---
name: "Claire Foy"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/claire-foy"
fi1m_id: "claire-foy"
imdb_id: "nm2946516"
tmdb_id: 120932
wikidata_id: "Q258999"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "16 April 1984"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 11
average_fi1m_score: 71
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 11
updated: "2026-10-12T20:11:36.909887+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Claire Foy

## Identity

Claire Foy

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/claire-foy
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** claire-foy
- **IMDb ID:** nm2946516
- **TMDB ID:** 120932
- **Wikidata ID:** Q258999
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_Foy, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q258999, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2946516/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/120932

Actor. Born 16 April 1984 in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, UK.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 16 April 1984, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, UK
- **Active:** 2008–present
- **Also known as:** Claire Elizabeth Foy
- **Frequently works with:** [Dede Gardner](https://film.one/person/dede-gardner.md), [Jeremy Kleiner](https://film.one/person/jeremy-kleiner.md), [Lisa Osborne](https://film.one/person/lisa-osborne.md)
- **Golden Globes:** 1 Golden Globe (1 won)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 71, as actor, over 11 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 76 (1), 2010s 74 (4), 2020s 68 (6)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 70 to 71 across 10 titles
- **Score spread:** 3 at 80+, 7 at 60–79, 1 under 60
- **Lead roles:** 6 of 10 acting credits billed first or second
- **Genres:** Drama 9, Comedy 2, Fantasy 2, History 2, Adventure 1, Family 1
- **Screen time:** 17 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $217m across 7 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_Foy, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q258999, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2946516/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/120932

## Coming up

- *Ink* (2026-12-11), as Jules Davies — [page](https://film.one/film/ink.md)

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Wolf Hall*](https://film.one/tv/wolf-hall.md) (86), [*Women Talking*](https://film.one/film/women-talking.md) (76), [*H Is for Hawk*](https://film.one/film/h-is-for-hawk.md) (64)
- **Disney+:** [*All of Us Strangers*](https://film.one/film/all-of-us-strangers.md) (82)
- **BritBox:** [*Little Dorrit*](https://film.one/tv/little-dorrit.md) (76)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Claire Foy

> Claire Foy plays women who have run out of patience and are not asking to be liked, and does it with the face rather than the lines. She is usually the best thing in the film, and the film does not always deserve her.

Towards the end of the first hour of *Unsane* (2018), a nurse tells Claire Foy's Sawyer Valentini, quite kindly, that she signed for a voluntary stay. Foy's face does the arithmetic. Nothing on it moves that you could point to, and you watch a woman work out that she is trapped and that shouting about it is what will keep her there. That is the thing she does. The thinking is on the surface and the feeling is underneath it, and she trusts us to find both without help.

She came up through small television parts and the stage, then Amy Dorrit in *Little Dorrit* (2008), and it was Anne Boleyn in *Wolf Hall* (2015) that told us what sort of actor she was. Her Anne is quick, rude and clever, and Foy lets her be disliked. *The Crown* (2016–2017) made her known everywhere as the young Elizabeth II, and 2018 brought the films: Janet Shearon in *First Man* and Soderbergh's *Unsane*. Since then it has been mostly ensembles and grief, *Women Talking* (2022), *All of Us Strangers* (2023), *H Is for Hawk* (2025), until *The Magic Faraway Tree* (2026) let her be funny.

Anger suits her. Her Salome in *Women Talking* has already gone at a man with a scythe before the film begins and enters every scene as if she has been holding her breath since; when she says she will kill anyone who touches her child again, we believed her, and it frightened us slightly. Grief suits her more. In *All of Us Strangers*, Andrew Haigh gives her a kitchen and a grown son telling her he is gay, and Foy plays the next minute as a woman reaching for something kind and finding the wrong words, one after another. We came apart in that scene, and it was the fear under the disapproval that did it, which is love with nowhere to go. In *H Is for Hawk* she handles the goshawk herself, arm steady, voice down to a murmur, and plays Helen as short-tempered and not asking for sympathy. She has said the training was about "making my internal rhythm match the birds' rhythm", and you can see it.

