Bethany Antonia

Bethany Antonia Clarke is a British actress and singer. She is widely recognized for her television, film, and stage work, most notably her portrayal of Lady Baela Targaryen in the HBO fantasy series House of the Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones adapted from George R. R. Martin's fictional history book Fire and Blood.

Antonia was born on 25 December 1997 in Quinton, Birmingham, and is of mixed English and Jamaican heritage. At the age of six, her family moved to a small coastal town in the southwestern Charente-Maritime region of France, returning to Birmingham when she was eleven. She attended Perryfields High School and studied musical theatre at Birmingham Ormiston Academy. At age 14, she began training at First Act Workshop, formerly known as Central Junior Television Workshop, as well as with the British Youth Music Theatre. Antonia is a lesbian and came out on Instagram in response to a racist comment.

Her professional acting career began at age 14 following open auditions for a 2012 short film adaptation of The Tempest, produced by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. She subsequently performed with the British Youth Music Theatre in their 2013 London stage production of Burnt Out Souls, as well as stage productions of Hairspray and Peter Pan: A Musical Adventure. Antonia made her television debut at age 18 with a guest appearance in the BBC One medical soap opera Doctors in 2016, and played Chelsea in the 2017 British Film Institute feature film Pin Cushion.

In 2019, Antonia was cast as Margot Rivers in the BBC iPlayer and Netflix teen series Get Even, an adaptation of Gretchen McNeil's Don't Get Mad book series. In 2021, she starred as Kayleigh Shaw alongside Cush Jumbo in the eight-episode Netflix crime drama Stay Close, created through a collaboration between Red Production Company and Harlan Coben.

Since 2022, Antonia has portrayed Lady Baela Targaryen in House of the Dragon. That same year, she performed as Rach in the play LAVA at Soho Theatre. In 2023, she played Poppy Ngnomo alongside Helena Bonham Carter in Russell T Davies' ITV miniseries Nolly. Beginning in 2023, she has also worked as a voiceover performer for audio drama company Big Finish Productions, voicing characters in Doctor Who universe projects including Dark Season: Legacy Rising, Doctor Who: The Seventh Doctor Adventures, The New Adventures of Bernice Summerfield, and The War Master.

In 2024, Antonia played Marianne Dashwood in the Hallmark Channel TV movie adaptation of Sense and Sensibility, and portrayed Mo Gilliban in the Doctor Who episode "The Well." Her scheduled projects include playing Eurydice in the 2026 West End production of Hadestown, as well as competing on the twenty-fourth series of Strictly Come Dancing.