Rose Leslie

Leslie was born in Aberdeen, Scotland,[2] and raised at Lickleyhead Castle in Aberdeenshire, her family's 15th-century ancestral seat, where she lived until the age of 10.[3] Her father, Sebastian Arbuthnot-Leslie, is the Chieftain of the Aberdeenshire branch of the Scottish Clan Leslie. Her mother is Candida Mary Sibyl "Candy" Leslie (née Weld) of Clan Fraser of Lovat, whose maternal great-grandfather was Simon Fraser, 13th Lord Lovat and a descendant of King Charles II.[4] Through her mother, Leslie is a great-great-granddaughter of Frederick Weld, the sixth prime minister of New Zealand and, through her father, she is a great-great-granddaughter of Don Guillermo Landa y Escandón, who served as governor of Mexico City.[5] Leslie's ancestors include Ambrose Lisle March Phillipps De Lisle, politician Charles March-Phillipps and MP James Grimston, 3rd Earl of Verulam. Her family currently lives at the 12th-century Wardhill Castle in Old Rayne.[6][7][8]

She was first educated at Rayne North School in Aberdeenshire. At 10, she went to Ermitage International School in Maisons-Laffitte, France, where her family lived for 3 years.[9] Upon their return to the UK, she was sent to Millfield, a boarding school in Street, Somerset,[10] before spending three years at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.[11] She won a BASSC certificate in stage combat and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in 2008.[11]

Leslie worked for BBC Radio narrating The British Slave Trade: Abolition, Parliament and People.

Her leading on screen debut came at age 21 in the television film New Town (2009), for which she won the Scottish BAFTA for Best Acting Performance – New Talent Award.[12][13]

In September and October 2010, she became the lead in Nell Leyshon's infamous play Bedlam held at Globe Theatre.[14] Based on the Bethlem Royal Hospital, representative of the worst excesses of asylums in the era of lunacy reform, Leslie portrayed May, a beautiful country girl driven mad by lost love.[15] The Daily Telegraph's Charles Spencer praised her performance, commenting, "Leslie proves genuinely poignant."[16] Her break-through role came as Gwen Dawson, a housemaid, in the first series (2010–11) of the ITV television drama Downton Abbey.[17] In 2011, while on Downton Abbey, Leslie briefly appeared in two episodes of the British drama series Case Histories.[18][19]

Leslie in 2013 for Game of Thrones Comic-Con panel

In 2012, she was cast in seasons two, three and four of the popular HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones as the wildling Ygritte.[20] The A.V. Club's Rowan Kaiser stated: "As Ygritte, [Rose] is both dangerous and flirtatious, and it's fun to watch."[21] Den of Geek's David Crow exclaimed, "A complicated character [...] Rose Leslie devours the screen."[22] In 2013, Vox.com's Emily VanDerWerff (under The A.V. Club) review for "The Climb" episode, "(In the books) Ygritte is a means to an end... (but) on screen, as embodied by Rose Leslie, she becomes something more,"[23] whilst The Atlantic's Christopher Orr summed up her portrayal in the 2014 episode "The Watchers of the Wall" by concluding: "Rose Leslie has been one of a handful of performers on the show who’ve really elevated their characters above what they were in the books."[24]

While on Game of Thrones, Leslie appeared in the 2012 drama film Now Is Good[25] and in episodes of ITV detective television series Vera,[26] Channel 4 conspiracy drama Utopia[27] and BBC One's comedy series Blandings.[28]

From October to November 2014, she appeared in the four-part mini-series The Great Fire.[29] She then starred in the horror film Honeymoon.[30] She has since played DS Emma Lane in the BBC detective drama Luther with positive response[31] and starred in the 2015 action adventure/fantasy film The Last Witch Hunter.[32][33]

She and David Tennant recorded an audiobook version of Carmilla in 2015.[34][35] In 2016, she portrayed the character of Athena in Sticky Notes.[36]

In 2016, Leslie was cast in The Good Fight, a CBS All Access legal drama and spin off of The Good Wife. She plays Maia Rindell, a young lawyer who just passed the bar exam and whose family is involved in a financial scam, destroying her reputation. The first episode aired in February 2017.[37] In July 2019, it was revealed that Leslie would not return for the show's fourth season.[38]

In 2017 Leslie provided the voice for the female protagonist "En" in the video game Echo, a game by Copenhagen-based game developer Ultra Ultra.[39]

In October 2019 Leslie was cast as Louise Bourget in Kenneth Branagh's adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel Death on The Nile. The film was released on 11 February 2022.[40]

In January 2020, Leslie joined the cast of BBC's and World Productions's drama series Vigil, which premiered in 2021.[41]

Leslie became fluent in French while living with her family in France during her pre-adolescent years. While working as an actress, she lived in Battersea, London, until moving to North London.[42] She often refers to missing Aberdeen, saying "I feel very much at peace in Scotland."[42]

In 2011, Leslie began dating Kit Harington, who had played her love interest, Jon Snow, in Game of Thrones. They married on 23 June 2018.[43] In September 2020, Leslie posed for a magazine photo shoot visibly pregnant.[44] Their son was born in January 2021.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Rose Leslie.

• Rose Leslie at IMDb 
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