The Stunning Transformation Of Vanessa Kirby

Vanessa Kirby's rise to fame has been pretty astounding. After breaking onto the British theater scene in a triple bill at the Octagon Theatre in 2009, she swiftly climbed through the ranks of the film and TV industry, with appearances in "The Hour," "About Time," "Everest," and "Me Before You."

However, it wasn't until 2016 that she really became a household name with her career-changing turn as Princess Margaret on Netflix's smash hit, "The Crown." Her part in the show was rapidly followed by a starring role alongside Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible – Fallout."

It's hard to imagine this glamorous, BAFTA award-winning actor ever struggling to win a role or to succeed at school. But like most actors, Kirby has been through quite a lot to get to where she is today.

Vanessa Kirby grew up in a well-off home in Wimbledon, a picturesque suburb of London. She is the middle of three children born to Jane Kirby, who was the editor of Country Living, and Roger Kirby, a leading prostate surgeon and urology professor. By the sounds of things, her childhood was a happy and creative one.

From an early age, Kirby was exposed to plenty of films, thanks to her father. He "always watched loads of films with me," the actor told The Guardian. "Totally inappropriate ones like 'Midnight Express' when I was about 6." She and her siblings were also frequently taken to the theater. "[My father] is totally obsessed with Shakespeare," Kirby explained to Esquire. "His glory moment was playing Mark Antony in 'Julius Caesar' at uni," she went on, revealing that her father still thinks of himself "as a bit of an actor." It's easy to see where Kirby gets her passion and talent from.

Even though Vanessa Kirby admitted she had a lovely childhood, the experience was tainted by Giardia, a intestinal parasite, which wasn't diagnosed for a while. It made Kirby feel constantly nauseous. As the actor put it to The Guardian, two years of her childhood were taken by "all these nightmare injections, pills up the bum, all of it." She summed it up as being "prodded around from age 9 to 11." In addition to her long-term treatment, Kirby was also severely bullied at around the same time. "That was one of my darkest times," she told Marie Claire.

Apparently, being bullied led to Kirby becoming extremely self-conscious and sensitive as a child. However, while the bullying was horrible while it lasted, it left her with a few crucial acting skills. As she told the outlet, "Now when I look back on it, I feel like those three years gave me a kind of empathy or emotional understanding."

Despite the bullying and constant trips to the hospital, there was one place where the young Vanessa Kirby felt she could relax. She joined after-school drama clubs and became fascinated by the world of acting. She explained to Esquire, "It was an area where I was totally accepted. Somewhere I could truly be myself."

While drama clubs gave Kirby a sense of community, seeing live theater became another passion. Although Kirby has been exposed to theater for years, the budding performer was 11 years old when "suddenly it clicked," as she told The Guardian.

Kirby explained the moment in more detail to Esquire, recalling a performance of "The Cherry Orchard" starring Vanessa and Corin Redgrave at the National Theatre in London. "It was in the round, and I was right there in that garden with them," Kirby recalled. "Whatever that magic is, I started to absorb it." It's clear that from an early age the world of acting has been both a refuge and a passion for Kirby.

Vanessa Kirby's passion for acting began at the young age of 11. However, as she recalled to Esquire, it wasn't until secondary school that she learned how to act well. During a school production of "Hamlet," playing Gertrude, Kirby recalled, "There was maybe five or 10 minutes, when I was off stage, when I was thinking as her. I couldn't stop the thoughts coming. In the back of mind there was me, going, 'Huh?' And the next scene was so amazing to play," she went on. It was in this moment that Kirby learned an essential lesson about acting: It's not about pretending, but rather it's about "literally thinking someone else's thoughts," as the BAFTA winner put it.

This early discovery has seen Kirby through most of her career. In an interview with The Talks, the actor explained that in the 2020 film "The World to Come," she used the same technique she learned in that school production of "Hamlet" — she imagined what the character would think. "If you think the character's thoughts, the camera can read it," she explained.

Like most young aspiring actors in England, Vanessa Kirby auditioned for drama schools after graduating high school. She was just 17 at the time — and, as she described to Esquire, "horribly unprepared and completely clueless." 

At all of her auditions, Kirby was told she needed more experience. She took their advice and set off traveling for nine months before applying to universities. "I thought, 'I have to go to uni. I have to meet tons of people who aren't actors,'" she remembered. Kirby ended up attending the University of Exeter where she studied English and soaked up everything she could from university life, partying, studying, and appearing in student plays.

