Last Updated on 7 April 2024 by Erotica Pleasure
Kaya Rose Scodelario-Davis is a British actress and model. She first came to prominence co-starring on E4’s Skins (2007–2010, 2013), receiving two Golden Nymph nominations for her portrayal of Effy Stonem. She then took on leading roles in a variety of films, such as Wuthering Heights (2011), the Maze Runner series (2014–2018), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017), Crawl (2019), and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021). In 2024, she starred in the action comedy series The Gentlemen.
Other name: Kaya Rose Humphrey
Years active: 2006–present
Born age: 13 March 1992, 32 years old and 2 months, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, England
Sun Sign: Pisces
Hair Color: Dark Brown
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 5′ 6″ – 1.68 m
Measurements: 32-23-34 in – 81-58-86 cm
Bra size: 32B US – 70B EU
Kaya Scodelario in Skins UK (2007)
Kaya Scodelario in Skins UK (2007)
Kaya Scodelario in Skins UK (2007)
actress model Kaya Scodelario
Early life
Scodelario was born Kaya Rose Humphrey. Her mother, Katia Scodelario, is a Brazilian who had worked as an accountant in Itu, São Paulo, and had moved to England in 1990; Scodelario’s surname comes from her mother’s Italian grandfather. Her father, Roger Humphrey, was English and died in November 2010.
Her parents divorced when Scodelario was one year old, and her mother took her to London when she was four. They spent their first night on the street before finding a council flat on Holloway Road. Scodelario adopted her mother’s surname and spoke Portuguese at home. She attended Bishop Douglass Catholic School and then Islington Arts and Media School. She participated in school plays and found drama an escape from bullying. Her mother took on multiple jobs to make ends meet and had clinical depression that worsened during Scodelario’s teen years. Scodelario said she wanted to help, but did not know how at the time and moved out to a flat in Camden.
Career
In 2006, at the age of 14 and with no acting experience, Scodelario was cast in the first series of Skins as Effy Stonem. At the auditions, Scodelario became discouraged as she felt she was too young, but a producer told her to stay and she was asked to read for the part. While Scodelario’s role in the first series had minimal speaking lines, her character developed considerably during the second series. She eventually became the central character in the third and fourth series after the cast had been replaced with a new generation of characters. This made Effy one of the only characters to appear from series 1 all the way through to series 4. Filming began in July and Scodelario said that 18 November 2009 was her last day of filming the series and that she would miss being on the show.
Her performance was praised by critics, and she was nominated twice for Best Actress at the TV Quick Awards, in 2009 and 2010. In the episode “Fire“, one of three parts of the seventh (and final) season of Skins, Scodelario reprised the role of Effy. It is a two-part depiction of her life as an adult, lasting two hours. She claims “Fire” is “more like a movie” and that she could relate to Effy’s struggle to change from a teenager into an adult.
Scodelario made her film debut in the science fiction-thriller film Moon, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, receiving positive reviews. In her second film, Shank, released on 26 March 2010, she played teenager Tasha. In addition, she appeared in the 2010 remake of Clash of the Titans as Peshet.
In April 2010, Scodelario confirmed her casting as Cathy in an adaptation of Wuthering Heights directed by Andrea Arnold. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in September 2011 to generally positive reviews, and Scodelario was hailed as a “heart-wrenching revelation”. Wuthering Heights also played at several other international film festivals, including the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, the London Film Festival, and the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
In 2011, she signed on to play Sally Weaver in a British thriller, Twenty8k. The film was released in September 2012. In late June, Scodelario announced that she had signed on to star in Now Is Good with Dakota Fanning. The film is based on Jenny Downham‘s novel Before I Die, about a teenage girl with leukaemia who makes a list of things to do before she dies. She portrays Zoey, the protagonist’s best friend. In late September 2011, Scodelario filmed a television serial for BBC One, True Love, an improvised series comprising five stand-alone episodes, each covering a different love-related dilemma. She is cast in the third storyline as Karen, the love interest of her teacher, portrayed by Billie Piper.
