in the 2019 psychological superhero film Glass, the final film in the Unbreakable trilogy, appearing with James McAvoy, Samuel L. Jackson, and Sarah Paulson. The film was a commercial success, grossing 247 million dollars worldwide. Later that year, she voiced Brea in the fantasy series The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and played Gina Gray in the BBC One period crime drama series Peaky Blinders. Her 2019 work also included supporting roles in the documentary Love, Antosha, the animated musical Playmobil: The Movie, and the biographical drama Radioactive.

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, earning a Golden Globe Award nomination. She also portrayed Illyana Rasputin/Magik in the superhero horror film The New Mutants. That same year, she starred as Beth Harmon, an orphaned chess prodigy, in the Netflix miniseries The Queen’s Gambit. The series was seen by 62 million households in its first 28 days of release and became Netflix’s biggest scripted limited series to date. Her portrayal won her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie, along with a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. In 2021, she starred in Edgar Wright’s psychological horror film Last Night in Soho, performing the song Downtown by Petula Clark, and was included on Time magazine’s 100 Next list.

Notable Works and Milestones

Taylor-Joy’s signature works include The Witch, which launched her career; Split, her first major commercial hit; Emma, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination; and The Queen’s Gambit, which brought her international recognition and two major acting awards. Her Golden Globe and SAG Award wins in 2021 cemented her status as a leading actress in both prestige television and film.

Anya Taylor-Joy Award Nominations

Throughout her career, Anya-Josephine Marie Taylor-Joy has received several award nominations recognizing her performances across film and television. She was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor in 2016 for her role in The Witch. She was also nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2017. For her portrayal of Emma Woodhouse in Emma, she received a Golden Globe Award nomination. Her performance in The Queen’s Gambit earned her a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. More recently, her role in the black comedy thriller The Menu garnered her another Golden Globe Award nomination.

Anya Taylor-Joy Awards Won

Taylor-Joy has won several major awards for her work in independent film, genre cinema, and television. For her role in The Witch, she won the Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough Actor and the Empire Award for Best Female Newcomer in 2016. In 2017, she was awarded the Trophée Chopard at the Cannes Film Festival, an honor recognizing emerging talent. In 2021, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie, both for her portrayal of Beth Harmon in The Queen’s Gambit.

Anya Taylor-Joy Family

Taylor-Joy is the youngest of six siblings. Four of her siblings are from her father’s previous marriage. Her father, Dennis Alan Taylor, is a former banker, and her mother, Jennifer Marina Joy, is a psychologist. She is fluent in both Spanish and English, reflecting the international upbringing shaped by her family’s background across the United States, Argentina, Zambia, England, and Spain.

Personal Life

Taylor-Joy began a relationship with the American musician Malcolm McRae, frontman of the rock band More, in 2021. They married in a private ceremony on 1 April 2022 in New Orleans. The couple held a second ceremony in September 2023 at the Palazzo Pisani Moretta in Venice, Italy.