- Born
- Birth nameHayley Elizabeth Atwell
- Height5′ 6½″ (1.69 m)
- Born in London, England, Hayley Elizabeth Atwell has dual citizenship of the United Kingdom and the United States. An only child, Hayley was named after actress Hayley Mills. Her parents, Alison (Cain) and Grant Atwell, both motivational speakers, met at a London workshop of Dale Carnegie's self-help bible "How to Win Friends and Influence People". Her mother is English (with Irish ancestry) and her father is American; he was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and is partly of Native-American descent (his Native American name is Star Touches Earth). Her parents divorced when she was age two. Her father returned to America and Hayley remained with her mother in London, but she spent her summers in Missouri with her father. Hayley's mother saw theater as an important communal experience, so she was introduced to theater from a young age. At age 11, she had memorable trip to see Ralph Fiennes playing Hamlet. She would later work with him on The Duchess (2008).
She went to Sion-Manning Roman Catholic Girl's School in West London where she excelled academically. She took her A-levels at the London Oratory School. She took two years out of her education, traveling with her father and working for a casting director. In 2005, she graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with a degree in Acting. Hayley began her career with parts on a few BBC television productions. Her first big break came in the television miniseries, The Line of Beauty (2006). The following year, she got her first film role in How About You (2007). She followed this with Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream (2007). Her breakthrough role came four years later as British agent Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).
- IMDb mini biography by: Kad - Hayley Atwell is a British and American actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Peggy Carter in various films and television series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including the lead role in the ABC action-adventure series Agent Carter (2015).
Atwell also starred in Cassandra's Dream (2007), The Duchess (2008), Cinderella (2015) and Black Mirror (2011) episode Be Right Back.
In 2011 she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her work in The Pillars of the Earth (2010).
- IMDb mini biography by: Pedro Borges
- SpouseNed Wolfgang Kelly(2024 - present) (1 child)
- ParentsAlison Atwell (Cain)Grant Atwell
- Warm smile
- Is a skilled ventriloquist.
- She was so impressed with the first season of Black Mirror (2011) that she approached the producers herself and was subsequently offered Martha in Be Right Back (2013).
- She was Head Girl of her high school and played rugby until age 18.
- Good friends with Emma Thompson and Chris Evans.
- She met Stanley Tucci on the set of Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and remains good friends with him and his wife, Felicity Blunt.
- Nude scenes can be very liberating. I feel very human. This is me, with all my little imperfections.
- My first job was a Greek tragedy, and ever since, one job just seemed to roll onto the next. I've been terribly lucky.
- [on Brideshead Revisited (2008)] What attracted me was I loved the vivid characters that had obviously come from a very rich novel and Jeremy Brock and Andrew Davies had put that into the script. The character definitions and the stage directions were very rich and as rich as the dialogue so I felt that there was a hell of a lot of passion behind it. I'm attracted to flawed characters. I think they're really interesting to play. I was really intrigued who this enigmatic Julia was and what was bubbling and going on beneath the surface. So it was probably that.
- [on her character in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)] Peggy was in a position where if she was a damsel in distress, she wouldn't be of that position. And when she says, "I know what it's like to have a few doors slammed in my face," I think because she's this attractive woman who's beautifully made up, she had to fight a little bit harder to get where she is to prove that she's capable. And I think that's great because there's a kindred spirit between her and Steve, there's an equality about them and I love that.
- I think it will be a balance of creative and commercial choices, going forward. People say critical acclaim and box office success don't go hand in hand and that may be true but I don't really think I'd live much on the salary of a full-time theatre actor. I mean, I could, but I really like going out to dinner...
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