# Kaya Scodelario
**Kaya Scodelario** (born 1992) is a Brazilian-British actress best known for playing [Effy Stonem](https://www.edgepedia.org/effy-stonem) in the [Channel 4](https://www.edgepedia.org/channel-4) teen drama *Skins* (2007–2013), Teresa in *The Maze Runner* film series (2014–2018), Carina Smyth in *Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales* (2017), and Susie Glass in [Guy Ritchie](https://www.edgepedia.org/guy-ritchie)'s Netflix series *The Gentlemen*[1](https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/pop/conheca-kaya-scodelario-atriz-britanica-de-senna-com-origem-brasileira/) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2546012/bio/). Born in London to a Brazilian mother and an English father, she grew up fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, and in 2024 she played her first Portuguese-language role as journalist Laura Harrison in the Netflix miniseries *Senna* about Ayrton Senna[1](https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/pop/conheca-kaya-scodelario-atriz-britanica-de-senna-com-origem-brasileira/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1992, London, England; birth name Kaya Rose Humphrey[1](https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/pop/conheca-kaya-scodelario-atriz-britanica-de-senna-com-origem-brasileira/) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2546012/bio/) |
| Family | Daughter of Katia Scodelario, a Brazilian from Itu, São Paulo who moved to England in 1990, and an English father; fluent in Portuguese[3](https://prabook.com/web/kaya.scodelario/3756176) • [2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2546012/bio/) |
| Breakthrough | Cast as Effy Stonem in *Skins* at age 14 through an open audition in 2007; appeared in the series 2007–2013[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/kaya-scodelario-skins-b2653142.html) • [5](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/kaya-scodelario/) |
| Franchise roles | Teresa in the three *Maze Runner* films (2014–2018); Carina Smyth in *Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales* (2017); Claire Redfield in *Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City* (2021)[6](https://www.metacritic.com/person/kaya-scodelario/) |
| Acclaimed film role | Catherine Earnshaw in Andrea Arnold's *Wuthering Heights* (2011)[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/19/kaya-scodelario-nine-times-out-of-10-my-character-is-with-a-guy-twice-my-age) |
| Recent television | Susie Glass in *The Gentlemen* (Netflix), earning a 2024 Gotham TV Award nomination; Laura Harrison in Netflix's *Senna* (2024)[8](https://www.vogue.com/article/kaya-scodelario-the-gentlemen-interview) • [9](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/kaya-scodelario/bio/3000349210/) • [1](https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/pop/conheca-kaya-scodelario-atriz-britanica-de-senna-com-origem-brasileira/) |
| Personal life | Married American actor Benjamin Walker; two children, a son born in 2016 and a daughter[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2546012/bio/) |
## Early life and background
Kaya Rose Humphrey was born in 1992 in London[1](https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/pop/conheca-kaya-scodelario-atriz-britanica-de-senna-com-origem-brasileira/). Her mother, Katia Scodelario, is a Brazilian from Itu in the interior of São Paulo state who moved to England in 1990; her surname comes from her mother's Italian grandfather. Her father, Roger Humphrey, was English[3](https://prabook.com/web/kaya.scodelario/3756176). Her parents separated when she was a child, and she was raised by her mother, adopting the surname Scodelario[3](https://prabook.com/web/kaya.scodelario/3756176).
She grew up in a council flat on the rougher side of the London borough of [Islington](https://www.edgepedia.org/islington), in a household that she describes as filled with Brazilian music and Brazilian food[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/19/kaya-scodelario-nine-times-out-of-10-my-character-is-with-a-guy-twice-my-age). Thanks to her mother she grew up fluent in [Brazilian Portuguese](https://www.edgepedia.org/brazilian-portuguese) as well as English, and she has said that she and her mother speak only Portuguese with each other[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2546012/bio/). She spent part of her childhood visiting Brazil, and has said her culture is Brazilian "much more so than it is British"[1](https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/pop/conheca-kaya-scodelario-atriz-britanica-de-senna-com-origem-brasileira/) • [10](https://theglassmagazine.com/glass-talks-to-brazilian-british-actor-kaya-scodelario/).
