Claire Elizabeth Foy is an English actress. She studied acting at the Liverpool John Moores University and the Oxford School of Drama, and made her screen debut in the pilot of the supernatural comedy series Being Human, in 2008. Following her professional stage debut at the Royal National Theatre, she played the title role in the BBC One miniseries Little Dorrit and made her film debut in the Americanhistorical fantasy drama Season of the Witch. Following leading roles in the television series The Promise and Crossbones, Foy received praise for portraying the ill-fated queen Anne Boleyn in the miniseries Wolf Hall. Foy gained international recognition for portraying the young Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of the Netflix series The Crown, for which she won a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy, among other awards. In 2018, she starred in Steven Soderbergh's psychological thriller Unsane and portrayed Janet Shearon, wife of astronaut Neil Armstrong, in Damien Chazelle's biopic First Man. For the latter role, she was nominated for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe.
Early life
Claire Elizabeth Foy was born on 16 April 1984 in Stockport, Greater Manchester. She has said that her mother, Caroline, comes from a "massive" Irish family; her maternal grandparents come from Dublin and Kildare. She grew up in Manchester and Leeds, the youngest of three children. Her family later moved to Longwick, Buckinghamshire, for her father's job as a salesman for Rank Xerox. Her parents divorced when she was eight. She has a younger half-sister through her father's second marriage. Foy was educated at Aylesbury High School from the age of 12 and later attended Liverpool John Moores University, studying drama and screen studies. She also trained in a one-year course at the Oxford School of Drama. She graduated in 2007 and moved to London's Peckham district to share a house with five friends from drama school.
Career
While at the Oxford School of Drama, Foy appeared in the plays Top Girls, Watership Down, Easy Virtue, and Touched. After appearing on television, she made her professional stage debut in DNA and The Miracle, two of a trio of single acts directed by Paul Miller at the Royal National Theatre in London. Foy starred as the protagonist, Amy Dorrit, in the BBC series Little Dorrit, and was nominated for an RTS Award. She went on to appear in the TV film Going Postal and the horror adventure film Season of the Witch. Foy also starred in the BBC revival of Upstairs Downstairs as Lady Persephone, and co-starred in the Channel 4 serial The Promise, broadcast in February 2011. Foy played a lead role, Helen, in the TV movie The Night Watch, which was based on a Sarah Waters novel. She returned to the stage in February 2013 as Lady Macbeth, alongside James McAvoy in the title role, in Macbeth at the Trafalgar Studios. In 2015, Foy played the English queen Anne Boleyn in the six-part drama serial Wolf Hall. Her performance was met with critical praise and compared to Geneviève Bujold's iconic performance in Anne of the Thousand Days. Foy was subsequently nominated for the 2016 British Academy Television Award for Best Actress. In 2016, Foy portrayed the young Queen Elizabeth II in Peter Morgan's Netflix biographical drama series The Crown. Her performance earned her the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama, the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series twice, and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series. She was also nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress. In 2017, she reprised the role in the second season, before the role passed to actress Olivia Colman, who would portray the Queen in middle age, beginning in the third season. Also in 2017, Foy starred as Diana Cavendish in the biographical drama film Breathe. In 2018, Foy starred in Steven Soderbergh's psychological thriller Unsane; portrayed the vigilante Lisbeth Salander in the action-thriller The Girl in the Spider's Web; and Janet Shearon, wife of American astronaut Neil Armstrong, in Damien Chazelle's biopic First Man. For the latter, she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture, the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Personal life
Foy married actor Stephen Campbell Moore in 2014. Together they have a daughter, Ivy Rose, born in March 2015. The couple announced their separation in February 2018, stating that they "have been separated for some time".
