Anya Taylor-Joy is a star. Though she has only been acting professionally for the last ten years, we love the work she has put out thus far and always look forward to her upcoming projects. Taylor-Joy was born on April 16, 1996, in Miami, Florida.

(Photo by Larry Busacca/Getty Images)

Though she was born in Florida, she wasn’t raised there. Her parents were actually just vacationing there at the time of her birth, and even though she calls it a “fluke,” she holds dual citizenship in America as well as England. Her parents are both English, with her father being part Scottish and Argentinian, while her mother having ancestry in Spain.

It may come as a surprise that the award-winning actress’ native tongue is not English. As we previously reported, Taylor-Joy was raised in Argentina until she was six years old, moving to London after. She learned English by watching Harry Potter, School of Rock, and Jumanji. She wants to work with “any Spanish-speaking directors” to make a movie in Spanish for upcoming projects.

RELATED: Anya Taylor-Joy Secretly Got Married In 2022

Taylor-Joy made her acting debut in A24’s 2015 film, The Witch. The critically acclaimed Robert Eggers period horror film stars Taylor-Joy as Thomasin, who becomes a witch herself by the end of the film. Shortly after, the actress starred in more films in the horror and thriller genre: Morgan, Split, and Glass. By 2020, she achieved mainstream success with back-to-back hits with the period rom-com Emma and the Netflix series, The Queen’s Gambit. The latter role showcased Taylor-Joy in her most mature role as of late and entranced audiences with her captivating performance.

She made a cameo in the latest Dune film as Alia Atreides and is expected to star in the third installment of the saga. Her upcoming roles include the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel, Furiosa, starring as the titular character opposite Chris Hemsworth. The film is set to release in theaters on May 23, 2024. She will also star opposite Miles Teller and Sigourney Weaver in the romantic action film The Gorge, to be released on AppleTV+. Filming began in 2023, but there is no release date as of yet.

Take a look below at Anya Taylor-Joy’s 5 best roles in film and television:

• 5. The Northman

  Taylor-Joy worked with director Robert Eggers once again in this epic 2022 action historical film starring opposite Alexander Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, and Björk. The Viking film stars Taylor-Joy as Olga of the Birch Forest, a Slavic sorceress who was enslaved when she met Skarsgård’s Amleth, the Viking warrior prince. In the film, the two work together to overcome Amleth’s uncle. This is the best Viking movie we have ever seen and Taylor-Joy and Skarsgård’s performances in the film are magic.

• 4. The Witch

  As much as we wanted to get into this film, it was just too dark and the audio was too low to follow the slow pace of the film. However, the parts that we were able to hear and see, Taylor-Joy’s film debut was a spectacular performance. Her unique look added to the eerie tones of the film, and as we suspected her to be a witch from the beginning, nothing could prepare you for the wild ending. Famed historical horror director Robert Eggers made Taylor-Joy and the rest of the characters even more haunting with hardly any makeup used and natural lighting.

• 3. Split

  In this 2016 psychological thriller, we were hooked by the trailer alone. James McAvoy stars as Kevin Wendell Crumb, a man who suffers from disassociative identity disorder (DID), who kidnaps and imprisons three teenage girls in an underground lair. Taylor-Joy is among those teenage girls, abducted in a parking lot, but is the only surviving member by the film’s end when Crumb’s 24th personality, “The Beast” takes over him as an insatiable cannibal with superhuman capabilities. The M. Night Shyamalan film is a standalone sequel to his 2000 film Unbreakable, and ended with 2019’s Glass, which combined the casts and characters of both previous films to conclude the trilogy.

• 2. The Menu

  This is a delightfully horrific film by A24. Ralph Fiennes stars as a renowned celebrity chef, who has reached the limit of appeasing the rich and famous who contributed to him losing his passion for his craft or because they make a living by exploiting the work of chefs like him. Taylor-Joy was a last-minute change to Nicholas Hoult’s original date for the evening on the private island. Unlike the rest of the guests, her character, Margot, is a high-end escort and isn’t seen as a pretentious foodie. She manipulates the chef expertly and doesn’t suffer the hilarious yet gruesome torture the other guests meet.

• 1. Queen's Gambit

  This 2020 miniseries was a masterpiece. Taylor-Joy stars as Beth Harmon, who becomes a chess prodigy after learning the game while living at an orphanage. Taking place throughout the ’50s and ’60s, we see Beth’s rise to fame after winning competition after competition, leading her to the high-level world stage in Moscow against the world’s best players. The series is thought-provoking and shows Beth’s struggles with alcoholism and drug addiction.

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