Background and career
Daisy Jazz Isobel Ridley (born 10 April 1992) is an English actress. She rose to prominence for her role as Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy from 2015 until 2019. Following the Star Wars films, Ridley appeared in the mystery film Murder on the Orient Express (2017), and played Ophelia in the romantic drama Ophelia (2018). She had voice roles in the animated film Peter Rabbit (2018) and the video game Twelve Minutes (2021). She subsequently had leading roles in the science-fiction film Chaos Walking (2021), the independent drama Sometimes I Think About Dying (2023), and the psychological thriller The Marsh King's Daughter (2023). She also portrayed Gertrude Ederle in the biographical drama Young Woman and the Sea (2024).
Ridley was born on 10 April 1992 in the London borough of Westminster, and grew up in Maida Vale. She is the youngest of three daughters born to Christopher Ridley, a photographer, and Louise (née Fawkner-Corbett), who works for a bank. She has two older sisters, Kika Rose and Poppy Sophia, as well as two older half-sisters. Her mother's family, the Fawkner-Corbetts, were landed gentry with a military and medical background. Her great-uncle Arnold Ridley was a playwright and actor, and played Private Godfrey in the television sitcom Dad's Army. Growing up, Ridley's favourite film was Matilda (1996), and she viewed the character Matilda as a role model. Ridley won a scholarship to Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Hertfordshire, which she attended from ages nine to eighteen. She then studied classical civilisation at Birkbeck, University of London, before dropping out to focus on her acting career. Prior to being cast in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ridley worked as a bartender at two different pubs in London. In 2016, she began studying for a BA in social science through online courses with the Open University.
Ridley began her career with roles in the television programmes Youngers, Toast of London, Silent Witness, Mr Selfridge and Casualty. She appeared in the short film Blue Season, which was entered into the Sci-Fi-London 48-Hour Film Challenge. Ridley played the lead in the third part of Lifesaver, an interactive film which was nominated for a BAFTA Award. She also appeared in the music video for Wiley's song "Lights On", playing the character of Kim. She made her film debut in the 2015 British independent horror film Scrawl, after her scenes from the British comedy film The Inbetweeners 2 were removed in the final cut.
In April 2014, it was announced that Ridley had been cast as Rey, one of the lead characters in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). At the time of her casting she was, according to Rolling Stone, a "total unknown". Her choice by director J. J. Abrams was seen as a repeat of George Lucas' move of casting relatively unknown actors for the lead roles in the first Star Wars film in 1977. Ridley began filming her scenes in May 2014 at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, and prior to the film's release in December 2015, she appeared at the launch of a set of Star Wars postage stamps issued by the UK postal service Royal Mail, with her character Rey featuring on a stamp along with the droid BB-8. With international revenues of over $2 billion, The Force Awakens was a major box-office hit and the highest-grossing film of 2015. Her performance received critical acclaim, with Richard Roeper describing her portrayal as "a breakout performance" and adding that "[Harrison] Ford has a terrific father figure chemistry [shared] with Ridley and [John] Boyega".
Ridley became the executive producer of the documentary The Eagle Huntress in January 2016, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 24 January 2016; she also recorded narration for the film's wide release. Ridley was one of several actors featured on Barbra Streisand's 2016 album Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. Along with Anne Hathaway, Ridley and Streisand perform the song "At the Ballet" from A Chorus Line, with Ridley performing the role of Bebe, one of a trio of dancers hoping to be cast in a forthcoming show.
In 2017, Ridley portrayed Mary Debenham in Murder on the Orient Express, an adaptation of Agatha Christie's detective novel of the same name. Directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, production began in London in November 2016. She also reprised her role as Rey, opposite Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was released in December 2017. In January 2018, Ridley starred as Ophelia in Ophelia, a reimagining of the Hamlet tale, alongside Naomi Watts and Clive Owen. The film was shot from April to July 2017 and debuted at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. In February 2018, Ridley voiced Cottontail in the film Peter Rabbit, an adaptation of the children's book Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter. In 2019, Ridley appeared as Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the last film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
