Claire Elizabeth Foy (16 April, 1984 in Stockport, England) is an English actress, best known for her role as Queen Elizabeth II on the acclaimed Netflix series The Crown (2016).
Before that however, she was a relatively obscure actress, appearing in movies like Season of the Witch and the short-lived BBC revival of Upstairs Downstairs. (Though fantasy fans may remember her as the intimidating Adora Belle Dearheart in the TV adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Going Postal, and she also registered for some watchers as Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall.) The Crown (2016) changed all that, with her winning an Emmy, a Golden Globe, and two Screen Actors Guild awards for the role; she then demonstrated the ability to switch accents as Neil Armstrong's wife Janet in First Man.
And yes, her middle name is Elizabeth. Fans have had fun with this.
Not related to Mackenzie Foy.
Filmography:
- Little Dorrit (2008) as Amy Dorrit
- Going Postal (2010) as Adora Belle Dearheart
- Season of the Witch (2011) as Anna
- The Night Watch (2010) as Helen Giniver
- Upstairs Downstairs (2010-2012) as Lady Persephone Towyn
- Crossbones (2014) as Kate Balfour
- Vampire Academy (2014) as Sonya Karp
- Wolf Hall (2015) as Anne Boleyn
- The Crown (2016-2017) as Queen Elizabeth II
- Breathe (2017) as Diana Cavendish
- Unsane (2018) as Sawyer Valentini
- First Man (2018) as Janet Armstrong
- The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018) as Lisbeth Salander
- The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021) as Emily Richardson-Wain
- Women Talking (2022) as Salome
- All of Us Strangers (2023) as Mum
Tropes:
- Dye Hard: She is a brunette but she dyed her hair blonde including for her role in Unsane. She also dyed her hair reddish-blonde to play Diane Cavendish in Breathe.
- The Other Darrin: Replaced Rooney Mara as Lisbeth in The Girl in the Spider’s Web, as Mara declined to reprise the role.
- Playing Against Type: She’s mostly known for playing regal or English Rose type characters, though that's largely an accident related to a couple of big parts; her range also encompasses the sexy-psychotic Adora Belle Dearheart and the brittle all-American Janet Armstrong, after all. Anyhow, her next big role? Lisbeth Salander.
- Romance on the Set: Met her ex-husband Stephen Campbell Moore on the set of Season of the Witch. They married in 2014 and have a daughter but divorced in 2018.
- Separated-at-Birth Casting: Her as Queen Elizabeth II and Vanessa Kirby who plays her sister Princess Margaret on The Crown look like they could be related.
- Star-Making Role: To say Queen Elizabeth in The Crown (2016) is a star-making role for her is an understatement.
