A Look At 'The Queen's Gambit Star Anya Taylor-Joy's Rise To The Top
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The British American actress Anya Taylor-Joy has been named among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2021. Throughout her career, she has been the recipient of numerous accolades including the Screen Actors Guild Award and Golden Globe Award as well as a nomination for Primetime Emmy Award. The actress who became prominent and earned worldwide recognition when she starred on Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit has a current net worth of $3 million. Take a look at how she started and how she achieved prominence in Hollywood.
Anya Taylor-Joy's Childhood Years and How She Got Discovered
Anya-Josephine Marie Taylor-Joy was born on April 16, 1996 in Miami, Florida. Her father Dennis Alan Taylor is a former banker who is a recipient of MBE and an OBE while her mother Jennifer Marina Joy is a psychologist. Taylor-Joy thought that her birth in Miami was just a mere coincidence since her parents were just there to have a vacation. Since it was her birthplace, although she is of English and Scottish descent, she currently holds an American citizenship because of the country's jus soli nationality law. She grew up in Buenos Aires with her family and attended the Northlands School until the age of six before her family moved to Victoria area of London.
Although she is currently fluent in Spanish and English, she initially refused to learn the English language as a kid in the hopes of going back to Argentina. She loved Argentina since there are a lot of horses and animals in the country and she feels closer to the nature. She added that she was just overwhelmed since all of a sudden she was in a big city without knowing and speaking the language there. She then studied at Queen's Gate School where she usually joined some school productions which later on honed her interest in acting. However she decided to leave her school because of some bullying she experienced while attending the school. At an early age of fifteen, she is training in dancing ballet and when she turned seventeen, she was then scouted by the Storm Management founder Sarah Doukas as a model while Taylor-Joy was walking her dog across some streets in London.
Breaking Through The Hollywood Scene and Winning Awards
Anya Taylor-Joy’s first acting role was in the horror comedy Vampire Academy in 2014 however she was removed from the final cut and was even left unaccredited. She then made her TV debut in an episode detective drama series Endeavour where she portrayed as Philippa Collins-Davidson. It was then followed by her multi-episode appearance in the fantasy-adventure drama series Atlantis in 2015. However her breakthrough role was when she starred in the period horror feature film The Witch which was directed by Robert Eggers. The film tells a story of the Puritan family who encountered some forces of evil in the woods.
Taylor-Joy’s performance on the film was highly praised especially when it premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane even commented that she is remarkable in the role as her her wide-eyed innocence was entwined with a thread of cunning personality. The movie was a huge commercial success where she was able to win the Empire Award for Best Female Newcomer and Gotham Independent Film Award for Breakthrough.
The following year, she starred in the science fiction horror film Morgan by Luke Scott as the main character. However, the film received some negative reviews and became a commercial failure. She then starred in the drama movie Barry which is about the young Barack Obama while he was in his first years in Columbia University. She went on to star in numerous films including a film with James McAvoy in 2016 titled Split where she played as Casey Cooke who is a teenage girl abducted by a man that has multiple personalities.
Anya Taylor-Joy Rising into Prominence in Hollywood
Taylor-Joy finally had her major break when she starred as Emma Woodhouse in the film Emma with the exciting directorial debut of Autumn de Wilde. The film is an adaptation of Jane Austen's 1815 novel where Taylor-Joy gained some praises and admiration from critics. Although this has made her a resounding name in Hollywood, it was when she starred in the Netflix miniseries The Queen's Gambit where she finally gained the worldwide recognition. She stars as Beth Harmon in the series which is about the orphaned chess prodigy who is on the rise to the top of the chess world however she was struggling with some drug and alcohol dependency.
Her performance on the series received praises and Netflix even announced that the series was seen by 62 million households since it was released. It became the biggest scripted limited series to date according to Entertainment Weekly’s Darren Franich and even called her performance as darkly fascinating and added that she just excels most especially in the quiet moments. Since her Netflix miniseries, she has starred in numerous prominent films including the drama film Here Are the Young Men, psychological horror film Last Night in Soho and her latest film The Northman. Today she has numerous projects lined up including the period film Amsterdam which will be released on November 2022 and the titular character in the massive hit film Mad Max: Fury Road’s prequel Furiosa.
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Sources: Celebrity Net Worth, IMDB, Indie Wire
