Morfydd Clark

British actress Morfydd Clark has established herself as one of the industry’s most exciting rising stars. Her captivating and varied performances across three features at the 63rd BFI London Film Festival led her to be identified by the Guardian as the “breakout” star of the 2019 festival. Starring in critically acclaimed stage, television and film productions from some of the most accomplished creative talents in the industry, Morfydd continues to build her reputation internationally as one of the most compelling and interesting actors working today. 

Morfydd recently wrapped production in New Zealand for Amazon’s highly anticipated television adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series. Set in a time of relative peace in Middle-Earth, thousands of years before the events of ‘The Hobbit’, the series will follow familiar and new characters as they confront the long-feared re-emergence of evil, with Morfydd starring alongside Robert Aramayo, Owain Arthur and Nazanin Boniadi. The series will premiere on the 2nd September 2022. 

In 2020, Morfydd starred in the title role in Rose Glass’s extraordinary feature debut Saint Maud. The psychological thriller co-financed by Film4 and the BFI, centres on protagonist ‘Maud’, a young religious private carer who becomes dangerously fixated with saving the soul of her glamorous patient ‘Amanda’ played by Jennifer Ehle. The film had its World Premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival followed by a European premiere at the BFI London Film Festival that October. Morfydd’s performance has garnered international recognition and critical acclaim: “played with brilliant, blood-freezing intensity” raved Variety and “a bold, quietly nerve-shredding lead” wrote Screen International. The film opened in cinemas in the UK on 9th October 2020 and was released theatrically in the US by A24 on 29th January 2021 followed by a limited release on Epix from 12th February for 90 days. Morfydd was nominated for a British Independent Film Award in the category of ‘Best Actress’ and was longlisted in the same category by the BAFTAs. She won ‘British/Irish Actress of The Year’ at The London Critics Circle Awards, where she was also nominated for ‘Actress of the Year’, and was also nominated for a prestigious EE BAFTA Rising Star Award. She also won the award for Best Actress at the 2021 BAFTA Cyrmu Awards.

On the 2nd October 2020, Craig Robert’s Eternal Beauty was released in UK cinemas and digitally in the US by Samuel Goldwyn Films. Morfydd stars opposite Sally Hawkins as ‘young Jane’ who, rejected by life, spirals into a chaotic, schizophrenic world, where love and normality collide in the uplifting, funny and heartbreaking feature about mental health. Written and directed by Craig, and also starring David Thewlis, Billie Piper and Penelope Wilton, the Bankside film had its World Premiere at the BFI London Film Festival and was acquired by Sony Pictures Worldwide for release in multiple territories later in the year. Eternal Beauty was nominated in five categories by BAFTA Cymru at the 2020 Awards.

Morfydd played two roles in Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield: the beautiful and childish ‘Dora Spenlow’, and David Copperfield’s widowed mother. The Guardian described her performances as “hugely amusing”.  The production starred a talented British cast including Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie and Dev Patel, the FilmNation Entertainment production is based on the semi-autobiographical novel of the same name by Charles Dickens and tells the life story of David Copperfield as he tries to find his place in a complex world. The film received its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival before opening the 63rd BFI London Film Festival and it was released in January by Lionsgate in the UK and Searchlight released the picture theatrically in the US in August 2020. 

In January 2020, Morfydd starred in the iconic role of ‘Mina’ opposite Claes Bang’s ‘Dracula’ in the hit BBC/Netflix three-part series Dracula. Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat reinvent Bram Stoker’s vampire for a 21st Century audience in three feature length episodes following his story from Transylvania to London. Prior to this, Morfydd played ‘Sister Clara’ in Jack Thorne’s BAFTA TV nominated, eight-part adaptation of Phillip Pullman’s best-selling novels His Dark Materials. Co-stars include James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, Anne-Marie Duff and Andrew Scott, and the series premiered in November 2019 on BBC One in the UK and on HBO in the US. 

Morfydd took on the iconic role of ‘Cordelia’ in one of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, King Lear, in 2016. Glenda Jackson returned to the stage to play ‘King Lear’ with an outstanding company including Jane Horrocks, Rhys Ifans, and Celia Imrie. The sold-out production was staged at the Old Vic Theatre and The Independent praised Morfydd’s “excellent, refreshingly honest and mettlesome Cordelia”. The same year, in May, Morfydd portrayed ‘Frederica’, daughter of Kate Beckinsale’s ‘Lady Susan Vernon’ in Whit Stillman’s comedy Love & Friendship, adapted from the Jane Austen novella of the same name. Set in the 1790s, the feature centers on a beautiful widow, who has come to the estate of her in-laws with her debutante daughter. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January and Morfydd was singled out for her performance by Variety, who wrote that her performance “stand(s) out nicely”. The Telegraph agreed that her portrayal was “perfect (and) sensitive” and Time Out called her “captivating.”

In 2015, Morfydd appeared as ‘Cecile’ on stage at The Donmar in Les Liaisons Dangereuses. Directed by Christopher Hampton, she starred opposite Janet McTeer and Dominic West and the production marked the thirty-year revival of Hampton’s adaptation of Choderlos de Laclos’s 1782 novel of sex, intrigue and betrayal in pre-revolutionary France. Critics, once again, praised Morfydd’s performance: The Mail on Sunday called her “perfect” while The Londonist recognised her “touchingly gauche” performance. The same year, Morfydd starred as ‘Jen’ in Olivier-nominated four-hander Violence and Son, directed by Hamish Pirie, which opened at The Royal Court. Marking playwright Gary Owen’s debut at the theatre, the intimate new play ran in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs and Morfydd’s portrayal garnered praise from critics once again with The Telegraph calling her performance “nuanced” and “superbly acted”, The Standard said she “excelled”, Whatsonstage noted her “finely tuned performance” and Baz Bamigboye referred to Morfydd as a “fast-rising actress”.

In 2014, Morfydd filmed Carol Morley’s drama The Falling, playing ‘Miss Charron’. She starred alongside Maisie Williams and Florence Pugh and the independent feature, released in April 2015, is set against the backdrop of a rural British girl’s school in 1969 and explores what lies behind a mysterious fainting and twitching outbreak that rapidly spreads amongst the pupils. Indiewire noted Morfydd’s “stand out” performance in the film.

Other notable screen credits include: ‘Amelia’ in Channel 4’s New Worlds (2014), ‘Nancy’ in Aisling Walsh’s A Poet In New York for the BBC (2014), ‘Camille’ in Sophie Barthe’s Madame Bovary (2015), ‘Mary’ in ITV1’s Arthur & George (2015), ‘Georgiana’ in Burr Steers’s Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016), ‘Shelly’ in Altitude’s The Call Up (2015), ‘Kate Dickens’ in The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017), ’Zuzanna Luptak’ in Interlude in Prague (2017), ‘Caroline Bell’ in TNT/Netflix series The Alienist (2018), ‘Yolanda Stark’ in BBC Two adaptation of The City & The City (2018) ‘Debbie Hickman’ in Showtime/SKY Atlantic’s Patrick Melrose (2018) and ‘Beth Keller’ in Paramount’s Crawl (2019).

Other notable stage credits include: ‘Juliet’ opposite Freddie Fox’s ‘Romeo’ in Jonathan Humphreys’ Romeo and Juliet at The Sheffield Crucible (2015), ‘Anya’ in The Cherry Orchard at The Sherman Theatre – Cardiff (2019), ‘Joe’ in The Colours at The Soho Theatre (2019).