# Phoebe Fox

**Phoebe Fox** (full name Phoebe Mercedes Fox) is an English actress born in 1987 in [Hammersmith](https://www.edgepedia.org/hammersmith), London, known for stage work at the Young Vic and National Theatre and for screen roles including Marial in *[The Great](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-great-tv-series)*, Lady Anne in *The Hollow Crown*, and Sara in the 2025 miniseries *Task*.<sup>[1](https://www.tvmaze.com/people/42399/phoebe-fox)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4555381/)</sup> She was nominated for an Olivier Award for playing Catherine in Ivo van Hove's revival of *[A View from the Bridge](https://www.edgepedia.org/a-view-from-the-bridge)*.<sup>[3](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Phoebe-Fox/)</sup> She should not be confused with the American author Phoebe Fox, writer of the Breakup Doctor series.<sup>[4](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2198786/phoebe-fox/)</sup>

| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name / birth | Phoebe Mercedes Fox, born 1987 in Hammersmith, London, England<sup>[1](https://www.tvmaze.com/people/42399/phoebe-fox)</sup> |
| Training | RADA graduate; took three years of auditions to gain a place<sup>[5](https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/introducing-phoebe-fox-273588/)</sup> |
| Signature stage role | Catherine in *A View from the Bridge* at the Young Vic (2014), transferring to the West End and Broadway in 2015; Olivier nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role<sup>[3](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Phoebe-Fox/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[5](https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/introducing-phoebe-fox-273588/)</sup> |
| Notable films | *The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death* (2014), *Eye in the Sky* (2015), *The Aeronauts* (2019)<sup>[3](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Phoebe-Fox/)</sup> |
| Television | Marial in *The Great* (2020–2023), Sara in *Task* (2025), Serena Byrne in *War* (2026)<sup>[1](https://www.tvmaze.com/people/42399/phoebe-fox)</sup> |
| Family | Parents are actors Stuart Fox and Prue Clarke; married to actor Kyle Soller since 2010<sup>[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4555381/)</sup> |

## Early life and training

Fox grew up in an acting family: her parents are the actors Stuart Fox and Prue Clarke, and she has said she was always surrounded by actors growing up.<sup>[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4555381/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[5](https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/introducing-phoebe-fox-273588/)</sup> Getting into drama school took three years of auditions; she has described the first year, in which she did not get past the first audition round anywhere, as a major blow, but persisted because she wanted the training itself rather than simply an acting career.<sup>[5](https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/introducing-phoebe-fox-273588/)</sup> In 2011 the movie magazine Screen International named her one of its stars of tomorrow.<sup>[5](https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/introducing-phoebe-fox-273588/)</sup>

## Stage career

**Early roles.** Fox made her professional stage debut in 2010 as Vera Aleksandrovna in *[A Month in the Country](https://www.edgepedia.org/a-month-in-the-country)* at Chichester Festival Theatre.<sup>[5](https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/introducing-phoebe-fox-273588/)</sup> In 2011 she appeared in Anya Reiss's *The Acid Test* at the Royal Court and in [Tom Basden](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-basden)'s *There Is a War* at the National Theatre, performances that drew the Screen International notice.<sup>[5](https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/introducing-phoebe-fox-273588/)</sup> Her London stage credits also include Cordelia in *King Lear* at the Almeida in 2012, opposite [Jonathan Pryce](https://www.edgepedia.org/jonathan-pryce).<sup>[3](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Phoebe-Fox/)</sup>

**A View from the Bridge.** In 2014 Fox played Catherine in [Arthur Miller](https://www.edgepedia.org/arthur-miller)'s *A View from the Bridge* at the Young Vic, directed by Ivo van Hove, alongside [Mark Strong](https://www.edgepedia.org/mark-strong) and [Nicola Walker](https://www.edgepedia.org/nicola-walker). The production, with its minimal set and bare feet, transferred to the West End's Wyndham's Theatre in 2015 and then to Broadway, where Fox repeated the role.<sup>[5](https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/introducing-phoebe-fox-273588/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Phoebe-Fox/)</sup> The performance earned her a 2015 Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role.<sup>[3](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Phoebe-Fox/)</sup> She has said she chose the role because Catherine was more interesting than the ingénue parts that mostly required a character to cry and die, and that van Hove's stripped-down staging forced everything to be conveyed through the actors' relations with each other.<sup>[5](https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/introducing-phoebe-fox-273588/)</sup>

**National Theatre work.** In 2017 she played Olivia in the National Theatre's *Twelfth Night*, also screened through National Theatre Live.<sup>[3](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Phoebe-Fox/)</sup> In 2019 she took the title role in *Anna* by the playwright Ella Hickson at the National's Dorfman Theatre, a production using binaural sound by Ben and Max Ringham to place the audience inside a Sixties East Berlin of universal surveillance.<sup>[6](https://app.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/phoebe-fox-interview-anna-national-theatre-a4136691.html)</sup> By her own description she is first and foremost a stage actor, saying theater is where she gets her life force, though it does not pay the bills.<sup>[6](https://app.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/phoebe-fox-interview-anna-national-theatre-a4136691.html)</sup>

