The character arc of Anya Taylor-Joy
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 16 April 1996 in Miami, where her parents happened to be, and raised in Buenos Aires and then London, the youngest of six children. Between then and now sit a move at six that she found traumatic, two years of refusing to learn English in the hope of going home, bullying at school, acting in school productions, a career begun at sixteen, small television roles, a breakthrough in a horror film in 2015, a leading role in a miniseries in 2020 that won a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild award, and a run of large films since. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Drag along the line to move, pinch or use the buttons to look closer. Tap the line to pluck it, or any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of her life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Anya Taylor-Joy?
She would not learn English, and now she is heard everywhere.
Her birth in Miami was, in her own description, a fluke: her parents were on holiday there. Her father is an Argentine of English and Scottish descent and a former banker who won two world offshore powerboat championships, and her mother is a psychologist born in Zambia to an English father and a Spanish mother. She is the youngest of six. The family lived in Buenos Aires, and when she was six they moved to London.
She has described that move as traumatic, and she dealt with it by refusing to learn English at all, in the hope that the family would have to move back to Argentina. She is fluent in both languages now. At school in London she was bullied and left out, and she acted in school productions, which is a familiar pair of facts in this gallery. She began pursuing acting at sixteen.
After a series of small television roles her breakthrough came in the horror film The Witch in 2015, at nineteen. Then a run of parts that refuse to settle into one kind: two horror films, a black comedy, a period drama as Emma Woodhouse, a crime series. In 2020 she played a chess prodigy in the miniseries The Queen's Gambit and won the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild award for it, with an Emmy nomination alongside. Since then she has carried a Viking epic, a satire set in a restaurant, and the title role in an apocalyptic action film in 2024, and voiced a princess in two animated films.
The moments
Anya Taylor-Joy's timeline.
The 1990s
Born on a holiday
Everyday. Her parents were on holiday. She has held an American passport ever since.
A childhood in Buenos Aires
Everyday. The first six years, in Spanish.
The 2000s
She refuses the language
Setback, and it changed everything. Six years old, in a new country, refusing to speak its language on principle.
Bullied at school
Setback, and it changed her direction. The school plays were the part of school that worked.
The 2010s
She begins at sixteen
Milestone, and it changed everything. Sixteen, and she decided that was the job.
Try acting at sixteen
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: go after it now, taken, or finish school first. After several small television roles she broke through in a horror film in 2015, at nineteen.
The Witch
Milestone, and it changed everything. A small horror film, and everybody in the business saw it.
Horror, comedy, period drama
Milestone, and it changed her direction. Four kinds of film in five years, on purpose.
The 2020s
The Queen's Gambit
Milestone, and it changed everything. A miniseries about chess, and the whole world watched it at once.
A Viking epic, and a satire
Milestone, and it changed her direction. She keeps choosing the strange one.
Furiosa
Milestone, and it changed everything. A title role in one of the biggest action films made, with very few lines in it.
Buenos Aires is still the accent underneath the English, and she switches between them without thinking. What it has set moving is quieter than the awards: a chess miniseries that nobody expected anybody to watch sent a generation of young women to the board, and the actor at the centre of it had been the child who would not learn the language.
Your turn
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Anya Taylor-Joy: frequently asked questions
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More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with her.
Sources
- Anya Taylor-Joy, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award records for The Queen's Gambit.
- Primetime Emmy Awards nomination records, outstanding lead actress in a limited series.