Claire Foy

Claire Elizabeth Foy is a British actress born on 16 April 1984. She is best known for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the Netflix biographical drama series The Crown. Her work in the role earned her widespread recognition alongside major honours, including a Golden Globe Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards.

Foy was born in Stockport, Greater Manchester, to David Foy and Caroline Stimpson, and grew up alongside an older brother and sister. Her family moved to Longwick, Buckinghamshire, where her father worked as a salesman for Rank Xerox. Her parents separated when she was two years old and later divorced. Foy attended Aylesbury High School before studying drama and screen studies at Liverpool John Moores University. She subsequently completed a one-year course at the Oxford School of Drama, graduating in 2007, before moving to Peckham in south London.

Foy began her acting career with stage roles during her time at drama school, appearing in productions such as Top Girls and Watership Down. She made her professional stage debut at the Royal National Theatre in DNA. On television, Foy made her screen debut in the pilot episode of Being Human in 2008. That same year, she played the title role of Amy Dorrit in the BBC miniseries Little Dorrit, earning an RTS Award nomination. She followed this with television roles in Going Postal, Upstairs Downstairs, and The Promise, as well as her feature film debut in Season of the Witch in 2011.

Foy gained further acclaim for her performance as Anne Boleyn in the 2015 BBC miniseries Wolf Hall, which earned her a nomination for a British Academy Television Award. In 2016, she began starring as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown. Beyond her Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy wins, her performance in the series garnered two Screen Actors Guild Awards and multiple BAFTA Television Award nominations across her appearances in various seasons.

In 2018, Foy starred in Steven Soderbergh's psychological thriller Unsane and portrayed Lisbeth Salander in The Girl in the Spider's Web. That same year, she played Janet Shearon, the wife of Neil Armstrong, in Damien Chazelle's biopic First Man, receiving Best Supporting Actress nominations from the Golden Globes, Critics' Choice, and BAFTAs. She later starred as Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, in the drama series A Very British Scandal in 2021, and appeared in films such as The Electrical Life of Louis Wain and My Son.

In 2022, Foy portrayed Salome in the film Women Talking, winning a Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress. She also earned a BAFTA nomination for her role in the 2023 drama film All of Us Strangers. Her subsequent film projects include portraying writer Helen Macdonald in H Is for Hawk—for which she received a Golden Eye Award at the Zurich Film Festival—alongside roles in The Magic Faraway Tree, Savage House, and the film adaptation Ink.

Foy married actor Stephen Campbell Moore in 2014, with whom she has one daughter, before the couple announced their separation in 2018. In 2021, Foy was targeted by a stalker who pleaded guilty in 2022. She has also disclosed living with an autoimmune condition as well as stomach parasites contracted during a trip to Morocco.