In January 2012, Scodelario made her first American film, The Truth About Emanuel, in Los Angeles. She stars as the title character, Emanuel, a troubled 17-year-old girl who babysits her new neighbour Linda’s “baby”, which is actually a very lifelike doll. It had a limited Release on 10 January 2014. In April 2012, Scodelario shot a cameo appearance for the film Spike Island. She also participated in an advertising campaign for Korean jewelry brand J. Estina. In 2013 she starred in the four-part Channel 4 drama series Southcliffe, which tells the story of a fictional English town devastated by a spate of shootings, exploring the tragedy through the eyes of a journalist and those close to the victims.
She signed on to the film franchise The Maze Runner in April 2013 as the lead female character, Teresa, in the first film, based on the novel of the same name by James Dashner released in September 2014, and its sequel, Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, released in September 2015. She filmed the lead role in the film adaptation of The Moon and the Sun in 2014; however, the film was not released until 2022, then under the title The King’s Daughter. She starred in the home-invasion thriller Tiger House which was released in 2015, and also had a starring role in the sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, which was released on 26 May 2017.
Scodelario reprised the role of Teresa in Maze Runner: The Death Cure. The film was set for release on 17 February 2017, but after her co-star Dylan O’Brien was injured on set, the film was pushed back to 26 January 2018.
The year 2019 brought new projects for Scodelario. The first, released in May 2019, was Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, about serial killer Ted Bundy, where she portrays his wife Carole Ann Boone. She then went on to play the lead in Alexandre Aja‘s horror film, Crawl, which was released in July 2019, to positive reviews. Her next film, 2021’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, saw Scodelario lead another horror film, this time portraying video game character Claire Redfield as a main protagonist.
Scodelario then signed up to lead a new Netflix series, an edgy figure skating drama called Spinning Out in 2019. Debuting in early 2020, the series explored multi-person mental illness within a family and its interaction with high-level competitive sports.
In spring 2019, Scodelario became the face of Cartier‘s new jewelry line, Clash de Cartier, and filmed the latest Agatha Christie miniseries adaptation, The Pale Horse, for Amazon and BBC. In August 2021, Scodelario joined dramedy Don’t Make Me Go being developed under Amazon Studios, and filmed This Is Christmas the following summer. Scodelario went on to film two series for Netflix in 2023: The Gentlemen, inspired by the Guy Ritchie film of the same name, and Senna, a biographical drama on legendary Brazilian Formula One driver, Ayrton Senna.
Personal life
Scodelario dated her Skins co-star Jack O’Connell for about a year before they split up in June 2009, remaining good friends. She was in a relationship with Elliott Tittensor from late 2009 to early 2014. During their relationship, she supported Tittensor after his arrest for hitting someone while driving an uninsured car.
Scodelario and Benjamin Walker began dating during the filming of The King’s Daughter in early 2014, becoming engaged in December 2014, and marrying in December 2015. Both subsequently adopted the surname “Scodelario-Davis” (Walker’s full name was Benjamin Walker Davis). Their first child, a son, was born in November 2016. Scodelario’s Skins co-star Daniel Kaluuya, who grew up in the same neighbourhood as her, is her son’s godfather. On 18 September 2021, Scodelario announced she was pregnant with her second child. In December 2021, she gave birth to a daughter. In February 2024, the couple announced they had separated.
She was voted 13th in the UK edition of FHM’s 100 World’s Sexiest Women 2010.
In January 2018, Scodelario revealed that she had been sexually assaulted when she was 12 years old.
Trivia
Her father was English. Her mother is Brazilian, and has Italian and Portuguese ancestry.
Said that she does not speak a word English with her mother. Both are only conversing in Portuguese, which is her mother’s native language.
In 2012, she appeared in the music video for the song “Candy” by Robbie Williams.
(December 17, 2015) Married her boyfriend of 20 months Benjamin Walker at New York City Hall following a 12-month-long engagement.
She was 14 when she auditioned for Skins. But in order to increase her chances of getting noticed, she claimed to be 16 on the audition forms. After a while, she was about to leave, because she felt herself too young for the show. A producer of the show noticed her and encouraged her to stay for the audition anyways. However, she was not cast as Effy at first. Another actress got the part, and after she dropped out, Scodelario was cast.
Has two children her husband, Benjamin Walker: a son (b. November 2016) and a daughter (b. December 2021).
