Maisie Williams

Margaret Constance "Maisie" Williams (born April 15, 1997) is an English actress. Williams made her acting debut in 2011 as Arya Stark, a lead character in the HBO epic medieval fantasy television series Game of Thrones (2011–2019). She gained recognition and critical praise for her work on the show and received two Emmy Award nominations. Williams' other television appearances include Ashildr in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who (2015), starring in the British docudrama television film Cyberbully (2015), and in the British science-fiction teen thriller film iBoy (2017). She played the central character in the comedy action drama miniseries Two Weeks to Live (2020) and portrayed punk rock icon Jordan in Pistol (2022), a biopic about the Sex Pistols. Williams also voiced Cammie MacCloud in the American animated web series Gen:Lock (2019–2021).

In 2014, she starred as Lydia in her first feature film, the coming-of-age mystery drama The Falling, for which she received critical acclaim and several awards. She co-starred in films such as the romantic period-drama film Mary Shelley (2017), the animated prehistoric sports comedy film Early Man (2018), and the romantic comedy-drama film Then Came You (2018). In 2018, she made her stage debut in Lauren Gunderson's play I and You at the Hampstead Theatre in London, to positive reviews. In 2020, she starred in the superhero horror film The New Mutants and the psychological thriller The Owners.

In 2019, Williams jointly developed and launched the social media platform Daisie, a multi-media networking app designed to be an alternative means to help artists and creators (especially those who are trying to get started) in their careers.

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Name a harder acting job than growing up on Game of Thrones. Maisie Williams debuted as Arya Stark at twelve and spent eight seasons turning a child character into one of television's great arcs — from Winterfell's youngest daughter to the Faceless-trained assassin who ended the Long Night. Two Emmy nominations, and every one of them earned in scenes opposite the best ensemble TV ever assembled.

The smart move would have been to cash in. Williams went the other way — deliberately strange, deliberately interesting. Ashildr in Doctor Who. The punk icon Jordan in Pistol, Danny Boyle's Sex Pistols saga, where she was pure chaos in the best way. Two Weeks to Live, a comedy-action miniseries built around her. Voice work in Gen:Lock. Catherine Dior in Apple TV+'s The New Look (2024).

She's also built a life outside acting — tech ventures, fashion, producing — with the same independence she brought to her role choices. Arya Stark will follow her forever; that's the price of creating an icon at fourteen. But Williams has spent the decade since making sure it's not the only thing she created.

Williams' post-Thrones choices reveal an actor allergic to comfort. Pistol's Jordan was pure punk provocation — a complete demolition of the Arya image. The New Look's Catherine Dior showed she could do restrained prestige drama in a second language of performance. Even her business ventures — fashion, tech, producing — reflect the same independence. She grew up inside the biggest show on earth and came out the other side with her taste intact and her ambition stranger than ever. That's rarer than any Emmy.