Maisie Williams

Margaret Constance "Maisie" Williams is an English actress. She made her professional acting debut in 2011 as Arya Stark in the HBO fantasy drama television series Game of Thrones (2011–2019). Her performance brought her international recognition, critical praise, and two Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

Williams was born in Bristol, England, on 15 April 1997. The youngest of four siblings, she was raised by her mother and stepfather in Clutton, Somerset. She was nicknamed "Maisie" at an early age after a character from the UK newspaper comic strip The Perishers. Williams attended Clutton Primary School and Norton Hill School before enrolling at BDC Bath Dance College to study performing arts, training in dance, gymnastics, and trampolining with aspirations of becoming a professional dancer. She left formal schooling at age 14 to pursue her acting career and was subsequently home-educated.

At age 13, Williams was cast in Game of Thrones, playing the central character of Arya Stark across all eight seasons until the series ended in May 2019. She performed the majority of her own fight scenes and stunts during the show. For her work on the series, she received two Saturn Awards, two Portal Awards, an Empire Hero Award, and nominations for Primetime Emmy, BAFTA TV, and MTV Movie & TV Awards. During her time on the show, she also appeared in the television series The Secret of Crickley Hall (2012) and the films Heatstroke (2012) and Gold (2014).

In 2014, Williams starred in her feature film debut as Lydia in the coming-of-age mystery drama The Falling, earning critical acclaim and awards including the London Film Critics' Circle Award for Young Performer of the Year. She subsequently co-starred in the Netflix film iBoy (2017), the period drama Mary Shelley (2017), the animated comedy Early Man (2018), and the romantic comedy-drama Then Came You (2018). In October 2018, she made her stage debut playing Caroline in Lauren Gunderson's play I and You at London's Hampstead Theatre.

Williams's other television projects include playing the recurring role of Ashildr in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who (2015) and starring in the Channel 4 docudrama television film Cyberbully (2015). From 2019 to 2021, she voiced Cammie MacCloud in the animated web series Gen:Lock. Her later roles include Rahne Sinclair / Wolfsbane in the superhero horror film The New Mutants (2020), Mary in the psychological thriller The Owners (2020), Kim Noakes in the comedy action miniseries Two Weeks to Live (2020), and punk rock icon Jordan in the biopic miniseries Pistol (2022).

In 2019, Williams co-developed and launched Daisie, a multi-media social media platform and networking app designed to support emerging artists and creators in starting their careers.