Jessica Brown Findlay

Jessica Rose Brown-Findlay (born 14 September 1987), known professionally as Jessica Brown Findlay, is an English actress. She played Lady Sybil Crawley (2010–2012) in the ITV television period drama series Downton Abbey and Emelia Conan Doyle in the 2011 British comedy-drama feature film Albatross.

In 2014, she appeared as Beverly Penn in the film adaptation of the Mark Helprin novel Winter's Tale. In 2015, she co-starred in Paul McGuigan's Victor Frankenstein as Lorelei, the Esmeralda-like acrobat. In 2016, she joined the cast of the biopic feature film England Is Mine, about the early life and career of English singer Morrissey, who co-founded the indie rock band The Smiths. Brown Findlay portrayed Charlotte Wells, a brothel madam's daughter, and a sex worker, in the three-series run of Harlots (2017–2019), a period drama television series initially screening on ITV Encore in the UK and on Hulu Plus in the US. In 2020, she was in the main cast of the series Brave New World. In 2026, Brown Findlay played Charlotte Keene, an F-35 pilot in the Apple TV show Silo (2026–present).

Early life and education Brown Findlay grew up in Cookham, Berkshire. Her father is a financial adviser and her mother is a teaching assistant. She told Vanity Fair in 2012, "I grew up there, as did my Mum. My Nan and Granddad are around the corner. It is a very familiar place and incredibly dear to my heart. It's sort of quiet, but wonderfully so."

She trained with the National Youth Ballet and the Associates of the Royal Ballet, and at age 15 was invited to dance with the Mariinsky Ballet at the Royal Opera House for a summer season. She attended Furze Platt Senior School in Maidenhead. At the end of her GCSEs, she was accepted to a number of ballet schools, but chose to attend the Arts Educational School in London. In her second year there, she had three operations on her ankles, the last of which went wrong, preventing her from continuing as a dancer. After encouragement from an art teacher, she finished her education at Arts Educational School, Tring Park, then moved on to a fine-art course at Central Saint Martin's College of Art and Design. In a 2012 interview with Vanity Fair, she said, "Growing up, I was completely in love and infatuated with ballet. Ballet was my life completely." She attended university in London, where she discovered the stage. She said, "Acting was the element from ballet that I actually loved and missed the most."

Almost immediately after her work in Albatross, Brown Findlay was cast in the ITV period drama television series Downton Abbey as Lady Sybil Crawley, the youngest and most forward-thinking of the Grantham daughters. In a 2012 interview with Vanity Fair, she said, "I thought this character of Sybil was fascinating, and I liked her modern attitude to life." During a 2015 interview, Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes discussed the plot twist: "Jessica [Brown Findlay, who played Sybil,] had said she was going to leave right from the beginning. She said, 'I'm doing three years, then I'm leaving.' So that was all worked out."

She next appeared as Abi in the Black Mirror episode "Fifteen Million Merits" with English actor Daniel Kaluuya. The episode imagined a dystopian future where people earn merits on exercise bikes and the only way to escape their slave-like existence is to audition for reality TV judges.

In 2012, Brown Findlay became the face of the Dominic Jones jewellery line. She was cast in Not Another Happy Ending by John McKay, and in the miniseries Labyrinth, based on the novel of the same name by Kate Mosse, portraying Alaïs Pelletier. In 2012 she was cast as Beverly Penn in the film adaptation of the novel Winter's Tale (2014) with Colin Farrell and Russell Crowe. In July 2015, she played emotionally conflicted stepmother Alice Aldridge in The Outcast, the BBC's two-part television adaptation of Sadie Jones' novel. In May 2015, Brown Findlay made her professional theatre debut at the Almeida Theatre, London, as Electra in a new adaptation of the Oresteia, to positive reviews. The production subsequently moved to the Trafalgar Theatre in London's West End. Writer/director Robert Icke cast Brown Findlay in his production of Uncle Vanya at the same venue in February the following year.

