Top 25 Modern Actresses
by mattl-258-543836 | created - 14 Jan 2016 | updated - 07 Jan 2019 | Public
1. Lily James
Actress | Cinderella
Lily James was born Lily Chloe Ninette Thomson in Esher, Surrey, to Ninette (Mantle), an actress, and Jamie Thomson, an actor and musician. Her grandmother, Helen Horton, was an American actress. She began her education at Arts Educational School in Tring and subsequently went on to study acting at...
2. Daisy Ridley
Actress | Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens
Daisy Jazz Isobel Ridley is an English actress. She is best known for her breakthrough role as "Rey" in the 2015 film, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015). Daisy was born in Westminster, London, on April 10, 1992. She is the daughter of Louise Fawkner-Corbett and Chris Ridley. Her ...
3. Léa Seydoux
Actress | La vie d'Adèle
French actress Léa Seydoux was born in 1985 in Paris, France, to Valérie Schlumberger, a philanthropist, and Henri Seydoux, a businessman. Her grandfather, Jérôme Seydoux, is chairman of Pathé, and her father is a great-grandson of businessman and inventor Marcel Schlumberger (her mother also ...
4. Emilia Clarke
Actress | Game of Thrones
British actress Emilia Clarke was born in London and grew up in Oxfordshire, England. Her father was a theatre sound engineer and her mother is a businesswoman. Her father was working on a theatre production of "Show Boat" and her mother took her along to the performance. This is when, at the age ...
5. Dilshad Vadsaria
Actress | Greek
Dilshad Vadsaria was born in Karachi, Pakistan, of Portuguese and Indian descent. She moved with her family to the US at the age of six and spent her childhood in various parts of the country, including Chicago, Richmond (Virginia) and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She eventually moved to New York to...
6. Felicity Jones
Actress | Rogue One
Felicity Rose Hadley Jones is an English actress and producer. Jones started her professional acting career as a child, appearing at age 12 in The Treasure Seekers (1996). She went on to play Ethel Hallow for one series in the television show The Worst Witch and its sequel Weirdsister College. ...
6. Lily Collins
Actress | The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
Lily Jane Collins was born in Guildford, Surrey, England. Her father is English musician Phil Collins, while her mother, Jill Tavelman, who is from Los Angeles, California, was president of the Beverly Hills Women's Club for three terms. Lily moved with her mother to LA at the age of five, after ...
7. Alicia Vikander
Actress | Ex Machina
Alicia Vikander is a Swedish actress, dancer and producer. She was born and raised in Gothenburg, Västra Götalands län, Sweden, to Maria Fahl, an actress of stage and screen, and Svante Vikander, a psychiatrist. Through her mother, she is one quarter Finnish, and had a maternal great aunt who moved...
9. Emma Watson
Actress | The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson was born in Paris, France, to British parents, Jacqueline Luesby and Chris Watson, both lawyers. She moved to Oxfordshire when she was five, where she attended the Dragon School. From the age of six, Emma knew that she wanted to be an actress and, for a number of years,...
10. Hannah New
Actress | Maleficent
Born in London, England, Hannah insisted at age 4 to attend ballet school, setting her on a performing path in life. She later turned her focus to acting and joined The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. Her interest in other cultures led her to travel around the world, including Bolivia ...
11. Margot Robbie
Actress | Suicide Squad
Margot Elise Robbie was born on July 2, 1990 in Dalby, Queensland, Australia to Scottish parents. Her mother, Sarie Kessler, is a physiotherapist, and her father, is Doug Robbie. She comes from a family of four children, having two brothers and one sister. She graduated from Somerset College in ...
12. Shailene Woodley
Actress | Divergent
Actress and activist Shailene Woodley was born in Simi Valley, California, to Lori (Victor), a middle school counselor, and Lonnie Woodley, a school principal. She has one brother, Tanner. She was educated at Simi Valley High School in California. When Woodley was four years old she began ...
