Margaret Constance "Maisie" Williams (born 15 April 1997 in Bristol, England) is a British actor. Her first role outside of school theater has been as Arya Stark on the HBO series Game of Thrones. Her standout performance has received considerable acclaim, especially in light of her rather short resume, mixed with the extremely heavy material and experienced actors she's had to work with.
She also was in Cyberbully (2015). She was also announced to play the lead role in the indie silent film Corvidae (look at its indiegogo entry here
).
In 2015 she had a recurring role in Series 9 of Doctor Who as Ashildr (AKA "Me"), a girl from a Viking village. She's appeared as Lucy in The Film of the Book of iBoy in 2017. In 2018, she had a voice role in the animated film Early Man. She also stars as Wolfsbane in 2020's The New Mutants, based on the Marvel Comics of the same name, and as Scottish hacker Cameron MacCloud in Rooster Teeth's 2019 anime series gen:LOCK.
Has her own personal YouTube channel.
Filmography
Film
- Cyberbully as Casey Jacobs
- iBoy (2017) as Lucy Walker
- Early Man (2018) as Goona
- The New Mutants (2020) as Rahne Sinclair / Wolfsbane
Television
- Game of Thrones (2011-2019) as Arya Stark
- The Secret of Crickley Hall (2012) as Loren Caleigh
- Robot Chicken (2014) as Various
- Doctor Who (2015) as Ashildr
Video Games
Web Series
- Teens React (2014-2015) as herself
- gen:LOCK (2019-) as Cammie MacCloud
Tropes
- Big Guy, Little Guy: The little gal to her close friend Sophie Turner, who at 5'9" is eight inches taller. It helps that they're around the same age.
- Cast Incest: Maisie and Sophie "Sansa" Turner play this for laughs by joking about shipping themselves and sometimes groping each other in public.
- Dyeing for Your Art: She got her hair cut short for the second season of Game of Thrones. She also learned to use a sword with her left hand, as Arya is a leftie (Maisie herself is right-handed). The producers offered to make Arya right-handed in the show, but Maisie insisted Arya remain a leftie, knowing how much the fans would want to see it.
- I Am Not Spock: She adopted a very femme look after filming ended on Game of Thrones, including metallic pink hair, even while still promoting the final season. This likely aided a lot in getting people to not just think of her as Arya.
- Open Secret: Has a TikTok page where she appears on camera every so often but never actually acknowledges who she is. Her followers play along with this too.
- Reclusive Artist: She is determined to keep her personal life as private as possible. She stated from the start that her YouTube channel would rarely be updated, and while she posts fairly regularly on Twitter and Instagram, she's only shared a few intimate details. She's revealed (in separate interviews) both that she'd lost her virginity and had a boyfriend, but has only said that he's not in show business and refuses to tell his name.
- Suppressed Mammaries: She was only 13 (and had barely started puberty), playing an 11 or 12-year old, when Game of Thrones first season was filmed, which along with her diminutive height helped her look much younger. However, by the time of the second season, she'd developed further than Arya could have (since the in-universe timeframe was only a few weeks), and thus was padded down to look younger for several seasons. Compare pictures of her in the show with those of her at the premieres or conventions. This finally ended when she got a nude scene (and confirmed it was actually her rather than a body double) in Season 8 (though it was from the back).