## Skins and early career
In 2007, aged 14, Scodelario attended an open audition for *Skins*, a new E4 series that cast real teenagers with no professional acting experience rather than trained adult actors; her school in Finsbury Park received a fax announcing the auditions[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/kaya-scodelario-skins-b2653142.html) • [11](https://ecom-su-static-prod.wtrecom.com/content/dam/waitrosegroceriescms/ecomm/2024/campaigns/dish-podcast/season-5/ep6/Dish%20Kaya%20Scodelario%20-%20Transcript%20Season%205.pdf). She won the role of Effy Stonem, Tony's younger sister, a near-silent character in the early seasons who became central to the show's later runs[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2546012/bio/) • [5](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/kaya-scodelario/). She was the only character to appear throughout the first four seasons, and her portrayal earned her two Golden Nymph nominations at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival[5](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/kaya-scodelario/) • [12](https://pirates.fandom.com/wiki/Kaya_Scodelario). She has said the role was very different from her own personality: "I was incredibly shy and insecure as a child; I was bullied, I was dyslexic, I had an immigrant single parent"[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/19/kaya-scodelario-nine-times-out-of-10-my-character-is-with-a-guy-twice-my-age).
Her early film roles were small parts in [Duncan Jones](https://www.edgepedia.org/duncan-jones)'s *Moon* (2009), as Eve, and in *Clash of the Titans* (2010)[6](https://www.metacritic.com/person/kaya-scodelario/). Her first leading film role came in [Andrea Arnold](https://www.edgepedia.org/andrea-arnold)'s 2011 adaptation of *Wuthering Heights*, in which she played Catherine Earnshaw[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/19/kaya-scodelario-nine-times-out-of-10-my-character-is-with-a-guy-twice-my-age). The performance earned critical acclaim and stands as her highest-rated film on Metacritic, with a Metascore of 70[6](https://www.metacritic.com/person/kaya-scodelario/).
## Franchise films
After *Skins*, Scodelario moved largely into American productions. She played Teresa in *The Maze Runner* (2014) and returned for its two sequels, *Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials* (2015) and *Maze Runner: The Death Cure* (2018)[1](https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/pop/conheca-kaya-scodelario-atriz-britanica-de-senna-com-origem-brasileira/) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/person/kaya-scodelario/).
**Pirates of the Caribbean.** On 24 January 2015 producer [Jerry Bruckheimer](https://www.edgepedia.org/jerry-bruckheimer) announced her casting as Carina Smyth, the orphan astronomer and female lead of *Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales*, which was released in May 2017[12](https://pirates.fandom.com/wiki/Kaya_Scodelario) • [7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/19/kaya-scodelario-nine-times-out-of-10-my-character-is-with-a-guy-twice-my-age). Filming one of the film's showpiece sequences, in which her character climbs a giant ship's anchor, took about three weeks in a blue-screen warehouse; "I didn't see daylight", she told *The Guardian*[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/19/kaya-scodelario-nine-times-out-of-10-my-character-is-with-a-guy-twice-my-age). In 2019 she starred as Haley Keller, a swimmer rescuing her father from alligators during a Category 5 hurricane, in [Alexandre Aja](https://www.edgepedia.org/alexandre-aja)'s thriller *Crawl*, and played Carole Ann Boone in the [Ted Bundy](https://www.edgepedia.org/ted-bundy) biopic *Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile* the same year[6](https://www.metacritic.com/person/kaya-scodelario/) • [13](https://www.tomsguide.com/entertainment/streaming/one-of-the-best-modern-thrillers-is-streaming-free-on-kanopy-watch-crawl-now-before-the-sequel-gets-here). In 2021 she played Claire Redfield in the reboot *Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City*[6](https://www.metacritic.com/person/kaya-scodelario/).
