There are actors who find one iconic role and ride it for a decade, and then there’s Anya Taylor-Joy — who has amassed a filmography so varied it feels like she’s been in five different industries at once. From the terrified Thomasin in a Puritan horror to a chess prodigy who captivated the world, she has become one of the most versatile performers of her generation.

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Birth Name: Anya-Josephine Marie Taylor-Joy ·
Born: April 16, 1996 (Miami, Florida) ·
Breakout Role: Thomasin in The Witch (2015) ·
Award: Golden Globe for Best Actress – The Queen’s Gambit (2021) ·
Notable Series: The Queen’s Gambit, Peaky Blinders

Quick snapshot

1Confirmed facts
2What’s unclear
  • Exact net worth (estimates vary) (IMDb reports $5 million)
  • Family wealth status — reportedly middle-class (Encyclopaedia Britannica notes father a real estate agent)
  • Development timeline of The New Mutants — claims of “29 years” unverified (IMDb)
  • Exact number of award nominations (only Golden Globe and SAG are widely reported) (IMDb)
3Timeline signal
4What’s next
  • The Gorge (2025) — action thriller
  • Sacrifice (2025) — drama
  • Possible Furiosa sequel (rumored)

The following table provides a quick overview of key biographical data.

Key facts about Anya Taylor-Joy
Attribute Details
Full Name Anya-Josephine Marie Taylor-Joy
Birthdate April 16, 1996
Birthplace Miami, Florida, USA
Height 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Net Worth $5 million (estimated) – note: figures vary across sources
Notable Awards Golden Globe, SAG Award
Languages Spoken English, Spanish (fluent)
Notable TV Series The Queen’s Gambit, Peaky Blinders

What is Anya Taylor famous for?

Anya Taylor-Joy’s fame rests on a foundation of striking versatility. She is best known for her breakout role in The Witch (2015) and the Netflix phenomenon The Queen’s Gambit (2020) – but her filmography includes horror, period drama, action, and black comedy. The common thread: an otherworldly intensity that critics and audiences keep returning to.

What is Anya Taylor-Joy’s most famous role?

  • Beth Harmon in The Queen’s Gambit (2020) — widely considered her defining performance. The role earned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Miniseries, a SAG Award, and a Primetime Emmy nomination (Television Academy).
  • Other iconic roles: Thomasin in The Witch (2015), Casey Cooke in Split (2016) and Glass (2019), Emma Woodhouse in Emma. (2020), Margot in The Menu (2022), and Imperator Furiosa in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024).

What are Anya Taylor-Joy’s best movies?

Critics’ scores for her most acclaimed projects are shown below.

  • The Queen’s Gambit – 97% (critic score)
  • The Menu – 88%
  • Emma. – 86%
  • The Witch – 91%
  • Split – 75%
  • Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – 90% (as of early 2025)
Bottom line: Taylor-Joy’s most famous role is Beth Harmon in The Queen’s Gambit, but her filmography shows she is far from a one-hit wonder. For fans seeking her best work, start with The Witch and The Menu. For those who want the full range, watch Split and Furiosa back-to-back.
The upshot

The range from Puritan horror (The Witch) to high‑stakes action (Furiosa) in under a decade is rare. The pattern: Taylor‑Joy chooses roles that test her ability to shift emotional registers — and she keeps winning.

What this means: A director casting Taylor‑Joy knows she can anchor a period drama, a psychological thriller, or a blockbuster. The downside for audiences: she rarely repeats a type, so every new project is a gamble — and that’s exactly what makes her compelling.

The implication: Taylor-Joy’s career is not defined by one role but by a pattern of selecting scripts that require complete transformation. For streamers and studios, she is the rare actor who draws both art-house and mainstream audiences.

What is Anya Taylor-Joy’s ethnicity?

Born in Miami to a Spanish-Argentine mother and a Scottish-Argentine father, Taylor-Joy grew up in Argentina and the United Kingdom. She speaks fluent English and Spanish.

What nationality does Anya Taylor-Joy consider herself?

She holds multiple citizenships and has said she considers herself Argentinian, British, and American. In an interview with Vogue, she stated: “I feel like a citizen of the world. I have a foot in so many different places, and I love that about my life.”

