Anya Taylor-Joy's 15 Best Roles Ranked from Worst to Best

15. The New Mutants (2020)

This movie is messy, delayed, and stitched together from several different ambitions, but Taylor-Joy walks in like she got better instructions than everyone else. Her Illyana Rasputin is bratty, feral, funny, and just dangerous enough to make every scene tilt in her direction. Even when the film struggles to balance horror, superhero angst, and YA melodrama, she commits to the sharpness of the character instead of sanding it down. The result is the performance people remember long after the plot blurs out. | © 20th Century Studios

14. The Gorge (2025)

A high-concept setup can easily swallow a performance whole, but that never happens here. Playing Drasa, Anya Taylor-Joy gives The Gorge a pulse that the film badly needs, turning a pulpy sci-fi action romance into something warmer and stranger than its pitch suggests. She sells the character’s combat skill without flattening her into a generic tough sniper, and the chemistry across the abyss is what keeps the movie from drifting into pure concept art. | © Apple TV+

13. Split (2016)

Not many actors could survive being the calm center of a movie designed to showcase James McAvoy doing acting gymnastics, yet Taylor-Joy does exactly that. Her work as Casey gives Split its edge, because she never plays trauma as a speech or a shortcut, just as something lived-in and quietly protective. That restraint matters in a thriller this heightened, and it is the reason the film still lands emotionally once the plot starts pushing toward full Shyamalan mode. | © Universal Pictures

12. Amsterdam (2022)

Blink and you still probably will not miss her, because Taylor-Joy knows how to make a supporting part feel slyly essential. In David O. Russell’s crowded period mystery, she plays Libby with the kind of polished oddness that fits the movie’s eccentric rhythm better than some of the bigger turns around her. Amsterdam is an ensemble machine that often threatens to overheat, but she understands exactly how much mischief and stiffness the role needs. Sometimes a memorable performance is really just a well-aimed side glance. | © 20th Century Studios

11. Barry (2016)

One of the more understated entries in her filmography also shows how quickly she learned not to overplay intelligence on screen. As Charlotte, the young woman who pulls Barry Obama into debates about race, class, and identity, Taylor-Joy gives the movie a tension it would not have without her. She is not there to decorate the biopic or soften it; she pushes against its main character in ways that make him more legible. The performance is quiet, but it has real backbone. | © Netflix

10. Marrowbone (2017)

Gothic melodrama only works when the cast believes in the sadness as much as the secrets, and Taylor-Joy absolutely does. Her role as Allie brings a needed tenderness to Marrowbone, especially in a film so wrapped up in grief, decay, and the feeling that every hallway is hiding bad news. She never forces the sentiment, which is why the emotional side of the story lands harder than the twist mechanics alone. It is one of those performances that makes a haunted house feel heartbreakingly domestic. | © Universal Pictures

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9. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

Taking over an iconic role is risky business, especially in a franchise where every expression gets read like scripture, but Taylor-Joy handles it with impressive discipline. Her Furiosa is less about imitation and more about internal pressure, as if every decision has already been scorched into her long before the engines start roaring. The movie gives her room to go big, yet some of her best work comes from how tightly she holds the character together. In a film built on chaos, that control becomes its own kind of spectacle. | © Warner Bros. Pictures

8. Last Night in Soho (2021)

Edgar Wright gives her a role wrapped in neon, mirrors, and doomed glamour, and Taylor-Joy understands exactly how seductive that surface needs to be before it curdles. As Sandie, she plays fantasy and danger at the same time, so the character works both as dream projection and as a tragic figure trapped inside one. The performance has movie-star sparkle, but it is never just an imitation of old-school cool. She makes Sandie feel like a real woman caught inside someone else’s beautiful nightmare. | © Universal Pictures

7. Peaky Blinders Season 5 & 6 (2019 - 2022)

Dropping into Peaky Blinders that late could have turned Gina Gray into little more than stylish trouble in a good coat, but Taylor-Joy gives her real bite. She plays Gina with cool American confidence, a trace of opportunism, and just enough calculation to make every family conversation feel unsafe. The show already runs on swagger, but she does not try to out-Tommy Tommy; she brings a different kind of threat, one built on ambition rather than brute force. That contrast makes her a sharp addition to the final stretch. | © BBC

6. The Menu (2022)

Sarcasm can be a flimsy shield in satire, but Taylor-Joy turns it into a survival tool. Her work as Margot is the film’s grounding force, because she reacts to the absurd ritual of wealth and foodie worship like a person rather than a thesis statement. That sounds simple until you realize how easily this movie could have tipped into smugness. Instead, she keeps the tension sharp, the humor dry, and the emotional reveal just guarded enough to stay interesting. She is the reason the film’s nastiness tastes earned. | © Searchlight Pictures

5. The Northman (2022)

Robert Eggers does not ask for naturalism so much as total immersion, and Taylor-Joy meets him there without blinking. As Olga, she gives The Northman a sly intelligence that cuts through all the mud, fate, and vengeance pounding around the frame. She is sensual without turning decorative, mystical without becoming vague, and strategic in a way that keeps the character from reading like a mere companion to Amleth’s rage. The movie is enormous on purpose, yet her performance finds intimate leverage inside all that mythic thunder. | © Focus Features

4. Thoroughbreds (2017)

Cold, funny, vicious, and weirdly elegant, Thoroughbreds is the kind of debut feature that lives or dies on tone, and Taylor-Joy nails it. Her Lily starts as polished privilege in human form, then slowly reveals panic, resentment, and moral rot beneath the perfect posture. What makes the performance pop is how controlled it is; she never begs for sympathy and never leans too hard into cruelty either. Opposite Olivia Cooke, she helps create a duet of social poison that feels almost too delicious to trust. | © Focus Features

3. The Witch (2015)

This is the role that announced her, and it did so without any desperate look-at-me flourishes. Taylor-Joy plays Thomasin with a seriousness that makes the film’s religious terror feel immediate instead of quaint, and she understands how fear can turn into defiance without needing to underline the transformation. The Witch depends on atmosphere, language, and silence as much as plot, which means the acting has to carry enormous weight. She carries it. By the final stretch, the movie feels like it has been moving toward her the entire time. | © A24

2. Emma (2020)

Jane Austen heroines can get trapped between charm and smugness, but Taylor-Joy threads that needle with wicked precision. Her Emma Woodhouse is vain, clever, funny, meddlesome, and occasionally impossible, yet never so insulated that the character becomes unbearable. The pleasure of the performance lies in watching confidence slowly collide with self-knowledge, all while she keeps the comedy light on its feet. Plenty of actors can wear the costumes and hit the wit; fewer can make Emma’s arrogance feel this entertaining before earning the humility. | © Focus Features

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1. The Queen's Gambit (2020)

Nothing else on this list shows her range, control, and magnetism this clearly. Beth Harmon is brilliant, isolated, funny in a very dry register, and often at war with herself, and Taylor-Joy plays all of that without ever reducing the character to genius iconography. She makes intelligence look exciting, but she also understands the loneliness and compulsion that trail behind it. That balance is why the series became more than a prestige hit about chess. Beth does not just dominate scenes; she turns concentration itself into drama. | © Netflix