## The Gentlemen and later television
**Susie Glass.** Scodelario returned to British television as Susie Glass, the glamorously composed daughter of imprisoned gangster Bobby Glass who runs the family's drug empire in Guy Ritchie's Netflix series *The Gentlemen*, starring opposite [Theo James](https://www.edgepedia.org/theo-james)[8](https://www.vogue.com/article/kaya-scodelario-the-gentlemen-interview) • [14](https://time.com/6837616/the-gentlemen-review-netflix/). Critics gave the role particular attention: *Time* described her as "enchantingly ice-cold" and noted that she "gets the heaps of screen time she deserves" in a role that expands [Michelle Dockery](https://www.edgepedia.org/michelle-dockery)'s underwritten part from Ritchie's 2019 film[14](https://time.com/6837616/the-gentlemen-review-netflix/). The performance brought her a 2024 Gotham TV Award nomination for Outstanding Performance in a Comedy Series and an OFTA Television Award nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy Series[9](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/kaya-scodelario/bio/3000349210/). She told the Associated Press that "the heart of it for me is that it's a family drama"[15](https://apnews.com/article/0d06a739c445b0fa1951124f49054ff5).
Her later film work includes the horror comedy *The Woman in Cabin 10* role of Grace Phillips and Meg in [Alex Winter](https://www.edgepedia.org/alex-winter)'s *Adulthood*, which premiered at the 2025 [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/toronto-international-film-festival) and opened in theaters on 19 September 2025[16](https://alexwinter.com/projects/adulthood/) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/person/kaya-scodelario/).
## Brazilian identity and Senna
Scodelario has spoken extensively about how the British industry framed her. She has said agents and casting directors wanted to pitch her as an "English rose", a label she rejected: "I'm not, I'm a bi-racial woman, I'm half Latina and I've never been allowed to embrace that in the industry... I'm Brazilian-British. And I'm really proud of that"[10](https://theglassmagazine.com/glass-talks-to-brazilian-british-actor-kaya-scodelario/). She also described UK class barriers after *Skins*, saying her background meant she would be cast as a maid in "any period drama" she auditioned for, and that she faced fewer barriers in America[4](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/kaya-scodelario-skins-b2653142.html).
**Senna.** When Netflix adapted the life of the Brazilian racing driver [Ayrton Senna](https://www.edgepedia.org/ayrton-senna) da Silva, Scodelario campaigned for the part of Laura Harrison, a fictional journalist created to accompany Senna's career from his karting days to the 1994 accident at Imola[17](https://harpersbazaar.uol.com.br/estilo-de-vida/kaya-scodelario-mergulha-em-suas-raizes-brasileiras-em-senna/). Like Scodelario, the character has both Brazilian and British roots, and she is one of the few reporters with whom Senna can speak Portuguese[18](https://veja.abril.com.br/coluna/tela-plana/como-senna-ajudou-kaya-scodelario-a-se-conectar-a-sua-origem-brasileira/). Scodelario said she had sought a Brazilian project for about twelve years and had told her agent she wanted to film in Brazil and work in Portuguese[17](https://harpersbazaar.uol.com.br/estilo-de-vida/kaya-scodelario-mergulha-em-suas-raizes-brasileiras-em-senna/). At the series' São Paulo premiere in November 2024 she called it her first role performed in Portuguese[1](https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/pop/conheca-kaya-scodelario-atriz-britanica-de-senna-com-origem-brasileira/).
She continues to seek Brazilian work, saying she would like to appear in a telenovela, which she watched with her grandmother as a child, though she wants to improve her Portuguese first[19](https://gshow.globo.com/cultura-pop/famosos/noticia/kaya-scodelario-fala-em-portugues-e-brinca-sobre-sotaque-nao-sabia-que-tinha-acento-de-interior.ghtml). She keeps the connection with Brazil by speaking Portuguese with her son[17](https://harpersbazaar.uol.com.br/estilo-de-vida/kaya-scodelario-mergulha-em-suas-raizes-brasileiras-em-senna/).
