Vanessa Kirby, Actress

Kirby had a three-year relationship with British actor Christian Cooke, which ended while she was filming the BBC miniseries Great Expectations.[53] She later dated her co-star from that miniseries, Douglas Booth.[53][54] She had a relationship with actor Callum Turner, whom she met on the set of the film Queen and Country.[21][55] They broke up in February 2020.

Since late 2022, she has been in a relationship with Paul Rabil.[56] In May 2025, she announced that she was pregnant,[57] and on September 7, 2025, they welcomed their first child together, sharing moments on their Instagram accounts.[58]

Kirby co-founded the London-based production company Aluna Entertainment[59] and the accompanying production company has a first deal with Netflix.[60]

2010-2014: First works and theatrical productions
Her first acting jobs were in the theatre, alongside British director David Thacker. At the Octagon Theatre in Bolton, Greater Manchester, Kirby participated in productions such as Arthur Miller's All My Sons, Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts, and William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.[7]

Later, she appeared on stage at London's Royal National Theatre as Isabella in Thomas Middleton's tragedy Women Beware Women, directed by Marianne Elliott.[9][10] She also played Rosalind in Shakespeare's As You Like It.[11] In 2011, she appeared in The Acid Test, written by British playwright Anya Reiss and directed by Simon Godwin.[12][13]

In 2011, she made her television debut in the BBC Two series The Hour, where she played Ramses.[13] In the series, she worked alongside Ben Whishaw, Dominic West, and Romola Garai.[8] That same year, she joined the cast of the miniseries Great Expectations, where she played the enigmatic Estella, alongside Douglas Booth and Gillian Anderson.[3][13]

In 2012, she joined the cast of the miniseries Labyrinth, where she played Dr. Alice Tanner, alongside Jessica Brown-Findlay, Sebastian Stan, John Hurt, Tom Felton, and John Lynch.[14] In September, she returned to the stage to co-star in Anton Chekhov's The Three Sisters.[15] Later that year, she was involved in filming the movie Charlie Countryman, directed by Fredrik Bond.[16] Also during 2012, she filmed the British thriller The Rise.[17]

In 2013 she appeared in the film About Time, where she played Joanna, Mary's (Rachel McAdams) friend.[18] During that year she was at the National Theatre playing Queen Isabella of France in Christopher Marlowe's play Edward II.[19]

In 2014 she starred alongside Callum Turner in the drama Queen and Country, directed by John Boorman.[20][21] Between July and September pr

Kirby, born in Wimbledon, London, United Kingdom, is the daughter of Jane Kirby, editor of Country Living magazine, and Roger Kirby, a renowned urologist.[7] She has two siblings, Joe and Juliet.[4]

She studied at Lady Eleanor Holles School, an all-girls school in Hampton. Later, after being rejected by the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and taking a gap year to travel, Kirby studied English literature at the University of Exeter.[8] After graduating, she turned down a position at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and began her acting career.[7][8]

Vanessa Nuala Kirby (London, April 18, 1988), known as Vanessa Kirby, is a British actress. She has received numerous accolades, including a British Academy Television Award, a Volpi Cup, Oscar nominations, a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Born in Wimbledon, London, the daughter of urologist Roger Kirby and Jane Kirby, editor of Country Living magazine, Vanessa Kirby studied English literature at the University of Exeter. After graduating, she made her professional stage debut in a production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons (2010), followed by acclaimed performances in A Midsummer Night's Dream (2010), As You Like It (2010), Women Beware Women (2011), The Three Sisters (2012), and as Stella Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire (2014), winning Ian Charleson Awards for these performances. Variety described her as "the standout stage actress of her generation, capable of the most unexpected choices." [1]

Kirby made her film debut with a supporting role in the crime drama The Rise (2012) and rose to international fame 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 Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.[2] She played Estella in the miniseries Great Expectations.[3] She gained wider recognition with her roles in the action films Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) and Hobbs & Shaw (2019). Her other notable film roles include About Time (2013), The World to Come (2020), and her performance as a heartbroken young woman in Pieces of a Woman (2020), for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.[4][5][6]