Ella Purnell is a British actress, known for her roles in the American TV series Sweet Bitter (2018) and Army of the Dead: Lost in Vegas (2021).
Wiki/Biography
Ella Summer Purnell was born on Tuesday, September 17, 1996 (24 years old in 2020) in Tower Hamlets, East London, England. Her zodiac sign is Virgo.
Ella Purnell as a child
She attended Forest School London, City of London Girls’ School and Islington Young Actors Theatre. At the same time, she also studied at Sylvia Young Theatre School in London, taking acting, singing and dancing classes every week. During her studies, she participated in many acting projects, which helped her pay for her tuition. She planned to go to university to study English, Film or Psychology, but never did. In August 2018, she moved to Brooklyn, New York.
appearance
Height: 5′ 4″
Eye color: Hazel
Hair color: Golden brown
Family, Race, and Relationships
Parents and siblings
Ella was born to Susie Purnell and Simon Reid. Her parents divorced shortly after she was born. Ella lived with her mother but maintained contact with her father.
Ella Purnell and her mother
Her father remarried a woman named Isabel and had three sons: Enzo Reed, Noah Reed, and Leon Reed. Ella was close to all three of her half-brothers.
Ella Purnell with her father, stepmother and half-brother
Her mother, on the other hand, is married to Jon Squirrell and together they run Shoreditch House, The Vault gym in London.
Ella Purnell with her mother and stepfather
relation
She dated English musician and singer-songwriter James Coates for a while.
Ella Purnell and James Coates
She was rumoured to be dating American actors Brad Pitt and Tom Holland.
Brad Pitt
Ella Purnell and Tom Holland
As of 2021, she is dating Rob Raco, an Italian-Canadian actor, musician, and model.
Ella Purnell and Rob Raco
Profession
theater
In 2008, she made her stage debut in the play Oliver! at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London as part of the children’s ensemble, where she stayed for a year. In 2017, she played the role of “A” in Glenn Waldron’s play The Natives, which was staged at the Southwark Playhouse in London and directed by Rob Drummer.
Movie
During the final stages of her role in Oliver Twist, she auditioned for the British romantic tragedy Never Let Me Go and made her film debut in 2010 as “Young Ruth C”.
Ella Purnell, Never Let Me Go (2010)
She has appeared in British films: The Immortals (2010), The Invaders (2011), Kick-Ass 2 (2013), and Churchill (2017). She made her American film debut as the teenage Maleficent in the film Maleficent (2014).
Ella Purnell, Melifacent (2014)
She has appeared in American films: Wild (2014), The Legend of Tarzan (2016), Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016), UFO (2018) and Army of the Dead (2021). In 2017, she played the lead role “Mia” for the first time in the American film Access All Areas.
Ella Purnell, Access All Areas (2017)
She also appeared in the short films Candy (2011), Right Place Wrong Tim (2018), and Oksijan (2018).
television
She made her television debut as “Meghan” in the British television film Cyberbullying, which aired on Channel 4 in 2015.
Ella Purnell in Cyberbullying (2015)
She made her television debut in the TV series The Innocent Affair (2018) as Hester Argyll.
She made her American television debut in the Starz show Sweetbitter (2018), based on the internationally bestselling novel of the same name by Stephanie Danler, in which she played the role of Tess.
Sweet, Bitter, Spicy (2018)
She has also appeared in the USA series Belgravia (2020), Army of the Dead: Lost in Vegas (2021), and The Wasp (2021).
Awards and Achievements
Movie Wildlike (2014)
- 2015 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Best Actress Award
- 2015 Gasparilla International Film Festival Best Actress Award
- 2015 Twister Alley International Film Festival Best Actress in a Feature Film
- 2015 Myrtle Beach International Film Festival Best Actress Award
- 2015 Richmond International Film Festival Best Actress Award
- 2015 Brooklyn International Film Festival Best Actress Award
others
- In 2010, he was named one of the UK’s top ten rising stars by Screen International.
sign
Ella Purnell signed photo
Favorite Things
- Actresses: Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, Helena Bonham Carter
- Drink: Vanilla Cappuccino
- TV shows: Downton Abbey (2010), The OddParents (2001)
- Movies: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), Alice in Wonderland (2010), Beetlejuice (1988), Clueless (1995)
- Film director: Tim Burton
- Travel destinations: Venice, Italy, Biarritz, France, Deauville, France
- Book: “Being Blue (and Other Lies) Is Not OK: Inspiring People Open Up About Their Mental Health” by Scarlett Curtis
Facts/Trivia
- In her spare time she enjoys singing, playing piano, reading and writing music.
