Naomi Scott

Scott was born on 6 May 1993 in Hounslow, London.[3] She is of English and Indian descent.[4] Her mother, Usha Scott (née Joshi), who was born in Uganda and emigrated to the United Kingdom at a young age, is of Indian Gujarati descent, while her father, Christopher Scott, is English.[5][6][7] Scott also has an older brother, Joshua.[8]

At eight years old, she and her family moved to Woodford, London,[9] where both of her parents were pastors at the Bridge Church.[10] She grew up listening to gospel and R&B music, specifically singers Kim Burrell, Mary Mary, and Kirk Franklin, and singing in church.[11] She attended Davenant Foundation School in Loughton, Essex.[12] She left the school halfway through taking her A-Levels to pursue her role in the series Terra Nova.[13]

Scott was discovered by British pop singer Kéllé Bryan from the girl group Eternal, who signed her as a client.[14] She went to work with British songwriters and producers Xenomania.[15] In 2014, the YouTube channel "Reload" published two videos featuring her, as part of their "Reload Sessions" series.[16][17] Her first major acting role was Disney Channel UK series Life Bites.

In 2010, she was cast as Mohini "Mo" Banjaree in the 2011 Disney Channel original film Lemonade Mouth, her first role in an American production.[18] That same year she was cast as Maddy Shannon in the science fiction series Terra Nova, which premiered in September 2011 on Fox.[19] The series was not renewed for a second season.[20] In 2013, Scott appeared in the music video for the song "Hurricane", by her Lemonade Mouth co-star Bridgit Mendler. In August 2014, she independently released her debut EP Invisible Division.[21] Scott was cast as Ryoko in Ridley Scott's The Martian. She filmed her scenes but most of them (including every scene where Scott speaks) were removed from the final cut, effectively making her an "extra" in the film.[22]

Screen International selected Scott as one of their 2015 Stars of Tomorrow.[2] In October, she was cast in a co-leading role as Kimberly Hart, the Pink Ranger, in Power Rangers (2017), a film adaptation of the TV series of the same name.[23] The film was released on 24 March 2017,[24] and earned Scott a Teen Choice Award nomination.[25] The film was met with mixed reviews upon release and was a box office disappointment, grossing $142 million worldwide against a budget of $105 million.[26][27]

The cast of Charlie's Angels in 2019

In 2019, Scott starred as Princess Jasmine in Aladdin, a live-action adaptation of Disney's 1992 animated film of the same name.[28][29] Scott's casting over a "Middle Eastern or Arab actress" attracted comment.[30] In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle, critic Mick LaSalle found Scott to be the "real star" of the film and that she "thrives and gives everything to her new power anthem ['Speechless']".[31] Richard Roeper of Chicago Sun-Times wrote that Scott "absolutely sparkles" in her performance of "Speechless".[32] For her role, Scott won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress – Sci-Fi/Fantasy and also received a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress.[33][34] Aladdin was also commercially successful, grossing $1 billion at the box office.[35][36]

Also in 2019, Scott starred as one of the three leads, alongside Kristen Stewart and Ella Balinska, in the action comedy Charlie's Angels, the third installment within the franchise of the same name, released in November.[1][37][38] The film received mixed reviews from critics.[39] In 2022, Scott played Olivia Lytton, a parliamentary aide, in the Netflix series Anatomy of a Scandal.[40] She will also appear in the upoming science fiction film Distant.[41]

Scott is a Christian.[42] She is a UK ambassador to the Christian charity organisation Compassion International, sponsoring children and families living in poverty.[43][7] She suffers from the skin condition eczema.[44] She holds a black belt in karate, having studied it since her youth, which she credits as helpful with her roles in Power Rangers and Charlie's Angels.[45][46]

In June 2014, Scott married English footballer Jordan Spence after four years of dating.[47][48] The couple met at church when she was 16.[13][49]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Naomi Scott.

• Naomi Scott at IMDb