In an interview with The Last Magazine, Kirby recalled that the university experience was just what she needed. "I had the most transformative, amazing experience," she recalled. When she left, she was more sure than ever that she was determined to become an actor. "I realized that somehow I needed to make my life about [acting] even if it was doing it for free on Sundays, or whatever," she said.

These days, Vanessa Kirby is known for her phenomenal acting skills. However, long before rising to fame, the actor worked in a very different industry. As Kirby noted in an interview with Harper's Bazaar, "My first job was in a bakery in the tiny little village that I lived in. And, um, it was kind of crazy because I had to get up at 3 a.m. on a Saturday." According to Kirby, this timetable was particularly challenging for her as a young person who would often go out to bars the night before. "I'd be out. I'd get maybe one hour of sleep," she confessed. This experience was made all the more trying by the fact that Kirby's wages were fairly low — at only £3.15 ($4.00) per hour. 

Despite the challenges of the job, Kirby described working at the bakery as deeply gratifying. She particularly enjoyed the sense of community that came with greeting customers in the morning. "I made a lot of lovely friends that always used to come in and get their morning cups of tea in their polystyrene cups," Kirby shared.

Of course, baking was never Kirby's lifelong dream. Even early on in her career, she longed to be an actor. That being said, Kirby has considered pursuing a career outside of acting. "The [entertainment] industry is so transient ... So, yeah, I've gone through different phases," she admitted in the same interview.

Although Vanessa Kirby felt very drawn to acting, she didn't always know that the entertainment industry was a viable career choice. The movie world is notoriously cut-throat, and even some of the biggest actors have lost roles due circumstances beyond their control. Because of this "dog eat dog" culture, Kirby initially took on a lot of acting jobs for free. At times, she even wondered if a professional contract with actual compensation would ever be on the table. Luckily, much of Kirby's doubt evaporated when she finally received a paycheck for an early acting job.

Speaking to Harper's Bazaar about this transformative experience, Kirby recalled, "Well, I do remember. It was my first job. I was doing some plays in the north of England in Bolton in this little theater. I remember walking at the end of the first week from the theater to my little flat. And, I opened my first pay slip. And, you know, it was £200 or something for the week. And, I remember looking at it, staring, thinking, 'I can't believe they'e paying me to do this.'" That moment helped Kirby understand that she actually had a future in the industry. Since then, her career has skyrocketed. These days, she charges way more than £200 for her labor — Vanessa Kirby's net worth is estimated to be worth millions. 

Vanessa Kirby auditioned for drama schools again after completing her degree at the University of Exeter. This time she was more successful, and was offered a place at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, or LAMDA. However, at the same time, she was discovered by the director David Thacker, who offered her three roles at the Octagon Theatre Bolton. She turned down the drama school and jumped into the world of professional acting.

When Kirby first turned down a spot at LAMDA in order to work professionally, she wasn't sure if it was the right decision. As the actor told Fabric Magazine, "I felt like it was a rite of passage — RADA or LAMDA ... So at the beginning I was this wide-eyed, naive, self-critical, nervous, neurotic thing." 

Kirby went on to describe how her lack of training made her question, "Do I have a right to be here?" However, she did more than prove herself. She even ended up winning the BIZA Rising Star Award for her roles in Thacker's productions. It seemed as though her career was off to a fantastic start.

After her acclaimed performances in the three Octagon Theatre Bolton plays, Vanessa Kirby seemed like she would work primarily in theater. Her early stage credits are impressive, to say the least. By 2012, she had played Isabella in "Women Beware Women" at the National Theatre, Dana in "The Acid Test" at London's Royal Court Theatre, Rosalind in Shakespeare's "As You Like It" at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, and Masha in "Three Sisters" at the Young Vic in London. In role after role, Kirby blew both audiences and critics away, leading Variety to call her "the outstanding stage actress of her generation" — incredibly high praise (via Esquire).

It's evident that, for Kirby, theater is her first love. As she told Culture Whisper in 2016, the actor read all of Chekhov's plays as a teenager. She also explained that her dream roles include Hedda Gabler, Lady Macbeth, and of course, "all of the Chekhovs." At the time, screen work wasn't a priority. "I would be quite happy being on stage forever," Kirby shared. "I miss stage as soon as I am on set so it will always be something that I hope that will be the center of my identity."

In 2011, Vanessa Kirby appeared in the first series of "The Hour." As the actor explained to The Guardian, it was one of her first professional jobs — and was a dream come true for a few reasons. Not only was she getting paid to do what she loved, but she was also working alongside her childhood hero, Ben Whishaw.

Back in high school, Kirby had stolen a picture of Whishaw in "Hamlet" from her school notice board to stick on her wall. She ended up seeing his performance three times and even spotting him on a London bus.

