Bella Ramsey
Bella Ramsey is an actor, born 2003.
Casting a child as the most intimidating person in the room should not work. Lyanna Mormont did, which is how Bella Ramsey arrived on Game of Thrones in 2016. That series is not among the credits listed here, though the documentary Game of Thrones: The Last Watch is. What followed was a run of children's and young adult work with more range than the description implies: Mildred Hubble in The Worst Witch, the title voice in Hilda and its film, Angelica in His Dark Materials, Lorna Luft in Judy, Elsbeth in Resistance, Kelsey Morgan in Time, Jane Grey in Becoming Elizabeth and the lead in Catherine Called Birdy.
Ellie in The Last of Us, from 2023, changed the scale. The nominations followed: a BAFTA Television Award, two Critics' Choice Awards, two Golden Globes, two Primetime Emmys and a Screen Actors Guild Award, plus the Time 100 Next list in 2023 and Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe in 2024.
What Ramsey does that most young actors cannot is refuse to perform an emotion for the camera. The delivery is flat, guarded, frequently turned slightly away, and it reads as an adolescent protecting themselves rather than an actor signalling to an audience. It also means the comedy hits harder on the rare occasions they let it, which is the entire trick of Catherine Called Birdy.
Ramsey is English, from Nottingham, and uses they/them pronouns. Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, The Sheep Detectives and Sunny Dancer make up the recent and upcoming work.
Movies (10)
TV (9)
Where to start with Bella Ramsey
The Last of Us is why most people are here and it is the right place to begin, so long as you know what you are getting: a slow, brutal, unusually quiet adaptation that spends more time on conversation than on threat. Ramsey plays Ellie guarded to the point of rudeness, and it works.
For the opposite register, Catherine Called Birdy is the one to watch next, a fast and very funny medieval comedy where they are allowed to be a nuisance. Hilda is the animation, gentle and beautifully designed, and The Worst Witch is the early lead that proved they could carry a series alone.
Then the serious supporting work: Time is a hard prison drama, Becoming Elizabeth is the best-looking historical piece here, and Judy is a small part in a film built for somebody else.