Is Anya an Irish name?

The name “Anya” has Russian origins (a diminutive of Anna) but is also used in Ireland. It gained popularity in Ireland in the 1990s, though Taylor‑Joy’s parents chose it independent of that trend. Her middle names, Josephine and Marie, honor her grandmothers.

Bottom line: Taylor-Joy’s multicultural identity — Argentinian, Scottish, Spanish, American — directly informs her acting. She can disappear into roles set in 17th-century New England, Regency England, or a post-apocalyptic wasteland because she never feels like an outsider in any of them.

What is Anya Taylor-Joy’s highest-rated movie?

According to Rotten Tomatoes, her highest-rated project is The Queen’s Gambit with a 97% critic score. Among theatrical films, The Witch (91%) leads, followed by Furiosa (90%) and The Menu (88%).

What are the best Anya Taylor-Joy movies?

Top‑rated Anya Taylor‑Joy movies (Rotten Tomatoes critic scores)
Movie Year RT Score
The Queen’s Gambit (miniseries) 2020 97%
The Witch 2015 91%
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga 2024 90%
The Menu 2022 88%
Emma. 2020 86%
Split 2016 75%

What was Anya Taylor-Joy’s first movie?

Her first credited movie role was Thomasin in The Witch (2015), which premiered at Sundance Film Festival that year. Before that, she had an uncredited cameo in Vampire Academy (2014) and appeared in a single episode of the BBC series Atlantis (Apple TV).

Bottom line: Taylor-Joy’s highest‑rated work is The Queen’s Gambit, but her first movie was the horror hit The Witch. For critics, her most consistent run of high scores came between 2020 and 2024 — a period of extraordinary quality control.

Why is Anya Taylor-Joy so popular?

Her popularity is fueled by a rare combination: a distinctive, almost doll‑like face that directors love to frame; a capacity for stillness that makes tense scenes crackle; and the global reach of The Queen’s Gambit. But beyond the surface, three factors explain her rise.

How old is Anya Taylor-Joy?

Born April 16, 1996, she turned 29 in 2025 (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

What is Anya Taylor-Joy’s net worth?

Estimated at $5 million as of 2025, according to industry tracking — though exact figures are never confirmed. The estimate includes earnings from The Queen’s Gambit, film salaries, and endorsements such as her campaign for Dior.

Is Anya Taylor Joy’s family rich?

Her family was not extremely wealthy. Her father worked in real estate and her mother as a psychologist — a middle‑class upbringing in Argentina and later England. The notion that she came from privilege is overstated; she has described herself as having to “figure things out” after moving to London at 16.

What to watch

The idea that Taylor‑Joy was born into privilege is a misconception. Her family’s moderate means meant she had to build her career from scratch — which may explain why she values role diversity over paycheck size.

Bottom line: Taylor‑Joy is 29, worth roughly $5 million, and came from a middle‑class home. The popularity is real, but it was earned through talent, not inheritance. For fans who worry she might “sell out,” her track record suggests the opposite.

What is Anya Taylor-Joy’s most famous role?

Her most famous role remains Beth Harmon in The Queen’s Gambit — a character that turned chess into a global obsession. The show became Netflix’s most‑watched limited series at the time and won Taylor‑Joy a Golden Globe and SAG Award.

Who played Michael’s wife in Peaky Blinders?

Taylor-Joy played Gina Gray, the American wife of Michael Gray, in Peaky Blinders series 5 and 6 (2019–2022). Her character brought a new power dynamic to the Shelby family.

What movie took 29 years to make?

The claim that The New Mutants (2020) took 29 years to make is a rough reference to how long the project was in development — from initial comic book ideas in the early 1990s to release. The exact timeline is disputed, but the movie was indeed shelved and delayed for years.

Bottom line: Taylor‑Joy’s most famous role is Beth Harmon, but her part in Peaky Blinders showed she can hold her own against established TV royalty. The “29‑year movie” is The New Mutants — a creative footnote, not a career highlight.
The catch

If you watch The New Mutants expecting a masterpiece, you’ll be disappointed. But as a curiosity — a superhero movie that spent decades in limbo — it’s a fascinating artifact. Taylor‑Joy’s performance is one of the few bright spots.

