Kaya Rose Scodelario (born 13 March 1992) is a British actress and model. She first came to prominence co-starring on E4's Skins (2007–2010, 2013), receiving two Golden Nymph nominations for her portrayal of Effy Stonem. She then took on leading roles in a variety of films, such as Wuthering Heights (2011), the Maze Runner series (2014–2018), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017), Crawl (2019), and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021). In 2024, she starred in the action-comedy series The Gentlemen and limited biographical drama series Senna.
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Early life
Scodelario was born Kaya Rose Humphrey on 13 March 1992, in Haywards Heath, West Sussex. Her mother, Katia Scodelario, is a Brazilian who worked as an accountant in Itu, São Paulo, and moved to England in 1990; Scodelario's surname comes from her mother's Italian grandfather. Her father, Roger Humphrey, was Polish-English and died in November 2010.
Her parents divorced when Scodelario was one year old, and her mother took her to London when she was four. They spent their first night on the street before finding a council flat on Holloway Road. Scodelario took her mother's surname and spoke Portuguese at home. She attended St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Highgate Hill and she attended Bishop Douglass Catholic School and then Islington Arts and Media School. She participated in school plays and found drama an escape from bullying. Her mother took on multiple jobs to make ends meet and had clinical depression that worsened during Scodelario's teen years. Scodelario said she wanted to help, but did not know how, and moved to a flat in Camden.
Career
In 2006, at age 14 and with no acting experience, Scodelario was cast in the first series of Skins as Effy Stonem. At the auditions, she became discouraged as she felt she was too young, but a producer told her to stay and she was asked to read for the part. While Scodelario's role in the first series had minimal speaking lines, her character developed considerably during the second series. She eventually became the central character in the third and fourth series after the cast had been replaced by a new generation of characters. This made Effy one of the only characters to appear from series 1 all the way through to series 4. Filming began in July and Scodelario said that 18 November 2009 was her last day of filming the series and that she would miss being on the show.
Critics praised her performance, and she was nominated twice for Best Actress at the TV Quick Awards, in 2009 and 2010. In the episode "Fire", one of three parts of the seventh (and final) season of Skins, Scodelario reprised the role of Effy. It is a two-part depiction of her life as an adult, lasting two hours. She claims "Fire" is "more like a movie" and that she could relate to Effy's struggle to change from a teenager into an adult.
Scodelario made her film debut in the science fiction-thriller film Moon, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, receiving positive reviews. In her second film, Shank, released on 26 March 2010, she played teenager Tasha. In addition, she appeared in the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans as Peshet.
In April 2010, Scodelario confirmed her casting as Cathy in an adaptation of Wuthering Heights directed by Andrea Arnold. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2011 to generally positive reviews, and Scodelario was hailed as a "heart-wrenching revelation". Wuthering Heights also played at several other international film festivals, including the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, the London Film Festival, and the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
In 2011, she signed on to play Sally Weaver in a British thriller, Twenty8k. The film was released in September 2012. In late June, Scodelario announced that she had signed on to star in Now Is Good with Dakota Fanning. The film is based on Jenny Downham's novel Before I Die, about a teenage girl with leukaemia who makes a list of things to do before she dies. She portrays Zoey, the protagonist's best friend. In September 2011, Scodelario filmed a television serial for BBC One, True Love, an improvised series comprising five stand-alone episodes, each covering a different love-related dilemma. She is cast in the third storyline as Karen, the love interest of her teacher, portrayed by Billie Piper.
Personal life
Scodelario dated her Skins co-star Jack O'Connell from 2008 to 2009, they remain good friends. She was in a relationship with Elliott Tittensor from late 2009 to early 2014. During their relationship, she supported Tittensor after his arrest for hitting someone while driving an uninsured car.
Scodelario and Benjamin Walker began dating during the filming of The King's Daughter in early 2014, becoming engaged in December 2014 and marrying in December 2015. Their first child, a son, was born in November 2016. Scodelario's Skins co-star Daniel Kaluuya, who grew up in the same neighbourhood as her, is her son's godfather. On 18 September 2021, Scodelario announced she was pregnant with her second child. In December 2021, she gave birth to a daughter. In February 2024, the couple announced they had separated.
She was voted 13th in the UK edition of FHM's 100 World's Sexiest Women 2010.
In January 2018, Scodelario revealed that she had been sexually assaulted when she was 12 years old.
