# Imogen Poots
**Imogen Poots** (full name Imogen Gay Poots; born 1989) is an English actress known for independent film and television work, including the horror sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007), the psychological thriller Vivarium (2019), the science-fiction romance All of You (2025), and the lead role in [Kristen Stewart](https://www.edgepedia.org/kristen-stewart)'s directorial debut [The Chronology of Water](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-chronology-of-water) (2025).[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1782299/) • [2](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/imogen-poots/credits/3000552949/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1989, Hammersmith, London, England; full name Imogen Gay Poots[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1782299/) • [2](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/imogen-poots/credits/3000552949/) |
| Screen debut | A 2004 role as Alice Thornton in the British medical drama Casualty; film debut as Young Valerie in V for Vendetta (2005)[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1782299/) • [3](https://www.imogenpoots.org/filmography/) |
| Breakthrough | Tammy in the post-apocalyptic horror sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007)[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/imogen-poots-hedda-interview-chronology-water-b2855209.html) |
| Signature indie roles | Debbie Raymond in The Look of Love (2013); Amber in Green Room (2015); Gemma in Vivarium (2019)[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/imogen-poots-hedda-interview-chronology-water-b2855209.html) • [5](https://www.moviemaker.com/imogen-poots-chronology-of-water/) |
| Television | Autumn in Outer Range (2022–2024); Joy Hanks in I Know This Much Is True (2020); Kelly Ann in Roadies (2016)[6](https://www.allocine.fr/personne/fichepersonne-168198/filmographie/) • [3](https://www.imogenpoots.org/filmography/) |
| Stage | West End debut in 2017 as Honey in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, opposite Imelda Staunton[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/imogen-poots-hedda-interview-chronology-water-b2855209.html) |
| Recent lead roles | Lidia Yuknavitch in The Chronology of Water and Thea in Hedda, both 2025[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/imogen-poots-hedda-interview-chronology-water-b2855209.html) |
## Early life and training
Poots was born in [Hammersmith](https://www.edgepedia.org/hammersmith), London, the daughter of Fiona Goodall, an English-born journalist, and Trevor Poots, a [Northern Ireland](https://www.edgepedia.org/northern-ireland)-born television producer. She attended Bute House Preparatory School for Girls, Queen's Gate School for Girls, and Latymer Upper School, all in London, and as a teenager began attending the Youngblood Theatre Company.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1782299/) She started acting at 14.[7](https://www.imogenpoots.org/articles/the-times-2014/)
She decided against drama school and learned on the job.[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/imogen-poots-hedda-interview-chronology-water-b2855209.html) Her first screen appearance was a 2004 role in the medical drama Casualty, followed by her film debut as the younger self of a political prisoner in [V for Vendetta](https://www.edgepedia.org/v-for-vendetta) (2005), which she played at age 15.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1782299/) • [4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/imogen-poots-hedda-interview-chronology-water-b2855209.html)
## Breakthrough and early career
Her first significant role was Tammy in 28 Weeks Later (2007), the post-apocalyptic horror sequel, and she has described it as her breakthrough.[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/imogen-poots-hedda-interview-chronology-water-b2855209.html) Through the following years she moved between genres: period drama in Miss Austen Regrets (2007) and [Jane Eyre](https://www.edgepedia.org/jane-eyre) (2011), the boarding-school film Cracks (2009), [Richard Linklater](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-linklater)'s Me and [Orson Welles](https://www.edgepedia.org/orson-welles) (2008), and the BBC drama Christopher and His Kind (2011), in which she played Jean Ross, the model for Christopher Isherwood's Sally Bowles.[1](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1782299/) • [3](https://www.imogenpoots.org/filmography/) • [4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/imogen-poots-hedda-interview-chronology-water-b2855209.html)
