Claire Foy

Claire Elizabeth Foy (born 16 April 1984) is an English actress. She studied acting at the Liverpool John Moores University and the Oxford School of Dramaand made her screen debut in the pilot of the supernatural comedy series Being Human, in 2008. Following her professional stage debut at the Royal National Theatre, she played the title role in the BBC One miniseries Little Dorrit (2008),[1]and made her film debut in the American historical fantasy drama Season of the Witch (2011). Following leading roles in the television series The Promise (2011) and Crossbones (2014), Foy received further praise for portraying the ill-fated queen Anne Boleyn in the miniseries Wolf Hall (2015).

Foy gained international recognition for portraying the young Queen Elizabeth IIin the first two seasons of the Netflix series The Crown, for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama and a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series, among other awards. In 2018, she starred in Steven Soderbergh's psychological thriller Unsane and portrayed Janet Shearon, wife of astronaut Neil Armstrong, in Damien Chazelle's biopic First Man. For the latter, she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.

Early life
Foy was born in Stockport. She has said that her mother, Caroline, comes from "a massive Irish family". Her maternal grandparents were from Dublin and Kildare, respectively.[2][3][4] She grew up in Manchester and Leeds, the youngest of three children. Her family later moved to Longwick, Buckinghamshire, for her father's job as a salesman for Rank Xerox. Her parents divorced when she was eight.[5]

Foy attended Aylesbury High School, a girls' grammar school, from the age of twelve; she then attended Liverpool John Moores University, studying drama and screen studies. She also trained in a one-year course at the Oxford School of Drama.[6] She graduated in 2007 and moved to Peckham to share a house "with five friends from drama school".[7]

Career
While at the Oxford School of Drama, Foy appeared in the plays Top Girls, Watership Down, Easy Virtue and Touched.[8] After appearing on television,[9] she made her professional stage debut in DNA and The Miracle, two of a trio of single acts directed by Paul Miller at the Royal National Theatre in London (the third was Baby Girl).[10]

Foy starred as the protagonist Amy Dorrit in BBC series Little Dorrit, and was nominated for an RTS Award. She went on to appear in TV film Going Postal and in the medieval adventure film Season of the Witch alongside Nicolas Cage. Foy starred in the BBC revival of Upstairs Downstairs as Lady Persephone, and co-starred in the Channel 4 serial The Promise, broadcast in February 2011.

Foy played a lead role of Helen in the TV movie The Night Watch, which was based on a Sarah Waters novel.[11] She returned to the stage in February 2013 as Lady Macbeth, alongside James McAvoy in the title role, in Macbeth at the Trafalgar Studios.[12]

In 2015, Foy played the English queen Anne Boleyn in the six-part drama serial, Wolf Hall.[13] Foy's performance as Boleyn was met with critical praise, and compared to Geneviève Bujold's iconic performance in Anne of the Thousand Days. Foy would go on to be nominated for the 2016 British Academy Television Award for Best Actress.[14]

In 2016, Foy began portraying the young Queen Elizabeth II in Peter Morgan's Netflix biographical drama series The Crown, opposite Matt Smith as her consort Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and John Lithgow as Sir Winston Churchill. Her performance earned her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series. She was also nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She reprised the role in the second season, before the role passed to actress Olivia Colman, who will portray the queen in middle-age. In 2017, Foy starred as Diana Cavendish in the biographical drama film Breathe, opposite Andrew Garfield as Robin Cavendish.

Foy then starred in Steven Soderbergh's psychological thriller Unsane; portrayed the vigilante Lisbeth Salander in the thriller The Girl in the Spider's Web; and Janet Shearon, wife of American astronaut Neil Armstrong, in Damien Chazelle's biopic First Man (all 2018). For the latter, she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture, the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Personal life
Foy married actor Stephen Campbell Moore in 2014.[15] Together they have a daughter, Ivy Rose, born in March 2015.[16] The couple announced their separation in February 2018, stating that they "have been [separated] for some time".[17]