Years later, when Kirby was filming "The Hour" with Whishaw, she found herself struggling to concentrate. "In my head it was just alarm bells going, 'Oh my God that's Ben Whishaw,'" she recalled. After filming the scene, Kirby confessed her childhood "infatuation" to her co-star. She laughed, remembering the moment: "Of course, he was with his boyfriend."

In spite of her passion for the stage, it seemed that an on-screen career was inevitable for Vanessa Kirby. After a string of decent roles, the young actor was cast in "The Crown," a series that would transform her career, turning her from a well-respected stage actor into a star of the screen. Kirby played Queen Elizabeth II's younger sister Princess Margaret in the first two seasons of the Netflix show. As she described to Esquire, Margaret, who was involved in one of the royal family's most scandalous romances, was a "gift" to play.

In order to prepare for the role, Kirby "read every book [she] could find and watched a lot of archive footage," as she told Stylist. Soon enough, the actor was obsessed. "I'm fully immersed in her life," she confessed. "We've even got a picture of Margaret in our loo."

When her time on "The Crown" came to an end, Kirby confessed to Marie Claire, "It's changed my life; it's everything I've wanted." Not only did the role catapult her to stardom, it also became a personal passion. "It's more exciting and fulfilling than any acting job I could ever get," Kirby gushed.

After Vanessa Kirby became better known following "The Crown," Hollywood came calling with one of the biggest movie franchises of all time — "Mission: Impossible." In 2018, she starred alongside Tom Cruise as "The White Widow" in "Mission: Impossible – Fallout." The experience couldn't have been further from the upper class, 1950s world of Britain's royal family. 

Kirby's first big Hollywood role saw her taking on a whole new genre. As she explained to The Talks, it was a big step out of her comfort zone. "I come from stage acting, so I had no idea even how to even do that world. It was really scary and challenging," Kirby said. She went on to explain that the film really changed her as an actor. "It taught me about discipline and stamina, it taught me the physicality of what is required for different roles." While the change of pace was tough, for Kirby, it was a welcome challenge.

Luckily, the Netflix alum had a very experienced action hero by her side. According to Kirby, Cruise was "such a pro" and was "absolutely disciplined; super enthusiastic." As she told The Guardian, it was thanks to Cruise that she pushed herself extra hard for the role.

As Vanessa Kirby's fame continued to rise, her opportunities and independence as an artist rose, too. The actor explained to The Guardian how she became interested in creating her own projects that would give her and other women better material. 

"I feel like now, more than ever, it's all of our responsibility to have other things represented on screen," Kirby explained. "There have been so many male stories on screen, or stories of women written by men, so she's the wife of someone, the girlfriend of someone." One of Kirby's projects was developed with the New York director Adam Leon. As she explained, her role was inspired by a real-life article about a woman who "entered a fugue state and went missing."

By the sounds of things, we can expect to see Kirby developing more female-driven projects in the future. As she told Esquire, "I want to see those really raw, big journeys that [female characters] used to have. I really feel that's my mission, to play a part in bringing that back."

The life of a movie star is notoriously chaotic and over-busy. For Vanessa Kirby, finding balance has been an important learning curve as her fame has grown.

When Glamour asked her about how she looked after herself, Kirby replied, "Not very well." The actor's method of self-care generally consists of seeing good friends and her sister. "That's the best form of wellbeing you can ever have, really," she explained.

Furthermore, she told BAFTA Guru, one of the biggest things is "making sure that you have a life outside of acting." As Kirby explained, many actors have mental health issues linked to their success. So for her, she's learned to detach her self-worth from her success, so that rejections no longer affect her so deeply.

Another important lesson that Vanessa Kirby has learned over the years is to respect herself as an actor. As she told Glamour, "It's so hard to not have self-doubt." "The Crown" star went on to explain that she has had to learn how to be less self-critical. "It's my main aim to quieten [the self-critical voice]," she revealed.

It's clear that Kirby has come a long way in her journey to self-acceptance — especially after spending years of her childhood being bullied. As she told Glamour, after being bullied, the self-critic was ever-present in her life. "I used to really struggle with it, and like really doubt myself at work and just generally," Kirby explained. Apparently, she's learned to notice her self-critical voice and change the way she speaks to herself in order to feel more confident and empowered both at work at in her personal life.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many of us to put our lives on hold. For Vanessa Kirby, the lockdown forced her to pause her busy schedule and take some time off work. While she was naturally worried about the pandemic's effect on the film and theater industries, she ended up relishing the relaxation and slower pace of life.