The films are often less than she is. *H Is for Hawk* runs half an hour long and is too polite to hurt; *Unsane* settles in its last forty minutes for the sillier of the two films it might have been; Foy is good all the way through both. That makes her a reason to watch films we would not otherwise send you to. Philippa Lowthorpe has directed her twice and Andrew Garfield has played opposite her twice, most recently as the cheerful husband to her sensible Polly in *The Magic Faraway Tree*, where she gets laughs from the part that is not written to have any. We would like to see what she does with a character who is wrong.

## Biography

Claire Foy is an English actress. Born on 16 April 1984 in Stockport, Greater Manchester, she studied drama and screen studies at Liverpool John Moores University and completed a one-year course at the Oxford School of Drama, graduating in 2007.

She made her screen debut in 2008 and gained international recognition for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the first two seasons of the Netflix series *The Crown*. Among her film roles are Sawyer Valentini in *Unsane* (2018), Salome in *Women Talking* (2022) and Mum in *All of Us Strangers* (2023). She is also credited in the forthcoming films *H Is for Hawk* (2025) and *The Magic Faraway Tree* (2026).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, themoviedb.org.*

## On Fi1m (11)

- *Ink* (2026), Fi1m 64, as Jules Davies — [page](https://film.one/film/ink.md)
- *Savage House* (2026), Fi1m 56, as Lady Savage — [page](https://film.one/film/savage-house.md)
- *The Magic Faraway Tree* (2026), Fi1m 64, as Polly Thompson — [page](https://film.one/film/the-magic-faraway-tree.md)
- *H Is for Hawk* (2025), Fi1m 64, as Helen — [page](https://film.one/film/h-is-for-hawk.md)
- *All of Us Strangers* (2023), Fi1m 82, as Mum — [page](https://film.one/film/all-of-us-strangers.md)
- *Women Talking* (2022), Fi1m 76, as Salome — [page](https://film.one/film/women-talking.md)
- *First Man* (2018), Fi1m 80, as Janet Shearon — [page](https://film.one/film/first-man.md)
- *Unsane* (2018), Fi1m 64, as Sawyer Valentini — [page](https://film.one/film/unsane.md)
- *The Lady in the Van* (2015), Fi1m 64, as Lois, Social Worker — [page](https://film.one/film/the-lady-in-the-van.md)
- *Wolf Hall* (2015), Fi1m 86, as Anne Boleyn — [page](https://film.one/tv/wolf-hall.md)
- *Little Dorrit* (2008), Fi1m 76, as Amy Dorrit — [page](https://film.one/tv/little-dorrit.md)