## Screen work

Fox's early screen appearances included a small role in *One Day* (2011) and Hallam in the *Black Mirror* episode "The Entire History of You" (2011).<sup>[3](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Phoebe-Fox/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/PhoebeFox)</sup> Her first film lead came as Eve Parkins in *The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death* (2014), followed by Kate in *War Book* (2014) and Carrie Gershon in the drone-warfare thriller *[Eye in the Sky](https://www.edgepedia.org/eye-in-the-sky-2015-film)* (2015).<sup>[3](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Phoebe-Fox/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[5](https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/introducing-phoebe-fox-273588/)</sup> On television she played Anne in the BBC's *The Hollow Crown* cycle, a young [Virginia Woolf](https://www.edgepedia.org/virginia-woolf) in *Life in Squares*, and roles in *The Musketeers*, *NW*, *Close to the Enemy*, and *Curfew* (2019).<sup>[3](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Phoebe-Fox/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/PhoebeFox)</sup> Film work continued with *Blue Iguana* (2018), *The Aeronauts* (2019), and *Intrigo: Samaria* (2019).<sup>[3](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Phoebe-Fox/)</sup>

## The Great and later television

**Marial.** From 2020 to 2023 Fox played Marial, a disgraced noblewoman turned servant to Catherine ([Elle Fanning](https://www.edgepedia.org/elle-fanning)) in the Hulu and [Channel 4](https://www.edgepedia.org/channel-4) comedy-drama *The Great*, set in the court of 18th-century Russia.<sup>[1](https://www.tvmaze.com/people/42399/phoebe-fox)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[8](https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/phoebe-fox-the-great-interview-2022)</sup> The ensemble was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Cast in a Comedy Series.<sup>[7](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/PhoebeFox)</sup> Fox has called it the most theater-like television show she had been in, based as it is on an original stage play by Tony McNamara, and said her RADA vocal training helped with the wordy, fast-paced dialogue and the corset-restricted breathing the costumes demanded.<sup>[8](https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/phoebe-fox-the-great-interview-2022)</sup> In season two Marial regains her noble status, a change Fox described as the character's coming-out party.<sup>[8](https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/phoebe-fox-the-great-interview-2022)</sup> She has said the role, arriving twelve years into her career, was her biggest television part to that point.<sup>[8](https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/phoebe-fox-the-great-interview-2022)</sup>

**Recent roles.** She played Sara in the 2025 miniseries *Task* and Serena Byrne in *War*, an HBO and Sky legal drama in which her character heads a family law firm caught up in a high-profile divorce case; she filmed the series while pregnant, with the pregnancy written into the character.<sup>[1](https://www.tvmaze.com/people/42399/phoebe-fox)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[9](https://podcastrex.com/shows/half-the-picture/phoebe-fox-talks-war-favourite-pregnancy-snacks-how-to-be-happy-at-work-as-an-actor-4k)</sup>

## Personal life

Fox married the actor and RADA alumnus [Kyle Soller](https://www.edgepedia.org/kyle-soller) in 2010, when she was 23.<sup>[2](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4555381/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[8](https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/phoebe-fox-the-great-interview-2022)</sup> In a 2019 interview she described living with Soller in a one-bedroom flat in [Crouch End](https://www.edgepedia.org/crouch-end), London, and said that after she turned 30 she went, in her words, overnight from playing teenagers to playing mothers.<sup>[6](https://app.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/phoebe-fox-interview-anna-national-theatre-a4136691.html)</sup>

## References

1. [Phoebe Fox, TVmaze](https://www.tvmaze.com/people/42399/phoebe-fox)
2. [Phoebe Fox, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4555381/)
3. [Phoebe Fox (Actor) – Broadway & Theatre Credits, BroadwayWorld](https://www.broadwayworld.com/people/Phoebe-Fox/)
4. [Phoebe Fox, Penguin Random House author page](https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2198786/phoebe-fox/)
5. [Introducing… Phoebe Fox, Official London Theatre (18 February 2015)](https://officiallondontheatre.com/news/introducing-phoebe-fox-273588/)
6. [Phoebe Fox interview: 'I get my life force from the theatre, but it doesn't pay the bills', Evening Standard (2019)](https://app.standard.co.uk/culture/theatre/phoebe-fox-interview-anna-national-theatre-a4136691.html)
7. [Phoebe Fox (Creator), TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/PhoebeFox)
8. [The Great's Phoebe Fox on redefining success, Glamour UK (25 July 2022)](https://www.glamourmagazine.co.uk/article/phoebe-fox-the-great-interview-2022)
9. [Phoebe Fox talks War, favourite pregnancy snacks & how to be happy at work as an actor, Half the Picture podcast (9 October 2026)](https://podcastrex.com/shows/half-the-picture/phoebe-fox-talks-war-favourite-pregnancy-snacks-how-to-be-happy-at-work-as-an-actor-4k)

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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 F to Gu*

*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