13. Jenna Coleman
Actress | Victoria
Jenna Coleman is best known for her BAFTA-nominated performance as Clara in 'Doctor Who' and for playing the title role in ITV's Emmy-nominated series 'Victoria'. She was most recently seen in a lead role as Marie-Andrée Leclerc in the dark crime drama 'The Serpent' for BBC and Netflix opposite ...
14. Annet Mahendru
Actress | The Americans
Annet Mahendru is an Afghan-American actress of Indian-Russian origin. She was born in Kabul to an Indian father (a journalist and professor) and a Russian mother (a businesswoman and artist). Annet spent her early years learning six languages while living in Afghanistan, Russia, and Europe. She ...
14. Odette Annable
Actress | Cloverfield
Odette Annable was born Odette Juliette Yustman on 10 May, 1985, in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, Lydia (Nodarse), is Cuban. Odette's father, Victor Oscar Yustman, was born in Bogotá, Colombia, of Italian and Polish Jewish descent. Odette started her career with a minor role in the movie ...
15. Claire Holt
Actress | 47 Meters Down
Claire Rhiannon Holt (born June 11, 1988) portrays the role of "Rebekah Mikaelson" in The Vampire Diaries (2009) and The Originals (2013). Her most notable roles are "Samara Cook" in Pretty Little Liars (2010), "Chastity Meyer" in Mean Girls 2 (2011) and "Emma Gilbert" in H2O: Just Add Water (2006).
...
16. Rebecca Ferguson
Actress | The Greatest Showman
Rebecca Ferguson was born Rebecca Louisa Ferguson Sundström in Stockholm, Sweden, and grew up in its Vasastaden district. Her father is Swedish. Her mother, Rosemary Ferguson, is British, of Scottish and Northern Irish descent, and moved to Sweden at the age of 25. Rebecca attended an ...
17. Elizabeth Henstridge
Actress | Wolves at the Door
Elizabeth Henstridge grew up in the northern city of Sheffield in England. Having gained a first at the University of Birmingham in Drama and Theatre Arts, Elizabeth went on to train at the prestigious East 15 Acting School in Loughton, Essex. Having graduated she has landed leading roles in ...
19. Ania Bukstein
Actress | Kfulim
Ania Bukstein is an Israeli actress, singer, song-writer, pianist and voice actress. She was born in 1982 in Moscow, USSR, to Jewish parents. As a child in Moscow, she studied classical piano. Her family immigrated to Israel in the early 1990s. She began her acting career at age 12, appearing in ...
19. Adelaide Kane
Actress | The Purge
Born in Western Australia in 1990, Adelaide Kane had been acting since she was 6 and got her first major role, in 2006, when she won the role of "Lolly Allen" on Neighbours (1985). She entered a Dolly Magazine Competition and won the role in late 2006. When she got the role, she and her family had ...
20. Elodie Yung
Actress | Gods of Egypt
Elodie Yung was born in Paris, France, of Cambodian and French descent. She grew up in Seine-saint-Denis, in Le Bourget, where she practiced karate and obtained her black belt. She graduated from University of La Sorbonne in Paris and has a law degree. She then decided to study acting at London ...
21. Alycia Debnam-Carey
Actress | Into the Storm
Alycia Jasmin Debnam-Carey was born on July 20, 1993. She is an actress from Australia. She grew up in Sydney, and graduated from Newtown High School of the Performing Arts in 2011 where she was a percussionist. In 2010, in partnership with the Berlin Philharmonic, she and around 40 other musicians...
22. Emily Hampshire
Actress | Schitt$ Creek
Born and raised in Montreal, Emily Hampshire has made an indelible mark on the Canadian film and television industry in a relatively short period of time. Her work has been recognized by the Canadian Academy of Cinema and Television with 3 Genie Award Nominations, a Gemini Award for her work on the...
23. Camilla Luddington
Actress | Tomb Raider
Camilla Luddington was born in Ascot, Berkshire, England. She has traveled to the U.S. as a teenager and has lived in Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, and California.
