Daisy Ridley

1.1. Birth and Family Background

Daisy Jazz Isobel Ridley was born on 10 April 1992, in Westminster, London, England. She grew up in Maida Vale, a district within London. She is the youngest of three daughters born to Christopher Ridley, a photographer, and Louise Fawkner-Corbett, who worked in internal communications for a bank. Her two older sisters are named Kika Rose and Poppy Sophia. She also has two older half-sisters from her father's first marriage. The Fawkner-Corbetts, her mother's family, were landed gentry with a background in military and medicine. Her paternal great-uncle, Arnold Ridley, was a playwright and actor, best known for playing Private Godfrey in the British sitcom Dad's Army. Daisy Ridley's grandfather, John Harry Dunn Ridley, an OBE recipient, served as the head of the Engineering Secretariat at the BBC from 1950 to 1965.

1.2. Education and Early Interests

Ridley's favorite film growing up was Matilda (1996), an adaptation of the Roald Dahl novel, and she considered the titular character (played by Mara Wilson) a role model. While she was not a particularly strong fan of the Star Wars franchise as a youth, she diligently followed the Harry Potter series.

She attended Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Hertfordshire from ages nine to eighteen, having secured a scholarship. After Tring Park, she enrolled at Birkbeck, University of London, to study classical civilization, but she later dropped out to concentrate on her burgeoning acting career. Before securing her breakthrough role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ridley worked as a bartender at two different pubs in London for nearly two years. In 2016, she began studying for a Bachelor of Arts in social science through online courses with the Open University.

2.1. Early Career and Television Roles

Ridley's acting career began in 2013, shortly after graduating from high school. She took on minor roles in various British television programs, including Casualty, Youngers, Toast of London, Silent Witness, and Mr Selfridge. In short films, she played the lead in Lifesaver, an interactive film that earned a nomination for a BAFTA Award. She also appeared in Blue Season, a short film that was part of the Sci-Fi-London 48-Hour Film Challenge, as well as 100% BEEF and Crossed Wires. Her music video debut was in Wiley's song "Lights On", where she portrayed the character of Kim. Her film debut was in the 2015 British independent horror film Scrawl, although her scenes in the British comedy film The Inbetweeners 2 were removed from the final cut. During 2014, Ridley changed talent agencies, moving from United Talent Agency to Creative Artists Agency.

2.2. Breakthrough with Star Wars

In April 2014, it was announced that Ridley had been cast as Rey, one of the primary characters in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Her casting had been finalized in February 2014. At the time, she was widely considered a "total unknown" by publications like Rolling Stone, a casting choice by director J. J. Abrams that drew comparisons to George Lucas's decision to cast relatively unknown actors in the lead roles for the original Star Wars film in 1977.

Ridley commenced filming her scenes in May 2014 at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. Ahead of the film's December 2015 release, 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 featured on a stamp alongside the droid BB-8.

The Force Awakens achieved massive commercial success, earning over 2.00 B USD in international revenue and becoming the highest-grossing film of 2015. Ridley's performance garnered critical acclaim, with film critic Richard Roeper hailing her portrayal as a "breakout performance" and noting the "terrific father figure chemistry" she shared with Harrison Ford and John Boyega. Daily Mail described her as "the true star of the show," affirming that her role as Rey had propelled her career into the spotlight.

Ridley reprised her role as Rey alongside Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was released in December 2017. She continued her role in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the final film in the sequel trilogy, released in December 2019. Initially, Ridley stated that she did not intend to reprise the role of Rey after The Rise of Skywalker, believing that "nothing could top" her experience with the character in that film. However, she has since expressed openness to returning to the character, stating, "never say never. I'm always open to a revisit. But also the beautiful thing is it's this wonderful, huge universe with all of these stories that have yet to be told. I think there's a lot of cool things to be made before any potential revisit." She also acknowledged the validity of her co-star John Boyega's sentiment that she might feel "jealous" if subsequent films were made with another actress playing Rey.

2.3. Major Film Roles

Beyond the Star Wars universe, Ridley has taken on several significant film roles. In 2017, she portrayed Mary Debenham in Murder on the Orient Express, an adaptation of Agatha Christie's detective novel, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh. Production for this film commenced in London in November 2016. In January 2018, Ridley starred in the titular role of Ophelia, a reimagining of the Hamlet tale, alongside Naomi Watts and Clive Owen. This project was filmed from April to July 2017 and premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

In 2021, Ridley co-starred in the science fiction film Chaos Walking, an adaptation of the young-adult novel by Patrick Ness. She played Viola Eade, opposite Tom Holland as Todd Hewitt. The film, released on 5 March 2021, experienced multiple delays due to poor test screenings that necessitated reshoots, and later due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It ultimately received negative reviews and was a box-office flop. In 2023, Ridley took on lead roles in the independent drama Sometimes I Think About Dying, where she also served as a first-time main producer, and the psychological thriller The Marsh King's Daughter, which was filmed in Ontario, Canada. She also starred as Gertrude Ederle in the biographical drama Young Woman and the Sea (2024) for Walt Disney Pictures, a project on which she also held an executive producer credit. In 2024, she starred in Magpie, a contemporary noir thriller based on her original story idea, with her partner Tom Bateman writing the script; Ridley also served as a producer on this film.

