Claire Foy

Claire Foy is an English actor best known for playing Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of Netflix’s historical drama The Crown. Born on April 16, 1984, in Stockport, Greater Manchester, she grew up in Buckinghamshire and studied drama at Liverpool John Moores University. She later trained at the Oxford School of Drama, graduating in 2007.

Foy made her television debut in the BBC production of Being Human in 2008, appearing as Julia in the supernatural drama’s first season. She continued working in period productions, playing Anne Boleyn in the 2010 BBC miniseries The Promise and the title character in the 2011 BBC adaptation of Little Dorrit. Her early film credits included Season of the Witch, in which she appeared alongside Nicolas Cage, and the historical drama Wreckers.

Her major breakthrough came with The Crown, created by Peter Morgan. Foy portrayed Elizabeth from her marriage to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, through the early years of her reign. Her performance emphasized the monarch’s conflict between personal feeling, family obligations, and constitutional duty. The role earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series, Drama, and two Primetime Emmy nominations. She won the Emmy in 2018, after her second season had aired.

Foy returned to the stage in 2015 as Anne in Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies at London’s Aldwych Theatre. In 2018, she played Janet Armstrong in First Man, Damien Chazelle’s film about astronaut Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 mission. The role presented Armstrong’s family life from Janet’s perspective and brought Foy nominations at several major awards ceremonies.

She also starred opposite Ryan Gosling in the 2018 thriller Unsane, directed by Steven Soderbergh, and played Lisbeth Salander in The Girl in the Spider’s Web, the 2018 adaptation of David Lagercrantz’s continuation of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series. In 2020, she appeared in the romantic drama film The Light Between Oceans, and in 2021 she played Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, in the BBC series A Very British Scandal opposite Paul Bettany.

Foy reunited with The Crown creator Peter Morgan for the 2022 film Women Talking, directed by Sarah Polley, appearing as Salome alongside Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, and Frances McDormand. She later returned briefly as the younger Queen Elizabeth in the final season of The Crown, which introduced new actors for the monarch’s later life. Foy’s career is marked by roles combining historical figures, emotionally restrained characters, and complex private lives.