Lily James

Lily James (born April 5, 1989, Esher, Surrey, England) is an English screen and stage actress whose supporting role (2012–15) in the television series Downton Abbey launched her career. She was soon garnering lead parts in such big-screen movies as Disney’s live-action Cinderella (2015) as well as the Jane Austen parody Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016). By the 2020s she had assumed a wide range of roles, from an ingenue diner waitress in Baby Driver (2017) to a shy archaeologist in The Dig (2021) to the blonde bombshell Pamela Anderson in Pam & Tommy (2022).

Early life and education

Lily James was born Lily Chloe Ninette Thomson to a family of actors. Her paternal grandmother, Helen Horton, was an American actor, and both of her parents, Ninette and James Thomson, were also performers. In addition to being an actor, James Thomson was a musician, playing in a band with fellow actor Anthony Head. As a child Lily Thomson boarded at what is now known as the Tring Park School for the Performing Arts, northwest of London, where she won leading roles in stage productions. She went on to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in acting from London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 2010. Thomson took the stage name Lily James in honor of her father, who died of cancer in 2008.

Early television and stage roles

James made her television debut in 2010 in the series Just William, a comedy following the exploits of a young boy in 1950s England. The following year she had a recurring role in the saucy TV series Secret Diary of a Call Girl (2007–11). Meanwhile, James appeared in a series of stage productions, including an adaptation (2011) of DBC Pierre’s Man Booker Prize-winning novel Vernon God Little at the Young Vic Theatre, London, a 2011 staging of William Shakespeare’s Othello at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, and a modern retelling (2012) of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull at Southwark Playhouse, London. In 2012 she played Katrina in Play House and Marijke in Definitely the Bahamas, in a double bill at the Orange Tree Theatre, London.

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Breakout in Downton Abbey and subsequent lead roles

Also in 2012 James made her first appearance in the third season of the megahit historical drama Downton Abbey (2010–15), playing Lady Rose MacClare, the spirited and rebellious cousin of the Crawley sisters. She became a regular cast member for seasons four and five and appeared in the series’ final episode during its sixth season. The role catapulted James to fame, and she was soon seemingly everywhere, garnering lead roles on the big screen, including as the title character in Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella (2015), though she had originally auditioned for the role of one of the wicked stepsisters; Elizabeth Bennet in the comedic monster movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016); and Natasha Rostova in a BBC miniseries adaptation (2016) of Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace. In 2016 she also reteamed with Cinderella director Branagh and costar Richard Madden in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet at the Garrick Theatre, London.

Baby Driver, Darkest Hour, and other roles from the late 2010s

James continued to work steadily through the decade, playing the love interest in the acclaimed action drama Baby Driver and appearing alongside Gary Oldman, who played Winston Churchill, in Darkest Hour (both 2017). Her parts from 2018 include a successful writer who visits the island of Guernsey, which was occupied by Germany during World War II, in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society; the struggling sister of a reforming drug dealer (played by Tessa Thompson) in writer-director Nia DaCosta’s breakout drama Little Woods; and a young version of Donna Sheridan in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the sequel to the 2008 musical Mamma Mia! The following year James returned to the stage, taking on the role of aspiring actress Eve Harrington alongside Gillian Anderson in All About Eve at the Noël Coward Theatre, London. She also played the love interest to Himesh Patel’s musician who finds himself in an alternate universe where the Beatles never existed in Danny Boyle’s film Yesterday.

Pam & Tommy and other roles from the 2020s

In the 2020s James starred as Mrs. de Winter in Rebecca (2020), a retelling of the Daphne du Maurier novel; archaeologist Peggy Piggott in The Dig, a fictionalized account of the excavation of the Anglo-Saxon burial ship at Sutton Hoo; and the romantic and charismatic Linda Radlett in the miniseries The Pursuit of Love (2021), based on Nancy Mitford’s novel of the same name. In 2022 James starred as Pamela Anderson in the hit Hulu miniseries Pam & Tommy, for which she was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding lead actress in a limited or anthology series or movie. She also starred in the romantic comedy What’s Love Got to Do with It? (2022). The following year she appeared onstage with Kristin Scott Thomas in Lyonesse at the Harold Pinter Theatre, London.