Dafne María Keen Fernández is a British-Spanish actress. She made her debut starring as Ana "Ani" Cruz Oliver on the television series The Refugees from 2014 to 2015. She received recognition for starring as Laura in the 2017 filmLogan, for which she received several awards and nominations, including winning an Empire Award for Best Newcomer. In 2019, she began starring as Lyra Belacqua/Silvertongue in the television seriesHis Dark Materials.
Life and career
Keen was born in Madrid. She is the daughter of British actorWill Keen, and Galician actress, theatre director and writer María Fernández Ache. A paternal great-grandfather was Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe; her aunts are poet Alice Oswald and writer Laura Beatty. Keen began acting in 2014, starring alongside her father in the BBC television series The Refugees, where she played Ana "Ani" Cruz Oliver. The show ended in 2015 after one season. Keen did not take on any new projects until 2 years later, when she co-starred with Hugh Jackman in the 2017 superhero filmLogan as the mutant Laura, the child clone of Wolverine. The film opened to critical and financial success, and is considered to be one of the bestsuperhero movies of all time. Keen's performance received critical acclaim, and she received several awards and nominations for her performance, which include winning an Empire Award for Best Newcomer, and receiving nominations from the Chicago Film Critics Association, the Saturn Awards, and more. In 2019, Keen was cast in the lead role of Lyra Belacqua in the HBOtelevision adaptation of the His Dark Materials trilogy, where she co-stars along actress Ruth Wilson. The series has a positive reception, and Keen received praise for her performance, with The Hollywood Reporter writing "...this effort nails much of what makes the books pop, and both the special effects and a star-studded cast led by Dafne Keen and Ruth Wilson are in fine form." In 2017, Keen starred alongside Andy García in the comedy-drama filmAna, although the film was delayed until 2020. Film critic Amari Allah praised her performance, commenting on her "charisma and presence" and wrote how Keen and Garcia "enhance each other’s presence to the point you can forgive the film’s shortcomings."