## Complete filmography (41)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Ink* (2026), as Jules Davies — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/ink.md)
- *Savage House* (2026), as Lady Savage — Fi1m 56, [page](https://film.one/film/savage-house.md)
- *The Magic Faraway Tree* (2026), as Polly Thompson — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/the-magic-faraway-tree.md)
- *H Is for Hawk* (2025), as Helen · Executive Producer — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/h-is-for-hawk.md)
- *All of Us Strangers* (2023), as Mum — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/all-of-us-strangers.md)
- *Mog's Christmas* (2023), as Mrs. Thomas (voice)
- *Children of the Taliban* (2023), as Narrator
- *Women Talking* (2022), as Salome — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/women-talking.md)
- *A Very British Scandal* (2021), series, as Margaret Campbell
- *The Electrical Life of Louis Wain* (2021), as Emily Wain
- *My Son* (2021), as Joan Richmond
- *Lungs* (2020), as W
- *The Girl in the Spider's Web* (2018), as Lisbeth Salander
- *First Man* (2018), as Janet Shearon — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/first-man.md)
- *Unsane* (2018), as Sawyer Valentini — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/unsane.md)
- *Breathe* (2017), as Diana Cavendish
- *The Crown* (2016), series, as Queen Elizabeth II, Young Elizabeth / Young Queen Elizabeth II, Young Queen Elizabeth II (archive footage) — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-crown.md)
- *The Lady in the Van* (2015), as Lois, Social Worker — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/the-lady-in-the-van.md)
- *Wolf Hall* (2015), series, as Anne Boleyn — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/tv/wolf-hall.md)
- *Rosewater* (2014), as Paola
- *Frankenstein and the Vampyre: A Dark and Stormy Night* (2014), as Narrator
- *The Great War: The People's Story* (2014), series, as Helen Bentwich
- *Crossbones* (2014), series, as Kate Balfour
- *Vampire Academy* (2014), as Sonya Karp
- *White Heat* (2012), series, as Charlotte
- *Hacks* (2012), as Kate Loy
- *Wreckers* (2011), as Dawn
- *Going Postal 2in1* (2011), as Adora Belle Dearheart
- *The Night Watch* (2011), as Helen Giniver
- *The Promise* (2011), series, as Erin Matthews
- *Season of the Witch* (2011), as The Girl
- *Upstairs Downstairs* (2010), series, as Lady Persephone Towyn
- *Pulse* (2010), as Hannah Carter
- *Going Postal* (2010), series, as Adora Belle Dearheart
- *10 Minute Tales* (2009), series, as Woman
- *Little Dorrit* (2008), series, as Amy Dorrit — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/tv/little-dorrit.md)
- *Who Do You Think You Are?* (2004), series, Actor
- *You Are Here*, series, as Marnie · Executive Producer
- *Migrations*, as Franny Stone · Executive Producer
- *Marlow*, series, Actor
- *The Pisces*, as Lucy

## Gallery

- ![English actress Claire Foy arrives on the red carpet for the premiere of the film "First Man" at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Thursday, Oct. 4,](https://film.one/media/person/6950/gallery-b38e63743da8.jpg) English actress Claire Foy arrives on the red carpet for the premiere of the film "First Man" at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Thursday, Oct. 4, — Aubrey Gemignani, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/%22First_Man%22_Premiere_at_NASM_%28NHQ201810040120%29.jpg/1280px-%22First_Man%22_Premiere_at_NASM_%28NHQ201810040120%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![talking at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival](https://film.one/media/person/6950/gallery-0d52cc727da0.jpg) talking at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival — Sizzlipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Clair_Foy_2025_%28facecrop%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![English actress Claire Foy, left, and actor Gavin Warren arrive on the red carpet for the premiere of the film "First Man" at the Smithsonian National Air and S](https://film.one/media/person/6950/gallery-83f4a4378556.jpg) English actress Claire Foy, left, and actor Gavin Warren arrive on the red carpet for the premiere of the film "First Man" at the Smithsonian National Air and S — Aubrey Gemignani, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/%22First_Man%22_Premiere_at_NASM_%28NHQ201810040127%29.jpg/1280px-%22First_Man%22_Premiere_at_NASM_%28NHQ201810040127%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Claire Foy](https://film.one/media/person/6950/gallery-8e9157a4e2cb.jpg) Claire Foy — Image via TMDB
- ![Claire Foy](https://film.one/media/person/6950/gallery-c3d2e4c806a8.jpg) Claire Foy — Image via TMDB
- ![Claire Foy](https://film.one/media/person/6950/gallery-7301ec3a7135.jpg) Claire Foy — Image via TMDB
- ![Claire Foy](https://film.one/media/person/6950/gallery-099cda957bf1.jpg) Claire Foy — Image via TMDB
- ![Claire Foy](https://film.one/media/person/6950/gallery-b5996ba7adf3.jpg) Claire Foy — Image via TMDB
- ![Claire Foy](https://film.one/media/person/6950/gallery-9be015593a31.jpg) Claire Foy — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### BAFTA Television Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated

- 2016: Best Actress (nominated), for *Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light*

### Golden Globes — 1 won

- 2017: Golden Globe Awards (won), for *The Crown*

### Primetime Emmy Awards — 1 won

- 2018: Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series (won), for *The Crown*

### SAG Awards — 2 won

- 2018: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series (won), for *The Crown*
- 2017: Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series (won), for *The Crown*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/claire-foy