Daisy Ridley

Daisy Jazz Isobel Ridley (born 10 April 1992) 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 (2015), The Last Jedi (2017), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

She has also featured as the title character of the romantic drama Ophelia (2018), appeared in the mystery film Murder on the Orient Express (2017), and lent her voice to the animated Peter Rabbit (2018).

Early life

Daisy Ridley was born on 10 April 1992 in Westminster, London, and grew up in Maida Vale. She is the youngest of three daughters born to Louise Fawkner-Corbett, a banker, and Christopher Ridley, a photographer. She has two older sisters, Kika Rose and Poppy Sophia, as well as two older half-sisters. Her mother's family, the Fawkner-Corbetts, were landed gentry with a military and medical background. Her great-uncle was Dad's Army actor and playwright Arnold Ridley; his brother, Daisy's grandfather, John Harry Dunn Ridley, OBE, was head of the Engineering Secretariat at the BBC from 1950 to 1965. While growing up, her favourite film was Matilda (1996), an adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's story, with the title character (played by Mara Wilson in the film) a role model to her. While Ridley was not a particularly strong Star Wars fan as a youth, she dedicatedly followed the Harry Potter series.

Ridley won a scholarship to Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Hertfordshire, which she attended between the ages of 9 and 18. She then began reading classical civilisation at Birkbeck, University of London, before dropping out to concentrate on her acting career. Prior to being cast in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ridley worked as a barmaid in two different pubs in London for nearly two years. In 2016 Ridley began studying for a Bachelor of Arts in social science through online courses with the Open University.

Career

2013–2015: Early roles and Star Wars breakthrough

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, the casting of Ridley as Rey, one of the lead characters in The Force Awakens, was announced. She was cast 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' 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. 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".

2016–present: Continued Star Wars success

Ridley became executive producer of the documentary The Eagle Huntress in January 2016, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2016; she also recorded narration for the film's wide release. Ridley was one of several actors featured on Barbra Streisand's 2016 album Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. Along with Anne Hathaway, Ridley and Streisand perform the song "At the Ballet" from A Chorus Line, with Ridley performing the role of Bebe, one of a trio of dancers hoping to be cast in a forthcoming show.

Play media

Daisy Ridley and producer Kathleen Kennedy discuss women who work for NASA in 2016

In 2017, Ridley portrayed Mary Debenham in Murder on the Orient Express, an adaptation of Agatha Christie's detective novel of the same name. Directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, production began in London in November 2016. She also reprised her role as Rey, opposite Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was released in December 2017.

In January 2018, Ridley starred in the titular role in Ophelia, a reimagining of the Hamlet tale, alongside Naomi Watts and Clive Owen. The project was filmed from April to July 2017 and debuted at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. In February 2018, Ridley voiced the role of Cottontail in Peter Rabbit, an adaptation of the children's stories of the same name by Beatrix Potter.

In December 2019, Ridley appeared as Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the last film in the sequel trilogy. She is not expected to reprise her role again after this film, and is quoted as saying, "I don't think anything could top [The Rise of Skywalker] for this character." However, she reflected her co-star John Boyega's opinion that if more films were made without her involvement, she would feel left out.

Upcoming projects

Ridley will co-star in the Chaos Walking, an adaptation of the young-adult novel by Patrick Ness, as Viola Eade opposite Tom Holland as Todd Hewitt. The project was filmed from August to November 2017, with reshoots around April to May 2019, and is now scheduled for release on 5 March 2021.

Additional films in pre-production/development include indie drama Daddio, three Bad Robot films including fantasy drama Kolma, biographical spy-thriller A Woman of No Importance, and slice-of-life drama Piece of Mind, Netflix's superhero comedy Super-Normal, war romance-drama The Lost Wife, mk2's animated feature The Inventor, STX's murder mystery-thriller The Ice Beneath Her, World War II drama Women In The Castle, and the Disney+ original Young Woman and the Sea.

In addition to acting, she will lend her voice for the upcoming indie games 12 Minutes and Baba Yaga.

Personal life

Ridley resides in Primrose Hill in London.

Since 2017, Ridley has been in a relationship with actor Tom Bateman, whom she met on the set of Murder on the Orient Express.

Ridley suffers from endometriosis, caused by polycystic ovaries, which required her to undergo multiple laparoscopic surgeries. She revealed via Instagram that she was diagnosed with the condition at age 15, and admitted that it left her feeling low in self-confidence due to acne that followed. Ridley's message was widely praised.

Following the 2016 Teen Choice Awards, Ridley posted on both Instagram and Facebook an anti-gun violence message, which drew strong backlash from the public; several comments accused her of hypocrisy in reference to the violence depicted in Star Wars. Thereby, Ridley deleted her Instagram account, but kept her Facebook page until late 2018. She briefly returned to Instagram, claiming the reason behind the deletion was because she had "a busy few months ahead [and] so wanted less distractions," but later reiterated that statement in 2017 saying social media is "highly unhealthy for people's mental health," including hers. Ridley further commented on the topic in a 2019 interview, asserting that she will never return to social media and her accounts are permanently "cut off like a Skywalker limb." She said: "I honestly think now with social media and stuff...it's great to have freedom of expression, but I do feel like people think opinions have so much weight... I don't really think bad vibes should have the sun shone on them." She went on to add, "Selena Gomez, she put it better than I did. [...] It's dangerous. [...] It's great in that respect for people who are in serious and dire situations to be able to be communicating, but for the most part I think – no, no, no." Ridley has also expressed support for her Star Wars co-stars John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran, both of whom have been subject to online criticism and harassment.

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Music videos

Video games

Theme park attractions

Awards and nominations