Kaya Scodelario

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3 Mar 2024

Kaya Scodelario

Kaya Scodelario-Davis, formerly known as Kaya Humphrey, is a British actress born on March 13, 1992. She gained recognition for her role as Effy Stonem on the E4 series "Skins" from 2007 to 2010, with a return in 2013, earning her two Golden Nymph nominations. Following her success on "Skins," Scodelario-Davis transitioned to leading roles in various films.
Her film credits include "Wuthering Heights" (2011), where she played the lead role, and the "Maze Runner" series (2014–2018). She also appeared in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" (2017), "Crawl" (2019), and "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City" (2021), showcasing her versatility as an actress across different genres.

Kaya Scodelario was born Kaya Rose Humphrey on March 13, 1992, in Haywards Heath, West Sussex. Her mother, Katia Scodelario, hails from Itu, São Paulo, Brazil, and moved to England in 1990. The surname "Scodelario" comes from her maternal Italian grandfather. Her father, Roger Humphrey, was English and passed away in November 2010.
After her parents' divorce when she was one year old, Kaya and her mother moved to London when she was four years old. They initially faced homelessness, spending their first night on the street before securing a council flat on Holloway Road. Kaya then adopted her mother's surname and grew up speaking Portuguese at home.

She attended Bishop Douglass Catholic School and later Islington Arts and Media School. Despite facing bullying, she found solace in participating in school plays and discovered drama as an escape. Kaya's mother struggled with clinical depression and worked multiple jobs to support the family, leading Kaya to move out and live in a flat in Camden during her teenage years.

In 2006, at just 14 years old and without any prior acting experience, Kaya Scodelario was cast in the first series of Skins as Effy Stonem. Initially feeling discouraged during auditions due to her young age, she was encouraged to stay and eventually asked to read for the part. While her role in the first series had minimal dialogue, her character developed significantly during the second series. Eventually, Effy became the central character in the third and fourth series after the cast was refreshed with a new generation of characters. This made Effy one of the few characters to appear from the first series all the way through to the fourth.

Scodelario's performance received critical acclaim, earning her two nominations for Best Actress at the TV Quick Awards in 2009 and 2010. She reprised the role of Effy in the final season of Skins in the episode "Fire," which depicted her life as an adult in a two-part storyline.
Her film debut came with the science fiction-thriller film Moon, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival to positive reviews. She followed this with Shank, released in March 2010, where she portrayed the character Tasha. Additionally, she appeared in the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans as Peshet.

In April 2010, Scodelario confirmed her casting as Cathy in Andrea Arnold's adaptation of Wuthering Heights. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2011 and received generally favorable reviews, with Scodelario's performance being particularly praised as a "heart-wrenching revelation." Wuthering Heights also screened at various other international film festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival, the London Film Festival, and the Sundance Film Festival.

In 2011, Kaya Scodelario signed on to portray Sally Weaver in the British thriller film Twenty8k, which was released in September 2012. Later that year, she announced her involvement in the film Now Is Good, starring alongside Dakota Fanning. The film, based on Jenny Downham's novel Before I Die, follows the story of a teenage girl with leukemia who creates a bucket list of things to do before she dies, with Scodelario playing Zoey, the protagonist's best friend. Additionally, she filmed a television serial for BBC One titled True Love, where she played Karen, the love interest of her teacher, portrayed by Billie Piper.

In January 2012, Scodelario made her American film debut in The Truth About Emanuel, portraying the troubled title character. She also appeared in a cameo role in the film Spike Island and participated in an advertising campaign for Korean jewelry brand J. Estina. In 2013, she starred in the Channel 4 drama series Southcliffe, which revolves around a fictional English town devastated by a series of shootings.
Scodelario joined the film franchise The Maze Runner in April 2013, portraying the lead female character, Teresa, in the first film and its sequel, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials. She also starred in the home-invasion thriller Tiger House and had a role in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

She reprised her role as Teresa in Maze Runner: The Death Cure, which was released in January 2018 after being delayed due to her co-star Dylan O'Brien's injury on set. In 2019, Scodelario appeared in the biographical crime thriller Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile as Carole Ann Boone, Ted Bundy's wife. She then starred in the horror film Crawl and portrayed Claire Redfield in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City.

In 2019, Scodelario signed on to lead the Netflix series Spinning Out, a drama about figure skating that explores mental illness within a family. She also became the face of Cartier's Clash de Cartier jewelry line and filmed The Pale Horse, an Agatha Christie miniseries adaptation for Amazon and BBC.
In 2021, Scodelario joined the dramedy Don't Make Me Go under Amazon Studios and filmed This Is Christmas. She went on to star in two Netflix series in 2023: The Gentlemen, inspired by the Guy Ritchie film, and Senna, a biographical drama about Brazilian Formula One driver Ayrton Senna.