Kaya usually keeps a piece of costume jewellery from each character she portrays. Her keepsakes include Effy’s (Skins (2007)) rosary beads, a necklace from Spinning Out (2020), and a thin gold chain used in Wuthering Heights (2011). She insists jewellery is one of the most important parts of building a character.
She remains in a close friendship with her Skins (2007) co-actresses Kathryn Prescott, Megan Prescott, Klariza Clayton and Lily Loveless. Megan, Lily and Klariza were the bridesmaids at her wedding.
At the age of 14 she decided to become an actress.
Was named after Kiaya Ufgood from the film Willow (1988).
She was ranked #12 on Portrait Magazine’s ‘Top 30 Under 30’ list (2013).
She is a big fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Has a french bulldog named Arnie.
Has a shared tattoo with ex-boyfriend, Elliott Tittensor, that says “our love is unique” in Portuguese. A year later, she was engaged to Benjamin Walker.
Has a tattoo that says “Ben” (the name of her actor husband Benjamin Walker) in cursive script on the inside of her left ring finger.
Was the face of J.Estina’s 2012 Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter campaigns with Kim Soo-hyun.
Scodelario is also a model.
She suffers from dyslexia.
Kaya is fluent is Portuguese and English.
She uses her mother’s last name, instead of her father.
Kaya Scodelario Career Highlights
First Music Video: Stay Too Long by Plan B (2009)
First Film: Moon (2009)
First TV Show: Skins (2007)
Quotes
I don’t think that I could ever play just a ‘pretty girlfriend’ or just a stereotypical female part that’s just there to get her tits out – that just doesn’t interest me at all, really. I just want to keep pushing myself with every role and keep pushing myself with every film.
[on Skins (2007)] I felt there needed to be a show for teenagers that didn’t make them feel judged. ‘Skins’ never tried to preach. It allowed young people to make their own decisions about what to do and whether it was right or wrong. Young people really respond to that, and that’s what sets ‘Skins’ apart.I like the idea of up-and-coming actors nowadays being a little different and not necessarily the drama-school stereotype, being a bit more edgy.
Growing up, I was obsessed with Arnold Schwarzenegger, which is why my dog is called Arnie. His films were pure Hollywood to me and I’ve seen all of them more than 50 times. The Terminator (1984) is my favourite. I haven’t met him – it would be too freaky, I think I’d faint, I love him too much.
The first school play I did was Oliver Twist, and I beat the boys to the part of Oliver. The hardest, scariest girl in the school came up to me and said, ‘You’re a good little actress, intcha?’ And I was, like, ‘Oh my God, she said something nice to me.’ It felt incredible. As soon as I discovered drama, I had something to love that was mine.
My mom taught me at a very early age that beauty is not the most important thing in the world. Always be kind, polite, and humble and treat everyone around you with thanks. Because beauty does not last forever, but feelings do.
The most rewarding thing about playing Carina was that I got to portray an intelligent, multifaceted woman who had real depth to her. I hope that it will inspire not only little girls, but hopefully little boys as well-that an intelligent woman is not something to be feared or to be gawked at, but someone to revere and to admire, just like any other male character. I hope that the next generation will be used to seeing these types of characters and representations of women in film regularly.
I think what’s great is that we are having this conversation about it now, because people aren’t really speaking up about the fact that many actresses seem to be cast in roles older than they are, or have been told that they are too old for a role. The more we talk about it, the more people will realize that it does not need to be this way and that we can develop and create roles for women that are diverse in their breadth and depth. I hope to work long and hard for many many years and hopefully by the time when I’m in my 50’s, we won’t still see the age divide and these double standards in movies.
I don’t go for roles that are two-dimensional. They are all layered and none of my roles are damsel in distresses, so it is really cool that we are starting to reflect that in the movies now. It is refreshing, but it’s also becoming more and more common, which is great. We have really cool female roles at the moment, however I believe we still have a very long way to go and I’m proud and glad I get to be part of the change.
I’ve never been interested in playing just the boring pretty girl, because I’ve never met a boring pretty girl. Every woman I’ve ever met has been interesting and flawed and damaged and strong and beautiful and reckless and everything in between. I’ve never met a two-dimensional woman, so I’d never want to play one, because it’s just not realistic to me. It doesn’t exist.
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