## Awards and recognition
Scodelario received Golden Nymph nominations in 2008 and 2010 for her work on *Skins*, won the 2013 Ashland Independent Film Award for Best Acting Ensemble as part of the cast of *The Truth About Emanuel*, and earned Teen Choice Award nominations for the *Maze Runner* and *Pirates* films between 2015 and 2017[9](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/kaya-scodelario/bio/3000349210/). Her 2024 nominations for *The Gentlemen* marked a return to awards attention, which press coverage connected to what *Vogue* called "the reputation that she's gone on to build" beyond her franchise roles[8](https://www.vogue.com/article/kaya-scodelario-the-gentlemen-interview).
## References
1. [Conheça Kaya Scodelario, atriz britânica de "Senna" com origem brasileira, CNN Brasil](https://www.cnnbrasil.com.br/pop/conheca-kaya-scodelario-atriz-britanica-de-senna-com-origem-brasileira/)
2. [Kaya Scodelario – Biography, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2546012/bio/)
3. [Kaya Rose Scodelario – World Biographical Encyclopedia (Prabook)](https://prabook.com/web/kaya.scodelario/3756176)
4. [Kaya Scodelario reveals UK class 'barriers' stopped her auditioning for acting roles after Skins, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/kaya-scodelario-skins-b2653142.html)
5. [Kaya Scodelario – Actress, TV Insider](https://www.tvinsider.com/people/kaya-scodelario/)
6. [Kaya Scodelario – Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/person/kaya-scodelario/)
7. [Kaya Scodelario: 'Nine times out of 10, my character is with a guy twice my age', The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/may/19/kaya-scodelario-nine-times-out-of-10-my-character-is-with-a-guy-twice-my-age)
8. [Fresh Off the Success of 'The Gentlemen,' Kaya Scodelario Is Reintroducing Herself, Vogue](https://www.vogue.com/article/kaya-scodelario-the-gentlemen-interview)
9. [Kaya Scodelario Biography, Celebrity Facts and Awards, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/kaya-scodelario/bio/3000349210/)
10. [Glass talks to Brazilian-British actor Kaya Scodelario, The Glass Magazine](https://theglassmagazine.com/glass-talks-to-brazilian-british-actor-kaya-scodelario/)
11. [Dish podcast Season 5, Episode 6: Kaya Scodelario transcript, Waitrose](https://ecom-su-static-prod.wtrecom.com/content/dam/waitrosegroceriescms/ecomm/2024/campaigns/dish-podcast/season-5/ep6/Dish%20Kaya%20Scodelario%20-%20Transcript%20Season%205.pdf)
12. [Kaya Scodelario, Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki](https://pirates.fandom.com/wiki/Kaya_Scodelario)
13. [One of the best modern thrillers is streaming free on Kanopy: Watch 'Crawl', Tom's Guide](https://www.tomsguide.com/entertainment/streaming/one-of-the-best-modern-thrillers-is-streaming-free-on-kanopy-watch-crawl-now-before-the-sequel-gets-here)
14. [Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen Series Starts Out Exhilarating But Gets Old Fast, Time](https://time.com/6837616/the-gentlemen-review-netflix/)
15. [Guy Ritchie serves up a meaty thriller-comedy series on Netflix with 'The Gentlemen', AP News](https://apnews.com/article/0d06a739c445b0fa1951124f49054ff5)
16. [Adulthood – Alex Winter (official project page)](https://alexwinter.com/projects/adulthood/)
17. [Kaya Scodelario mergulha em suas raízes brasileiras em "Senna", Harper's Bazaar Brasil](https://harpersbazaar.uol.com.br/estilo-de-vida/kaya-scodelario-mergulha-em-suas-raizes-brasileiras-em-senna/)
18. [Como 'Senna' ajudou Kaya Scodelario a se conectar à sua origem brasileira, Veja](https://veja.abril.com.br/coluna/tela-plana/como-senna-ajudou-kaya-scodelario-a-se-conectar-a-sua-origem-brasileira/)
19. [Kaya Scodelario fala em português e brinca sobre sotaque, gshow (Globo)](https://gshow.globo.com/cultura-pop/famosos/noticia/kaya-scodelario-fala-em-portugues-e-brinca-sobre-sotaque-nao-sabia-que-tinha-acento-de-interior.ghtml)
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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 Q to Se*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 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