The actor recounted her lockdown experience to Esquire in 2021, saying, "I slept loads, which I haven't done properly for years." Moreover, Kirby ended up enjoying the new sense of routine and structure. As she put it, "It's soothing, isn't it? I think it's what human beings actually need." 

As Vanessa Kirby has grown in popularity and success, she has experienced a desire to give back to her community. Along with her sister, Juliet Kirby, and co-founder, Lauren Dark, Vanessa helped established Aluna Entertainment — a production company that centers the voices of female creators. The trio's Aluna Labs project specifically uplifts work of women who write, produce, and direct cinematographic work. As Dark told Variety, "We created Aluna Labs to provide a tailored and nurturing environment for women aspiring to make ambitious debut features." In both 2023 and 2024, the project provided up-and-coming talent with intensive workshops designed to help them find success in the entertainment industry.

In addition to the Aluna Labs project, Aluna Entertainment has also produced the 2025 film "Night Always Comes." Featuring Vanessa Kirby herself, this movie explores dark themes such as the interplay between past trauma and hope for the future. Although Aluna Entertainment did hire a male director — Benjamin Caron — for the job, the company was sure to include a number of women in the project. The script was written by Sarah Conradt, while Vanessa Kirby, Lauren Dark, and Jodie Caron all received producing credits. As a part of Netflix's 2025 film schedule, this movie stands as one of Kirby's most notable forays into the production world. In that sense, it also represents an important moment in her personal and professional transformation.  

When Vanessa Kirby was first cast to play "White Widow" in "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning," she had a very particular plan for how she would approach the role. Seeing as her character was a powerful arms dealer, Kirby originally believed that she would need to be blatantly antagonistic in front of the cameras. Speaking on CBS Mornings about this initial idea, Kirby admitted, "I mean, I was very tempted [to play the role aggressively]. I think I came in quite strong at the beginning."

Interestingly, though, Kirby said that the directors pushed her away from the approach and asked her to try something different. "They said, 'Try playing with it. Remember that the most powerful don't need to assert it. Because, [the White Widow] doesn't have to, if you see what I mean,'" she recalled. This acting advice pushed Kirby to explore a whole new set of skills — one that she had never before uncovered in her career. "It was a big acting challenge and also lesson. And, it was wonderful to learn [that] actually you can [show aggressiveness] quietly," Kirby revealed. This experience on "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning" helped Kirby transform into a more sophisticated actor.

Prior to playing Joséphine Bonaparte in the historical film, "Napoleon," Vanessa Kirby knew a thing or two about history. However, she admittedly understood very little about the pasts of nations other than the U.K. As she revealed in a sit-down with A.Frame, "I knew instantly that [Joséphine] was interesting to me, but I didn't really know why. As Brits, we didn't study a lot of French history growing up." To play this role, Kirby knew that her notion of French history had to change — and fast.

Naturally, Kirby had to learn a lot to portray Joséphine. She dug into archives to read first-hand accounts of what Joséphine was like in real life. However, Kirby's work forced her to recognize something that historians have long noted: It's not always easy to get a clear picture of the past. Speaking on this matter, Kirby explained, "Every account paints her in a different way, which led me to believe that she must have been the kind of person who could adapt well to different circumstances."

Later, Kirby noted, "It didn't matter whether that meant playing the sweet little wife to a husband who never let her out of the house, wearing see-through dresses and leading a fashion revolution, or being crowned as Empress in front of an entire nation." Ultimately, this deep dive into history permitted Kirby to interpret Joséphine in such a way that her performance was unforgettable.

Even though Vanessa Kirby's career has skyrocketed, the actor still struggles with issues of self-confidence. Imposter syndrome has been a hurdle for her, and at times, Kirby has even second-guessed her ability to feel like she belongs in the industry. In a conversation with Harper's Bazaar, the actor explained, "For me, the thing that's helped most [with my feelings of self-assuredness] is ... to be okay with any experience that comes up. You can't sort of only feel good if you feel confident, you know? I think I've realized that fear and doubt is always going to be there no matter what." She went on to add that her sense of confidence "will swing back and forth" depending on the circumstances.

Just because Kirby doesn't always feel confident, however, does not mean that she allows her overall self-esteem to take a hit. In the same interview, the actor said that the best thing one can do is accept the inevitability of self-doubt as a part of the human experience. "I think that's kind of true of all of life, really. You have to sort of be okay with the everything. And I think the more compassionate you are to yourself when you're not confident, the easier it is to be confident, honestly. That's actually genuinely the sort of thing that's helped me the most," she revealed. For Kirby, learning to accept these feelings has led to self-acceptance, as well.