She was educated at an all-girls school in Ascot, Berkshire, later attending the American School in England at Thorpe in Surrey. She ...
23. Dominique McElligott
Actress | Leap Year
Dominique McElligott is an Irish actress. She starred in Moon (2009) and the RTÉ television series Raw before leaving to film Leap Year (2010). From 2011 to 2012, she played a lead role in the AMC series Hell on Wheels. In 2015, she starred in ABC's The Astronaut Wives Club. In 2016, McElligott ...
24. Emily Browning
Actress | A Series of Unfortunate Events
Australian actress Emily Browning was born in 1988 in Melbourne, Australia, to Shelley and Andrew Browning. She has two younger brothers. Her start in acting came after a classmate's father, involved in the acting business, noticed her "acting all ditsy" in a school play. Emily found an agent and ...
25. Annabel Scholey
Actress | Walking on Sunshine
Annabel Scholey is an English actress. She played Lauren Drake in the BBC supernatural drama Being Human (2009) and the leading role of 'Maddie' in the musical feature film Walking on Sunshine (2014). Scholey played Contessina DE Medici in the television series, Medici: Masters of Florence (2016) ...
26. Lou de Laâge
Actress | Les innocentes
Lou de Laâge was born on April 27, 1990 in Bordeaux, Gironde, France. She is an actress, known for The Innocents (2016), Jappeloup (2013) and Le bal des folles (2021).
27. Rachel Keller
Actress | Fargo
Rachel Keller was born on December 25, 1992 in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. She is an actress, known for Fargo (2014), Legion (2017) and Tokyo Vice (2022).
28. Eréndira Ibarra
Actress | Sense8
Eréndira Ibarra was born on September 25, 1985. She is an actress and casting director, known for Sense8 (2015), The Matrix Resurrections (2021) and Sexo, amor y otras perversiones 2 (2006). She has been married to Fredd Londoño since December 5, 2010. They have one child.
29. Cristin Milioti
Actress | The Wolf of Wall Street
Cristin Milioti was born and raised in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. She has Jewish, Italian, Belgian, Czech, and Irish ancestry, and calls her family "Olive Garden Italian." In middle school, she found her love of acting at Long Lake Camp for the Arts in New York. She attended Cherry Hill High School ...
30. Liana Cornell
Actress | Britannia
Liana Cornell is a 2012 NIDA Acting Graduate. She is the daughter of Director/Actor/Writer John Cornell and Actress Delvene Delaney. She was born in Mullumbimby and grew up in Byron Bay. She is also known for her theatre work, most recently her work for the Bell Shakespeare Company's, "The Winter's...
31. Jemima Kirke
Actress | Tiny Furniture
Jemima Kirke is the daughter of drummer Simon Kirke and vintage boutique owner, Lorraine Kirke. Although born in London, Kirke was raised in New York City. She was educated at Saint Ann's School in New York, before moving on to Rhode Island School of Design, where she studied art and graduated as a...
32. Julia Garner
Actress | The Assistant
Julia Garner is an American actress and model. She has appeared in the films Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012), Sin City: A Dame to Kill For (2014), and played leading roles in Electrick Children (2012), We Are What We Are (2013) and Grandma (2015). She also ...
33. Sonoya Mizuno
Actress | Ex Machina
Sonoya Mizuno's a Japanese-born English actress, model & ballet dancer. She was born on July 1, 1986 in Tokyo, Japan. She graduated from the Royal Ballet School.
She has starred in Ex Machina (2014), Annihilation (2018) & Devs (2020). She had minor roles in La La Land (2016), Beauty and the Beast (...
34. Michelle Mylett
Actress | Letterkenny
Michelle can currently be seen on the hit Crave TV series LETTERKENNEY. For the past 3 seasons, MICHELLE starred in the sole female lead role of 'Katy.' The show, created by Jared Keeso and Jacob Tierney, just wrapped their 4th season and has gone onto win the Canadian Screen Award for Best Comedy ...
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