How did Anya Taylor-Joy establish herself as one of the industry’s most sought-after actors despite having worked for only a decade? By radiating star power, choosing thorny, beguiling characters to play, and delivering one masterful performance after another. As she takes the lead in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, George Miller’s long-awaited follow-up to Mad Max: Fury Road which is poised to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, we shortlist the formidable 28-year-old’s 10 most memorable films and TV shows to date.
The Witch (2015)
Aged just 18, the actor was propelled to prominence as a wide-eyed, watchful farmer’s daughter who is accused of witchcraft in 17th-century New England in Robert Eggers’s cult horror. She remains deliciously unreadable right up until the spine-tingling final sequence.
Split (2016)
In M Night Shyamalan’s disturbing study of a man with multiple personalities (James McAvoy) who abducts three teens, the actor is captivating as the soft-spoken misfit who proves to be the most resilient of his victims. In 2019, she reprised the role in its equally eerie sequel, Glass.
Thoroughbreds (2017)
Heavenly Creatures meets Heathers is the easiest way to describe Cory Finley’s pitch-black comedy following Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke as two sociopathic high schoolers who plot to kill the former’s irritable stepfather. They are, by turns, hilariously deadpan and truly terrifying.
The Miniaturist (2017)
Petronella, the naive newlywed at the centre of Jessie Burton’s bestseller, is brought to life with delicacy and grace by the actor in Guillem Morales and John Brownlow’s ravishing rendering of Amsterdam circa 1686. When she’s gifted a doll’s house, she discovers that its tiny inhabitants hold clues to the duplicitous world around her.
Peaky Blinders (2019 to 2022)
An electrifying addition to the fifth and sixth seasons of Steven Knight’s rip-roaring crime saga, Taylor-Joy’s Gina is the unapologetically glamorous and brazenly ambitious wife of the troubled Michael Gray (Finn Cole). If anyone’s a worthy adversary for Tommy Shelby (Cillian Murphy), it’s her.
Emma (2020)
With a cruel smirk, sparkling eyes and an excellent collection of candy-coloured bonnets, the actor creates an Austen heroine for the ages in Autumn de Wilde’s razor-sharp rom-com. Whether she’s matchmaking, swerving suitors of her own or delivering snarky one-liners, she’s magnetic.
The Queen’s Gambit (2020)
As the red-headed, chain-smoking, pill-popping chess prodigy Beth Harmon in Scott Frank and Allan Scott’s Netflix phenomenon, the actor blew audiences away with her startling poise and touching vulnerability, earning a Golden Globe, SAG and Critics’ Choice Award.
Last Night in Soho (2021)
The buoyant, bouffanted foil to Thomasin McKenzie’s anxious fashion student, the actor delights as a ’60s starlet the latter sees in her dreams in Edgar Wright’s neon-drenched chiller. She sings, dances and falls for a teddy boy (Matt Smith), but then, tragedy strikes.
The Northman (2022)
For her second collaboration with Eggers, the actor takes on the part of Olga of the Birch Forest, a deathly-pale enchantress who comes to the aid of a blood-thirsty Viking prince (Alexander Skarsgård) in 10th-century Iceland. While he breaks the bones of his enemies, she destroys their minds.
The Menu (2022)
At the heart of Succession director Mark Mylod’s eat-the-rich satire is Taylor-Joy’s Margot, the quippy, eye-rolling antithesis of Nicholas Hoult’s embarrassingly eager and pretentious foodie Tyler, her date to an exclusive and sinister private island restaurant presided over by a steely celebrity chef (Ralph Fiennes). A fine-dining sceptic who’d rather gorge on a cheeseburger than sample mousses and gels, she quickly senses that something is terribly wrong and, as blood begins to flow, you pray she makes it out of there alive.