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Anya Taylor-Joy: How Did She Become Hollywood’s Favorite Star?

The opinions expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not reflect the views of Her Campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Casper Libero chapter.

The highly-anticipated movie “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” premiered at the end of May, featuring big names in its cast, including Anya Taylor-Joy, who’s been people’s princess for a while now. But how did she become Hollywood’s Favorite Star? Let’s take a look at her career so far!

First steps & Breakthrough

Anya Josephine Marie Taylor-Joy is an American actress who was born on April 16, 1996, in Miami. She is the youngest among her six siblings. Anya comes from a mix of a lot of nationalities. Her dad is a scottish-british and her mom is an african-spanish-english. She moved with her parents to Buenos Aires when she was a baby and lived there until the age of  six, which makes Spanish her first language. Then, due to political issues in Argentina, she moved to London with her family, where she grew up. The actress has already said in many interviews that she had difficulties with learning a new language and culture of a new country. 


To the British GQ, Anya told that, at the age of 16, a modeling agent discovered her when she was walking her dog in London. However, her dream job was not becoming a model, but having an acting career. She dropped out of school to dedicate herself full time to acting, which was a decision made alongside her parents. Anya ‘s first role was as Philippa Collins-Davidson in the british TV-series Endeavour, in 2014.

@britishgq

And that’s the story of how Anya Taylor-Joy got scouted. #GQHeroes #GQHeroesxBMW #AnyaTaylorJoy #AnyaTaylorJoyEdit

♬ original sound – British GQ

A few years later, she starred in her first big role at the age of 19. Performing Thomasin in The Witch, the horror movie was a big turning point for Anya’s career in 2015. The film was a success among the critics and many reviews praised her performance. With this role, she won the Breakthrough Actor Award at the 2016 Gotham Awards and she was nominated for the Rising Star award at the BAFTAS in 2017. At that time, Disney Channel offered her a role in a teen TV series, but she didn’t take it.

Hollywood´s star

After The Witch (2015), Anya starred in other horrors/thrillers, like the sequels Split (2016) and Glass (2019), which is her first box office success, grossing over 278 million dollars. She also performed in the period horror miniseries The Miniaturist (2017), the psychological horror Last Night in Soho (2021) and the horror comedy The Menu (2022). With this list of films in that type of genre, she was branded as the “Scream Queen”.

In 2020, Anya Taylor-Joy reached another Milestone in her career by playing the chess prodigy Beth Harmon. With her performance in the TV Show The Queen’s Gambit, she won the Golden Globe award, Critics Choice Television award and SAG award. She was also a nominee for the Emmy award. This established her as the star she is today: The series is considered one of the biggest successes of the platform, being one of most watched in Netflix’s history!

She also starred in the movie Emma playing the main character Emma Woodhouse. The film is a period romance based on Jane Austen’s novel from 1805, which proves that she has the range to act in other types of genre. 

Fashion industry

In addition to her acting career, Anya is also a fashion icon. She’s Dior’s and Tiffany’s global ambassador and she’s frequently on the cover of high-profile magazines such as Vogue, Vanity Fair and Elle. Whenever she attends a red carpet, her outfit is one of the most anticipated by the public. The most recent was in the Furiosa press tour, where she paid tribute to the film through her looks.

What ‘s next?

For the following years, Anya is currently linked to two upcoming projects. Together with Chris Evans and Bredan Fraser, she was cast in the action-thriller Sacrifice and she is also going to star in the Apple Tv+ action-romance movie The Gorge, with Miles Teller.  

The article above was edited by Larissa Buzon.

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Giovanna Garcia

Casper Libero '26

hi! i´m a journalism student who loves pop culture and sports :)