**A turn toward independent film.** Critics identify The Look of Love (2013), [Michael Winterbottom](https://www.edgepedia.org/michael-winterbottom)'s portrait of the pornographer Paul Raymond, as the performance that marked her out: Poots played Debbie Raymond, Raymond's cocaine-addicted daughter, in what one review called a performance of flayed vulnerability.[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/imogen-poots-hedda-interview-chronology-water-b2855209.html) • [8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/sep/20/its-normalised-i-was-gawping-imogen-poots-on-making-a-movie-in-the-west-bank) Afterward she worked with two directors she had admired since growing up in west London: [Peter Bogdanovich](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-bogdanovich) cast her as a sex worker in the screwball comedy She's Funny That Way (2014), and [Terrence Malick](https://www.edgepedia.org/terrence-malick) cast her in Knight of Cups (2015), where his direction to her was that her character was "like smoke. She's from everywhere and nowhere."[8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/sep/20/its-normalised-i-was-gawping-imogen-poots-on-making-a-movie-in-the-west-bank)
She has also taken commercial work she later viewed differently. She referred to the 2014 action film [Need for Speed](https://www.edgepedia.org/need-for-speed) as "the race-car film" in early interviews, but later said she no longer held a bad attitude toward it and rejected the idea of a high art, low art divide.[8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/sep/20/its-normalised-i-was-gawping-imogen-poots-on-making-a-movie-in-the-west-bank) • [4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/imogen-poots-hedda-interview-chronology-water-b2855209.html)
## Independent film and television
Poots has worked predominantly in independent cinema, which she has described as her dream, valuing its risk and creative control.[5](https://www.moviemaker.com/imogen-poots-chronology-of-water/) • [9](https://www.imogenpoots.org/articles/independent-2017/) Notable roles include Amber in Jeremy Saulnier's 2015 horror film Green Room, one of her most acclaimed films; Gemma in Lorcan Finnegan's psychological thriller Vivarium (2019), opposite [Jesse Eisenberg](https://www.edgepedia.org/jesse-eisenberg); and Rose Dugdale, the British heiress who masterminded an art heist to barter for the release of IRA prisoners, in Baltimore.[5](https://www.moviemaker.com/imogen-poots-chronology-of-water/) • [8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/sep/20/its-normalised-i-was-gawping-imogen-poots-on-making-a-movie-in-the-west-bank)
On television she played Laura, Anthony Hopkins's carer, in the Alzheimer's drama The Father (2020), Autumn in the first two seasons of [Outer Range](https://www.edgepedia.org/outer-range) (2022–2024), and Lisa, a British teacher in the [West Bank](https://www.edgepedia.org/west-bank), in Farah Nabulsi's The Teacher (2023).[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/imogen-poots-hedda-interview-chronology-water-b2855209.html) • [6](https://www.allocine.fr/personne/fichepersonne-168198/filmographie/) • [8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/sep/20/its-normalised-i-was-gawping-imogen-poots-on-making-a-movie-in-the-west-bank) Filming The Teacher in Palestine, she described daily encounters with military surveillance and movement restrictions that she called normalized, and later said finding a distributor for the film was "an absolute nightmare."[8](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/sep/20/its-normalised-i-was-gawping-imogen-poots-on-making-a-movie-in-the-west-bank)
## 2025: Hedda, All of You, and The Chronology of Water
Three 2025 releases marked what the Associated Press described as a clarifying moment after 20 years of acting.[10](https://apnews.com/article/7d17c77e2605a20a89e7d8f8f52fa985) In Nia DaCosta's Hedda, an adaptation of Ibsen's Hedda Gabler transplanted to 1950s Britain, Poots plays Thea, a role the AP described as quietly courageous.[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/imogen-poots-hedda-interview-chronology-water-b2855209.html) • [10](https://apnews.com/article/7d17c77e2605a20a89e7d8f8f52fa985) In All of You, an Apple TV+ romance written by Brett Goldstein and William Bridges, she plays Laura, a woman who takes a soulmate compatibility test that points her away from her closest friend; the Associated Press called her performance revelatory, and the Guardian wrote that she anchors the film.[11](https://apnews.com/article/db76811af367e9e8f231d1a355c1d04a) • [12](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/24/all-of-you-review-imogen-poots-apples-sci-fi-romance)