2.4. Voice Acting and Video Game Roles

Ridley has lent her voice to a variety of animated projects and video games. In film, she voiced Taeko Okajima in the English dub of the Japanese animated film Only Yesterday (2016) and Cottontail in the live-action/animated film Peter Rabbit (2018) and its sequel Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (2021). She also voiced Marguerite de Navarre in the French stop motion animated film The Inventor (2023).



In video games, Ridley provided the voice for Rey in Disney Infinity 3.0 (2015), Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2016), and Star Wars Battlefront II (2017). She was the narrator for The Dawn of Art (2020) and voiced Magda in Baba Yaga (2020). Her performance as the Wife in the point-and-click mystery video game Twelve Minutes (2021), alongside James McAvoy and Willem Dafoe, received praise from critics. On television, she voiced Rey in seven episodes of Star Wars Forces of Destiny (2017-2018) and in three episodes of Star Wars Galaxy of Adventures (2020), using archive material. She was also the narrator for the documentary Asteroid Hunters (2020).

2.5. Other Ventures

In January 2016, Ridley became an executive producer for the documentary The Eagle Huntress, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2016. She also recorded narration for the film's wider release. Director Otto Bell praised her involvement, noting her ability to bring the same energy to a real-world story of triumph as her fictional roles. Ridley was one of several actors featured on Barbra Streisand's 2016 album Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. She performed the role of Bebe in the song "At the Ballet" from A Chorus Line, alongside Anne Hathaway and Streisand herself.

In a surprise cameo, Ridley appeared as Kate, a horny AI, in Judd Apatow's 2022 film The Bubble, which received negative reviews. In July 2023, it was announced that Ridley would host a True Spies podcast miniseries focusing on Lee Harvey Oswald.

2.6. Upcoming Projects

Ridley has several projects in various stages of development. In October 2021, she signed on to star in Mind Fall, a sci-fi mystery thriller film to be directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. She is also set to reprise her role as Rey in an upcoming untitled Star Wars film, directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, an announcement made at Star Wars Celebration on 7 April 2023. She will also star as Joey Locke in Cleaner (2025), and Ava Newman in We Bury the Dead, which is currently in post-production. Another project, Dedication, also lists her as a lead, with details yet to be announced.

3.1. Film

3.2. Television

3.3. Theatre

3.4. Music Videos

3.5. Video Games

3.6. Theme Park Attractions

5.1. Health and Well-being

In 2016, Ridley publicly disclosed that she had been diagnosed with endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) at the age of fifteen. These conditions necessitated multiple laparoscopic surgery procedures. She stated that her struggles with these health issues led to bouts of low self-confidence, exacerbated by persistent acne.

In 2023, Ridley received a diagnosis of Graves' disease, an autoimmune disorder that caused symptoms such as a racing heart rate, weight loss, and fatigue. Initially, she attributed these symptoms to the stress of a "really stressful role" while filming Magpie. Following this diagnosis, she, who had been vegan for many years, transitioned to a gluten-free eating plan. In addition to dietary adjustments, she incorporates practices like infrared sauna, cryotherapy, massage, and acupuncture into her routine to manage her condition.

5.2. Relationships and Marriage

Daisy Ridley resides in Primrose Hill, London. Since 2017, she has been in a relationship with actor Tom Bateman, whom she met on the set of their film Murder on the Orient Express. In January 2023, during the Sundance Film Festival, Ridley confirmed that she and Bateman had married. She also has a tattoo of three stars on her left leg and owns a dog named Muffin.

5.3. Social Media Presence

Following the 2016 Teen Choice Awards, which featured a tribute to victims of gun violence, Ridley posted an anti-gun violence message on both her Instagram and Facebook accounts. This post quickly generated backlash from the public, with critics accusing Ridley of hypocrisy due to the violence depicted in her Star Wars films. As a result of this negative response, she deleted her social media accounts. She briefly returned to Instagram, attributing her initial departure to having "a busy few months ahead [and] so wanted less distractions."

In 2017, Ridley reiterated her stance, stating that social media is "highly unhealthy for people's mental health," including her own. In a 2019 interview, she vowed never to return to social media, explaining, "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. [...] 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."

However, on 4 April 2022, after a six-year hiatus, Ridley made a return to Instagram. In her first post back on the platform, she shared an image of herself sipping tea, indicating she was "refreshed, recharged, and ready for what I'm calling my 'Year of Yes'." Her return was met with welcome messages from former co-stars, including Orient Express cast member Leslie Odom Jr. and Chewbacca actor Joonas Suotamo.