Timeline: Anya Taylor-Joy’s career at a glance

  • – Film debut in The Witch, earning critical praise. (Britannica)
  • – Starred in Split as Casey Cooke. (Britannica)
  • – Released black comedy Thoroughbreds. (Britannica)
  • – Appeared in Glass and joined Peaky Blinders as Gina Gray. (Rotten Tomatoes)
  • – Breakthrough role as Beth Harmon in The Queen’s Gambit; won Golden Globe. (Golden Globes)
  • – Starred in The Menu and The Northman. (Britannica)
  • – Lead role in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. (Britannica)
  • – Upcoming films: The Gorge, Sacrifice.
What this means: The timeline shows a steady upward trajectory — every two years a major step change. The gap between 2022 and 2024 (three years) is her longest, but Furiosa proved the wait was worth it.

Confirmed facts

  • Birth name and birthdate: Anya‑Josephine Marie Taylor‑Joy, April 16, 1996. (Encyclopaedia Britannica)
  • Role as Beth Harmon in The Queen’s Gambit. (Golden Globes)
  • Won Golden Globe in 2021 for that role. (Golden Globes)
  • Played Gina Gray in Peaky Blinders. (Rotten Tomatoes)
  • Lead in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024). (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

What’s unclear

  • Exact net worth — estimates vary from $3 million to $8 million.
  • Family wealth — likely middle‑class, not wealthy.
  • Exact development timeline of The New Mutants — “29 years” is an approximation.
  • First audition for Maleficent (2014) — reported but unconfirmed by Disney.
  • Exact number of award nominations (only Golden Globe and SAG are widely reported).

What the critics say

“Taylor-Joy has an otherworldly quality that makes her perfect for period horror and high-concept sci-fi.”

— Walter Chaw, film critic for FilmFreakCentral

“I feel like a citizen of the world. I have a foot in so many different places, and I love that about my life.”

— Anya Taylor-Joy, in an interview with Vogue

Why this matters

Chaw’s description of Taylor‑Joy as “otherworldly” is not just flattery — it’s the core reason she keeps landing roles in genres that demand a face that feels outside time. The combination of classical beauty and unplaceable accent gives directors a blank canvas.

The implication: Taylor-Joy’s ability to earn such praise from critics across genres confirms her standing as a chameleon-like talent.

Summary

Anya Taylor-Joy has built a career that defies easy categorisation — a horror debut, a blockbuster franchise, a prestige TV triumph, and an action reboot under George Miller. Each step has been deliberate, each role chosen for challenge rather than comfort. For fans assembling their own Anya Taylor‑Joy marathon, the order matters: start with The Witch to see her raw talent, then The Queen’s Gambit to see her command a screen, and finish with Furiosa to watch her own the frame. For the streaming services and studios watching, the decision is clear: greenlight whatever she wants next, or risk missing the next Queen’s Gambit.

Additional sources

en.wikipedia.org, screenrant.com, letterboxd.com

Related coverage: complete filmography of Anya Taylor-Joy fördjupar bilden av Anya Taylor-Joy Movies and TV Shows: Complete Filmography.

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Frequently asked questions

How many languages does Anya Taylor-Joy speak?

She speaks English and Spanish fluently. She also learned some Russian for The Queen’s Gambit but is not conversational.

What is Anya Taylor-Joy’s height?

She is 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in).

Is Anya Taylor-Joy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

No, she has not appeared in any Marvel Studios production. She voiced a character in The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) but that is not Marvel.

What is Anya Taylor-Joy’s next movie?

She has two films in post‑production for 2025: The Gorge (action thriller) and Sacrifice (drama).

Did Anya Taylor-Joy train for The Queen’s Gambit?

Yes, she took chess lessons and learned to perform realistic chess moves. She has said she still enjoys playing casually.

How did Anya Taylor-Joy get her start in acting?

She was scouted at a London shopping centre at age 16. Her first audition was reportedly for Maleficent (2014) but she did not get the part. She then appeared in Atlantis and Vampire Academy before landing The Witch.

What are Anya Taylor-Joy’s social media handles?

Her Instagram is @anyataylorjoy (verified). She is not active on Twitter/X.

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