Imogen Poots

Imogen Poots is an English actor born on 3 June 1989 in Hammersmith, London. She is the daughter of television producer Trevor Poots and journalist Fiona Goodall. Her first screen appearance came in a 2004 episode of the BBC medical drama Casualty, and she later had a small part in V for Vendetta (2005). Her breakthrough arrived with Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s post-apocalyptic horror film 28 Weeks Later (2007), in which she played Tammy, a teenager whose return to London helps trigger a new outbreak of the rage virus.

Poots subsequently worked across British independent cinema, Hollywood productions, horror, comedy, and literary adaptations. In Richard Linklater’s Me and Orson Welles (2008), she played Lorelei Lacey opposite Zac Efron and Christian McKay. She appeared as Ariadne in the 2010 Roman Britain thriller Centurion and played Amy Peterson in Craig Gillespie’s 2011 remake of Fright Night. That same year, she portrayed the sharp-tongued musician Charlotte in Cary Fukunaga’s adaptation of Jane Eyre, starring Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender.

Her 2013 films included The Look of Love, where she played Debbie Raymond, the daughter of Paul Raymond, portrayed by Steve Coogan. Poots received the British Independent Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for that performance. She also played Ellie in the romantic comedy That Awkward Moment and Maureen Thomson in A Long Way Down, adapted from Nick Hornby’s novel.

Poots became especially associated with demanding genre films during the middle of the decade. In Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room (2015), she played Amber, a woman trapped with a punk band inside a venue controlled by violent neo-Nazis. The film featured Anton Yelchin, Alia Shawkat, Joe Cole, and Patrick Stewart. She also appeared in Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups, alongside Christian Bale, and played the title character in Frank & Lola, a noir-inflected drama opposite Michael Shannon.

In 2014, Poots starred as Julia Maddon in Need for Speed, the film adaptation of Electronic Arts’ racing-game franchise. She later played Gemma in Lorcan Finnegan’s Vivarium (2019), opposite Jesse Eisenberg. The film follows a couple who become trapped in a strange suburban housing development called Yonder. In Florian Zeller’s The Father (2020), she played Laura, the girlfriend of Anthony, played by Anthony Hopkins.

On stage, Poots appeared in Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? at London’s Harold Pinter Theatre in 2017, playing Honey opposite Imelda Staunton, Conleth Hill, and Luke Treadaway. Her career has moved repeatedly between studio releases, independent films, television, and theatre.