Joe Anders

Joe Anders, originally named Joe Alfie Winslet Mendes, is an American-British actor, screenwriter, and composer born on December 22, 2003. He is known for his work across film and television, taking on both performing and behind-the-scenes creative roles. Coming from a background surrounded by the entertainment industry, he has built a career in screen acting alongside efforts in musical composition and scriptwriting.

Anders was born in New York City to English actress Kate Winslet and film director Sam Mendes. Following his parents' separation in 2010 and subsequent divorce in 2011, he spent his youth moving between New York and England. To escape public attention from paparazzi, he relocated to England with his mother and older half-sister, actress Mia Threapleton, eventually settling in West Wittering, Sussex, in 2013. His background features a mix of ancestral lineages, including English, Irish, Swedish, Trinidadian, and Jewish roots, with artistic endeavors spanning multiple generations of his family.

His acting debut occurred at the age of fifteen when he appeared as Private Willock in the 2019 war drama 1917, directed by his father, where he was credited under his birth name, Joe Mendes. He subsequently adopted the stage name Joe Anders and continued building his filmography. In 2022, he shared the screen with his mother and sister in the Channel 4 television production I Am Ruth, portraying the son and brother of their respective characters.

In 2023, Anders featured as an American soldier in the biographical war film Lee. That same year, he landed his first starring role in the musical coming-of-age romantic comedy Bonus Track. For his lead performance in the film, he received industry recognition by being longlisted for a British Independent Film Award in the Breakthrough Performance category. His acting career continued to progress with his casting in Zoe Kazan's miniseries adaptation of East of Eden in October 2024, followed by joining the cast of the Apple TV+ series Cape Fear in May 2025.

Beyond acting, Anders developed skills in musical performance and composition, learning the piano during the 2020 lockdown period and later composing the score for the 2024 short film Big Cat. He also pursued screenwriting by attending a course at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England, when he was nineteen years old.

Using his screenwriting training, Anders authored the screenplay for the family drama film Goodbye June, which drew inspiration from the death of his maternal grandmother when he was thirteen years old. The project served as his official screenwriting debut and marked his mother's first film as a director, seeing its release on Netflix in December 2025.