Daisy Ridley

Daisy Jazz Isobel Ridley (born 10 April 1992) is an English actress. She rose to prominence for her role as Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy: The **** Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

She also appeared in the mystery film **** on the Orient Express (2017), played the title character of the romantic drama Ophelia (2018), and has done occasional voice acting, such as the live-action/animated film Peter Rabbit (2018) and video games including Twelve Minutes (2021).

Ridley won a scholarship to Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Hertfordshire, which she attended from ages nine to eighteen. She then studied classical civilisation at Birkbeck, University of London, before dropping out to focus on her acting career. Prior to being cast in Star Wars: The **** Awakens, Ridley worked for nearly two years as a bartender at two different pubs in London. In 2016, she began studying for a Bachelor of Arts in social science through online courses with the Open University.

Ridley began her career with minor roles in the television programmes Youngers, Toast of London, Silent Witness, Mr Selfridge, and Casualty. She appeared in the short film Blue Season, which was entered into the Sci-Fi-London 48-Hour Film Challenge. Ridley played the lead in film three of Lifesaver, an interactive film which was nominated for a BAFTA Award. She also appeared in the music video for Wiley's song "Lights On", playing the character of Kim. Ridley made her film debut in the 2015 British independent horror film Scrawl, after her scenes from the British comedy film The Inbetweeners 2 were removed in the final cut.

In April 2014, the casting of Ridley as Rey, one of the lead characters in Star Wars: The **** Awakens, was announced. She was cast for the film in February 2014. At the time of her casting she was, according to Rolling Stone, a "total unknown". Her choice by director J. J. Abrams was seen as a repeat of George Lucas' move of casting relatively unknown actors for the lead roles in the first Star Wars film in 1977. With international revenues of over $2 billion, The **** Awakens was a major box-office hit and the highest-grossing film of 2015. Her performance received critical acclaim, with Richard Roeper describing her portrayal as "a breakout performance" and adding "[Harrison] Ford has a terrific father figure chemistry [shared] with Ridley and [John] Boyega".

Following the 2016 Teen Choice Awards, which paid tribute to victims of gun ****, Ridley posted on both Instagram and Facebook an anti-gun **** message. Her post prompted backlash from the public, with critics accusing Ridley of hypocrisy in reference to the **** depicted in her Star Wars films. Because of this, she deleted her social media accounts, but briefly returned to Instagram, claiming the reason for the deletion was because she had "a busy few months ahead [and] so wanted less distractions". She reiterated this statement in 2017, saying that social media is "highly unhealthy for people's mental health," including hers. Ridley further commented on the topic in a 2019 interview, vowing never to return to social media. She said:

I honestly think now with social media and stuff...it's great to have freedom of expression, but I do feel like people think opinions have so much weight... I don't really think bad vibes should have the sun shone on them. [...] It's dangerous. [...] It's great in that respect for people who are in serious and dire situations to be able to be communicating, but for the most part I think — no, no, no.

On 4 April 2022, Ridley returned to Instagram again after six years of being off the platform. In her first post, she is seen sipping tea and engaging in self-care "refreshed, recharged, and ready for what I'm calling my 'Year of Yes'". Ridley was welcomed back to Instagram by her Orient Express co-star Leslie Odom Jr. and Chewbacca actor Joonas Suotamo.