**The Chronology of Water.** Poots stars as the writer Lidia Yuknavitch in The Chronology of Water, Kristen Stewart's feature directing debut, adapted from Yuknavitch's 2011 memoir of grief, abuse, and addiction.[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/imogen-poots-hedda-interview-chronology-water-b2855209.html) • [5](https://www.moviemaker.com/imogen-poots-chronology-of-water/) She was attached to the project for roughly two and a half years before Stewart assembled it, and trained extensively in New York City pools to develop a swimmer's back for the six-week shoot, giving herself a hernia in the process.[5](https://www.moviemaker.com/imogen-poots-chronology-of-water/) • [4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/imogen-poots-hedda-interview-chronology-water-b2855209.html) The film premiered at Cannes in 2025; one critic's year-end roundup described Poots as being "on revelatory form" in a stylistically dazzling adaptation.[10](https://apnews.com/article/7d17c77e2605a20a89e7d8f8f52fa985) • [13](https://thefilmverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/FILMS-THAT-MATTERED_2025_FINAL.pdf)
## Approach to roles
Poots has said she no longer takes roles unless she believes in them, having learned that the only thing an actor controls is which projects to accept.[5](https://www.moviemaker.com/imogen-poots-chronology-of-water/) She has described a conscious decision to avoid playing characters subjugated by men or serving as an accessory to a male story.[14](https://www.imogenpoots.org/articles/vice-2016/) In a 2017 interview she argued that Hollywood was still struggling with the idea of the female anti-hero, saying "we want weak female characters and flawed female characters," and that independent films allow risk.[9](https://www.imogenpoots.org/articles/independent-2017/)
## Upcoming projects
AlloCiné lists her in The Salamander Lives Twice and as Suze in the first season of Sex Criminals, both dated 2027, and as Gloria Swanson in a 2026 series titled Kennedy.[6](https://www.allocine.fr/personne/fichepersonne-168198/filmographie/) The Sex Criminals series, a Prime Video adaptation of the comic about bank robbers who stop time by having sex, casts Poots as Suze, described as a normal girl with an extraordinary ability.[15](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/comedy-shows/after-11-years-in-development-hell-chronology-of-water-and-stranger-things-stars-are-set-to-lead-new-prime-video-tv-show-based-on-popular-comic-about-bank-robbers-who-stop-time-by-having-sex/)
## References
1. [Imogen Poots, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1782299/)
2. [Imogen Poots List of Movies and TV Shows, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/imogen-poots/credits/3000552949/)
3. [Filmography, Imogen Poots Network](https://www.imogenpoots.org/filmography/)
4. [Imogen Poots: 'This is an industry of absolute Looney Tunes parading as if they're normal', The Independent (2025)](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/imogen-poots-hedda-interview-chronology-water-b2855209.html)
5. [Imogen Poots on Rejecting Roles and Embracing The Chronology of Water, MovieMaker (2026)](https://www.moviemaker.com/imogen-poots-chronology-of-water/)
6. [Imogen Poots: Filmographie, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/personne/fichepersonne-168198/filmographie/)
7. [The Times (2014), Imogen Poots Network](https://www.imogenpoots.org/articles/the-times-2014/)
8. ['It's normalised. I was gawping': Imogen Poots on making a movie in the West Bank, The Guardian (2024)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/sep/20/its-normalised-i-was-gawping-imogen-poots-on-making-a-movie-in-the-west-bank)
9. [Independent (2017), Imogen Poots Network](https://www.imogenpoots.org/articles/independent-2017/)
10. [In 'The Chronology of Water,' Imogen Poots found a great role, and a best friend in Kristen Stewart, AP News (2025)](https://apnews.com/article/7d17c77e2605a20a89e7d8f8f52fa985)
11. [Movie Review: Brett Goldstein and Imogen Poots will trigger tears in 'All of You', AP News (2025)](https://apnews.com/article/db76811af367e9e8f231d1a355c1d04a)
12. [All of You review – Imogen Poots anchors Apple's sci-fi tinged romance, The Guardian (2025)](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/sep/24/all-of-you-review-imogen-poots-apples-sci-fi-romance)
13. [Stephen Dalton's Five Favorites from 2025, The Film Verdict (2026)](https://thefilmverdict.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/FILMS-THAT-MATTERED_2025_FINAL.pdf)
14. [Vice (2016), Imogen Poots Network](https://www.imogenpoots.org/articles/vice-2016/)
15. [Sex Criminals Prime Video series casting, GamesRadar (2025)](https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/comedy-shows/after-11-years-in-development-hell-chronology-of-water-and-stranger-things-stars-are-set-to-lead-new-prime-video-tv-show-based-on-popular-comic-about-bank-robbers-who-stop-time-by-having-sex/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of the Anglosphere and Europe › English actors: 2000s onward › Surnames N to P*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license