Mia McKenna-Bruce

Mia Sasha McKenna-Bruce is an English actress born on 3 July 1997. She is best known for her long-running television role as Tee Taylor in the Tracy Beaker franchise and her acclaimed performance as Tara in the feature film How to Have Sex. Over the course of her career, she has appeared across stage, television, and film productions.

McKenna-Bruce was raised in Chislehurst, Bromley. During her youth, she took dance classes at the Liz Burville Performing Arts Centre in Bexley and trained at the Sapphire Dance Academy in Bexleyheath. She was also a student at the Belcanto London Academy and attended Maidstone Grammar School for Girls.

She began her acting career on stage, performing as a ballet girl in the West End production of Billy Elliot the Musical. She subsequently transitioned to screen acting with early television roles, including guest appearances in Small Dark Places, Holby City, EastEnders, The Bill, and Doctors. In 2009, she made her feature film debut playing Ashley Tyler in The Fourth Kind.

McKenna-Bruce gained wider public recognition starting in 2010 when she joined the cast of Tracy Beaker Returns as Tee Taylor, a role she played through 2012. She continued portraying the character in spin-off productions, including the webisode series The Dumping Ground: I'm..., The Tracy Beaker Survival Guide, and the main series The Dumping Ground from 2013 to 2016, with further guest appearances in 2017 and 2018. She later guest-starred in Spy, BBC Three's Josh, Holby City, and Vera, while also starring in the feature film The Rebels. She subsequently held recurring and main roles as Bree Deringer in the teen thriller Get Even, Mary Musgrove in Persuasion, and Mia Karp in the fantasy series Vampire Academy.

In 2021, McKenna-Bruce successfully auditioned for the lead role of Tara in Molly Manning Walker's film How to Have Sex. Her performance as an inexperienced holidaymaker in Crete earned significant praise and led to her being named a Screen Star of Tomorrow by Screen Daily. For her role, she won a British Independent Film Award, the BAFTA Rising Star Award at the 77th British Academy Film Awards, and Best Breakthrough Performer of the Year at the London Film Critics Circle Awards, alongside a nomination for Best Actress at the European Film Awards.

McKenna-Bruce was cast as Lady Eileen "Bundle" Brent in the Netflix series Agatha Christie's Seven Dials. Her other film projects include The Fence and an upcoming portrayal of Maureen Starkey in a series of Beatles biographical films set for release in 2028. In her personal life, McKenna-Bruce gave birth to a son in August 2023 and married actor Tom Leach in 2024.