- During her teenage years, she played younger versions of actresses Keira Knightley, Angelina Jolie and Margot Robbie. It became a joke in her family that she had to make a career out of playing younger versions of other actresses.
- Although she can play the piano, she had to learn Chopin’s Nocturnes for her role in The Tribulations of the Innocents. She discussed this in an interview with the BBC, saying:
I had to learn Chopin’s Nocturne No. 4 or 5, I used to play piano as a child but hadn’t played it in a long time so sitting down at the piano wasn’t completely foreign to me, but you do forget how hard it is to play! It took me three months to learn the five bars. It was really hard but it was really good to do and I slowly got back to the piano. For Hester it was another expression of her and who she was. She had been taught to play these classical pieces with a book on her head. I imagine her in her free time dreaming of going to Greenwich to play jazz, wearing trousers, drinking wine and being herself, which she never got the chance to explore.”
- Music was an integral part of her life and whenever she could, she would go to Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Queen of Hoxton club and The CLF Art Cafe in London to listen to music. She even started playing instruments and singing in blues and jazz bands.
Ella Purnell sings and plays piano
- She also played “Moran Kate” in the Jane Austen audiobook “Northanger Abbey” directed by Kate Jones.
- Ella suffered from anxiety and depression while growing up, so she became an ambassador for YoungMinds, a child and adolescent mental health charity.
I have always been passionate about speaking openly and removing the stigma around mental health because I suffered from anxiety, depression and self-harm as a teenager and felt alone and unable to seek help. Looking back, we didn’t know who or where to turn to, even though almost half of the class was struggling with something.”
- She even manages events for Educate2Eradicate, an organization that raises awareness about forced child marriage and female genital mutilation.
We train people in safeguarding. We train teachers and we do assemblies and workshops with kids to teach them about these practices and make them aware that there are other options. I would spend my life working with young people if I could. I think they are amazing.”
- She is also a brand ambassador for Chanel and often wears the brand’s clothes on the red carpet.
- According to Ella, before she took over Sweetbitter, she was unsure whether to continue with her acting career.
I thought, I’m 21, I haven’t worked for a while, and I don’t really know if I want to continue doing this job. The roles I was offered were the girlfriend of the male lead; a female who needed to be rescued; or a target, something to be wanted. Just a sex object, portrayed as weak, pretty, and kind.”
- When Ella was 15-16, she started hurting herself because of problems with some of her classmates and her boyfriend at school. She didn’t know what was happening until her mom found out. She started learning about mental health and depression and she thought depression only happened when a parent died or you were really sick and ready to jump off a bridge. She didn’t want to talk to her mom about it at the time so she kept it a secret. She said,
If this happened to me now, I would feel like I could say, ‘Mom, I need to take some time off, or, Mom, I’m suffering from this. I don’t self-harm for attention – I hide it. [my scars] Six months, wearing long T-shirts and covering up with makeup. It’s a form of self-punishment for people who don’t like themselves or have insecurities or self-doubt. They want to hurt themselves because they think they deserve it: I was like that at the time. You know it’s wrong and you don’t want to worry other people, but if you’re in that state you feel good. I’m sure it releases something like adrenaline and calms me down, so for me it became an addiction. I have to work really hard to eliminate my triggers and create a safe space so I’m not tempted to fall back into it. I still have the scars and it’s something I’ll always regret: it hurt a lot of people around me and it’s something that’s stayed with me forever. It’s something I never would have talked about before.”
- She enjoys driving and owns a 2019 Toyota Prius C.
Ella Purnell talks about her cars in an Instagram post
- Ella loves dogs very much and she posts pictures with them whenever she spots one on her social media accounts.
Ella Purnell with a dog
- Ella has several tattoos. She has a pinky promise tattoo on the side of her left chest, a stinging bee and dancing girl tattoo on her left thigh, an octopus tattoo on her left forearm, two cherub tattoos on the right side of her back, a koi tattoo on the back of her arm, a female symbol tattoo on the side of her right arm, and a zodiac tattoo above her right chest.
Ella Purnell’s tattoos
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education