Vanessa Kirby by Tung Walsh for Grazia UK August 2025

Vanessa Jane Kirby (born 18 April 1988) is a British actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, which include a British Academy Television Award, a Volpi Cup Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Born in Wimbledon, London to eminent urologist Roger Kirby and his wife, Kirby studied English Literature at the University of Exeter. Following her graduation, she made her professional acting debut on stage with a production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons (2010), and followed this with acclaimed performances in the plays; A Midsummer Night's Dream (2010), As You Like It (2010), Women Beware Women (2011), Three Sisters (2012), and as Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (2014), winning the Ian Charleson Awards for these performances with Variety describing her as "the outstanding stage actress of her generation, capable of the most unexpected choices."

Kirby made her film debut with a minor role in the crime drama The Rise (2012), and rose to international prominence with her portrayal of Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, in the Netflix drama series The Crown (2016–2017), for which she won the British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress and received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She garnered wider recognition with her roles in the action films Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018), and Hobbs & Shaw (2019). Her other prominent film roles include About Time (2013), The World to Come (2020), and her performance as a grief-stricken young woman in Pieces of a Woman (2020) for which Kirby received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.