Lily James (born April 5, 1989, Esher, Surrey, England) is an English screen and stage actress whose supporting role (2012–15) in the television series Downton Abbey launched her career. She was soon garnering lead parts in such big-screen movies as Disney’s live-action Cinderella (2015) as well as the Jane Austen parody Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016). By the 2020s she had assumed a wide range of roles, from an ingenue diner waitress in Baby Driver (2017) to a shy archaeologist in The Dig (2021) to the blonde bombshell Pamela Anderson in Pam & Tommy (2022).
Early life and education
Lily James was born Lily Chloe Ninette Thomson to a family of actors. Her paternal grandmother, Helen Horton, was an American actor, and both of her parents, Ninette and James Thomson, were also performers. In addition to being an actor, James Thomson was a musician, playing in a band with fellow actor Anthony Head.
Early television and stage roles
James made her television debut in 2010 in the series Just William, a comedy following the exploits of a young boy in 1950s England. The following year she had a recurring role in the saucy TV series Secret Diary of a Call Girl (2007–11).
Lily James as Lady Rose MacClare
Lily James as Lady Rose MacClare in the television series Downton Abbey. She played the role in the fourth and fifth seasons of the series, which ran from 2010 to 2015, and it catapulted her to fame. Also in 2012 James made her first appearance in the third season of the megahit historical drama Downton Abbey (2010–15), playing Lady Rose MacClare, the spirited and rebellious cousin of the Crawley sisters. She became a regular cast member for seasons four and five and appeared in the series’ final episode during its sixth season. The role catapulted James to fame, and she was soon seemingly everywhere, garnering lead roles on the big screen, including as the title character in Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella (2015), though she had originally auditioned for the role of one of the wicked stepsisters;
Trivia
After learning that another actress in the Actors’ Equity Association had the name Lily Thomson, she choose the stage surname of James to honour the memory of her father, James Thomson, who had died a few years earlier.
She is a mezzo-soprano.
Graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, in London, England, with a bachelor of arts honors degree in acting in 2010.
Her grandmother Helen Horton provided the voice of “Mother,” the Nostromo space tug’s computer in Ridley Scott’s Alien (1979).
Is a distant relative to her Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) co-star Meryl Streep. Although the two actresses don’t share a scene together, James played a younger version of Streep’s character.
Lily James Pictures
