Vanessa Kirby (born 18 April 1987 in London, England) is an English actress.
Although relatively unknown for a long time, she began getting noticed for her performance as Estella in a BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens Great Expectations in 2011. Since then, she’s mostly appeared in supporting or bit parts in movies and television, including About Time, Everest, Jupiter Ascending and The Hour.
However, it was her role as Princess Margaret in The Crown that brought her to prominence, which led to her becoming a fan-favorite. The show also managed to score her a BATA (British Academy Television Award) nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She's also taken roles in some blockbuster franchise films such as Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. She's also gotten universal acclaim an Oscar nomination for her role as Martha Carson in Pieces of a Woman, winning Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for it.
She's a well-respected theatre actress, having garnered critical praise for her role as Elena in Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya.
Filmography:
- Great Expectations (2011) as Estella
- The Hour (2011-2012) as Ruth Elms
- Labyrinth (2012) as Alice Tanner
- About Time (2013) as Joanna
- Queen and Country (2014) as Dawn Rohan
- Jupiter Ascending (2015) as Katherine Dunlevy
- Everest (2015) as Sandy Hill Pittman
- Kill Command (2016) as Mills
- The Crown (2016-2017) as Princess Margaret
- Me Before You (2016) as Alicia
- Mission: Impossible film series as Alanna Mitsopolis aka "White Widow".
- Hobbs & Shaw (2019) as Hattie Shaw
- Mr. Jones (2019) as Ada Brooks
- Pieces of a Woman (2020) as Martha Carson
- The World to Come (2020 / 2021) as Tally
- Italian Studies (2021) as Alina Reynolds
- The Son (2022) as Beth
- Napoleon (2023) as Joséphine de Beauharnais
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe as The Invisible Woman / Sue Storm
- The Fantastic Four (2025)
Theatre:
- A Streetcar Named Desire as Stella Kowalski
- Uncle Vanya as Elena
Tropes associated with her works include:
- Funny Character, Boring Actor: Zig zagged. While boring is a strong word, she is known to come across as charming and funny in interviews, she had stated that a lot of fans assume she’s exactly like hard partying wild child Princess Margaret on The Crown. She is a self described “theatre geek”.
- Ms. Fanservice: Her one scene in Jupiter Ascending has her in lingerie. There's also her flipping her dress to draw out a knife in Mission: Impossible – Fallout.
- Separated-at-Birth Casting: In The Crown, she plays Princess Margaret, opposite Claire Foy as Queen Elizabeth II, Margaret's sister. She and Foy actually look like they could be related.
- Star-Making Role: Playing Princess Margaret gave her a career boost.