In September 2016, it was announced that Brown Findlay would play Ophelia in a new production of Hamlet at the Almeida Theatre in London. The production was critically acclaimed and also later moved to the West End, where it ran until September 2017 with award-winning Sherlock and Fleabag actor Andrew Scott as Hamlet. In 2016 Brown Findlay joined the cast of a biopic feature film initially entitled Steven, about the early life and career of English singer Morrissey, who co-founded the indie rock band The Smiths.

In 2017 Brown Findlay portrayed Charlotte Wells, a brothel owner's daughter and famed courtesan, in Harlots, a period drama television series created by Alison Newman and Moira Buffini, and inspired by The Covent Garden Ladies by Hallie Rubenhold. It premiered on 27 March 2017 on ITV Encore in the UK and on 29 March 2017 on Hulu Plus in the US. It focuses on Margaret Wells, who runs a brothel in 18th century England and struggles to raise her daughters in a chaotic household. Also in 2017, Brown Findlay voiced the character of Fay in the animated film Monster Family.

In 2018, she starred as Elizabeth McKenna in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. In May 2019, it was announced that she would star as Lenina Crowne in the NBCUniversal series Brave New World, based on the classic 1932 novel by Aldous Huxley. It was subsequently moved to the Peacock network.

In 2021 she starred as Pamela Legat in the Netflix film Munich – The Edge of War, describing events in Britain and Germany prior to the start of World War II. In 2026 she played Charlotte Keene, an American fighter pilot and sister of a US Congressman in the Apple TV show Silo (based on the science fiction book series by Hugh Howey) that finds herself central to the use of memory suppressing drugs in the storyline.

Personal life Brown Findlay was reportedly the victim of a hacker in 2014 who stole intimate pictures and videos. She began dating actor Ziggy Heath in late 2016. They married on 12 September 2020. On 5 November 2022, their twin sons were born.

Acting credits +Key Denotes projects that have not yet been released Film Year Title Role Notes 2011 Albatross Emelia Conan Doyle 2014 Winter's Tale Beverly Penn Lullaby Karen Lowenstein The Riot Club Rachel 2015 Victor Frankenstein Lorelei 2016 This Beautiful Fantastic Bella Brown 2017 England Is Mine Linder Sterling Monster Family Fay Wishbone Voice role 2018 Hamlet Ophelia Television film The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Elizabeth McKenna 2020 The Banishing Marianne Forster 2021 Munich: The Edge of War Pamela Legat Monster Family 2 Fay Wishbone Voice role 2022 Iris Warriors Miss Shaw The Hanging Sun Lea 2025 Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale Lady Sybil Branson (née Crawley) Archival footage only 2026 Mother Mary Tessa Mabel Pre-production

Television Year Title Role Notes 2009, 2011 Misfits Rachel Leyton Recurring role; 2 episodes 2011 Black Mirror Abi Khan Episode: "Fifteen Million Merits" 2012 Labyrinth Alaïs Pelletier du Mas Miniseries; 2 episodes 2014 Jamaica Inn Mary Yellan Miniseries; 3 episodes 2015 The Outcast Alice Aldridge Miniseries; 2 episodes 2017–2019 Harlots Charlotte Wells Series regular; 20 episodes 2020 Brave New World Lenina Crowne Miniseries; 9 episodes 2020–2021 Castlevania Lenore Series regular; 20 episodes 2022 Life After Life Izzie Miniseries; 3 episodes The Flatshare Tiffany Moore Miniseries; 6 episodes 2023–2025 Isadora Moon Cordelia Moon Series regular; 23 episodes 2025 Playing Nice Lucy Lambert Miniseries; 4 episodes 2026–present Silo Charlotte "Charles" Keene Series regular; 5 episodes Filming

Theatre

Awards and nominations Year Award Category Work Result Ref. 2011 British Independent Film Awards Most Promising Newcomer Albatross 2012 Evening Standard British Film Awards Most Promising Newcomer Albatross 2015 Ian Charleson Awards Special Commendation Oresteia 2016 Ian Charleson Awards Second Prize Uncle Vanya