Claire Foy

Claire Elizabeth Foy (born 16 April 1984) is a British actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the Netflix drama series The Crown (2016–2023), for which she received various accolades such as a Golden Globe and two Primetime Emmy Awards.

Foy made her screen debut in the pilot episode of the supernatural comedy series Being Human (2008). Following her professional stage debut at the Royal National Theatre, she played the title role in the BBC One miniseries Little Dorrit (2008) and made her film debut in the American historical fantasy drama Season of the Witch (2011). Following leading roles in the television series The Promise (2011) and Crossbones (2014), Foy earned praise for portraying the ill-fated queen Anne Boleyn in the BBC miniseries Wolf Hall (2015), receiving a BAFTA Nomination nomination.

In 2018, she starred in Steven Soderbergh's psychological thriller Unsane and portrayed Janet Shearon, wife of astronaut Neil Armstrong, in Damien Chazelle's biopic First Man. For the latter, she received Best Supporting Actress nominations from the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs. She has since portrayed Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll in the Amazon Prime series A Very British Scandal (2021), and starred in the drama films Women Talking (2022) and All of Us Strangers (2023). The last of these earned her another BAFTA nomination.

Claire Elizabeth Foy was born in Stockport, England, on 16 April 1984 to David Foy and Caroline Stimpson, the youngest of three children. She has an older brother and an older sister, as well as a younger half sister through her father. She grew up in Manchester and Leeds, and the family later moved to Longwick, Buckinghamshire, for her father's job as a Rank Xerox salesman. Her parents divorced when she was eight.

Foy was educated at Aylesbury High School from the age of 12 until 2002, and later studied drama at Liverpool John Moores University. She also took a one-year course at the Oxford School of Drama, graduating in 2007 and moving to the Peckham area of south London to share a house with five friends from drama school.

While at the Oxford School of Drama, Foy appeared in the plays Top Girls, Watership Down, Easy Virtue, and Touched. After appearing in small roles on television, she made her professional stage debut in DNA and The Miracle, two of a trio of single acts directed by Paul Miller at the Royal National Theatre in London (the third was Baby Girl). Foy starred as the protagonist, Amy Dorrit, in the BBC series Little Dorrit. She was nominated for an RTS Award. She went on to appear in the TV film Going Postal and the horror adventure film Season of the Witch. Foy also starred in the BBC revival of Upstairs Downstairs as Lady Persephone, and co-starred in the Channel 4 serial The Promise, broadcast in February 2011.

Foy played a lead role, Helen, in the TV movie The Night Watch, which was based on a Sarah Waters novel. She returned to the stage in February 2013 as Lady Macbeth, alongside James McAvoy in the title role, in Macbeth at the Trafalgar Studios. In 2015, Foy played the English queen Anne Boleyn in the six-part drama serial Wolf Hall. Her performance was met with critical praise and has been named as one of the best on-screen portrayals of Boleyn. Foy was subsequently nominated for the 2016 British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. Foy appears in the sequel series The Mirror and the Light via archive footage.

In 2016, Foy portrayed Queen Elizabeth II in Peter Morgan's Netflix biographical drama series The Crown. Her performance earned her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series twice, and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She was also nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress. In 2017, she reprised the role in the second season, before the role passed to actress Olivia Colman, who would portray the Queen in middle age, beginning in the third season.