Gwendoline Christie’s career has moved between Shakespeare, experimental film and some of television and cinema’s most recognisable fantasy worlds. Her height helped shape the roles for which she became best known, but her work is not confined to a single type of part: she has played a Shakespearean queen, a police constable, a stormtrooper and the warrior Brienne of Tarth. Born in Worthing, Christie trained in London before building a career that spans British theatre and international screen productions.
Training and early work
Christie was born in Worthing, West Sussex, on 28 October 1978. She grew up near the South Downs and attended Henfield Primary School and Warden Park Secondary School, followed by Varndean College in Brighton and Hove. As a child she trained as a gymnast, but a spinal injury at the age of 11 led her to take up acting instead. She graduated from Drama Centre London in 2005.
Her early professional work included both stage and screen. Christie made her feature-film debut in Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009), after appearing in Nathaniel Mellors’s short film The Time Surgeon in 2007. She also worked on Mellors’s experimental Ourhouse films, with responsibilities that included associate production and, on some instalments, casting, costumes, props and make-up.
On stage, she played the Queen in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline at the Barbican in 2007, Mag Wildwood in Breakfast at Tiffany’s at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in 2009, and Lucifer in the Royal Exchange Theatre’s 2010 production of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Those parts show the range of her early theatre work, from a classical role to a strikingly unconventional interpretation of a supernatural figure.
Brienne and the roles that followed
Christie was cast as Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones in July 2011. She first appeared in the series in April 2012, in the third episode of its second season, and went on to play the character through the programme’s final season in 2019. Brienne’s unusual stature and martial purpose made Christie’s physical performance central to the role. She prepared with an intensive training regime, gaining muscle and taking lessons in horsemanship, sword-fighting and stage combat.
The part brought major recognition. Christie received a Saturn Award nomination for the show’s third season and, for its final season, her first Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. She also shared in Screen Actors Guild ensemble nominations for the series. Her nomination for the Emmy was notable in part because she submitted herself for consideration.
While Game of Thrones was under way, Christie took the lead role of Lexi in the British science-fantasy series Wizards vs Aliens (2012–13), created by Russell T Davies and Phil Ford. She played a princess of the invading Nekross, as well as Lucy, Lexi’s human form. Her subsequent screen roles included Miranda Hilmarson, a Sydney police constable, in the second season of Jane Campion’s Top of the Lake (2017).
In the Star Wars films The Force Awakens (2015) and The Last Jedi (2017), Christie played Captain Phasma, a First Order stormtrooper. She returned to the character in the animated series Star Wars Resistance. Her other film roles include Commander Lyme in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015), Lady Jane in The Darkest Minds (2018), Gwen in Peter Strickland’s In Fabric (2018), and Jane Murdstone in The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019).
Returning to the stage and expanding the screen work
Christie’s theatre work has continued alongside her television and film career. In 2019, she played Titania and Hippolyta in the Bridge Theatre’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The range of her stage roles—from Shakespeare and Marlowe to contemporary adaptations—sits alongside the highly visible fantasy characters that have introduced her to a broad international audience.
Later television work includes Lucifer in Netflix’s The Sandman and Principal Larissa Weems in Wednesday, both released in 2022. In the second season of Apple TV+’s Severance (2025), she played Lorne; that performance earned her a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. Christie has also worked in voice performance, including as the narrator of the video game Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, released in 2025.
Her recognition has extended beyond the Emmy nominations. She won the Empire Award’s Hero Award in 2015 and has received nominations for her television performances and ensemble work, as well as for the film Flux Gourmet. These honours reflect a career across different forms rather than a single franchise or medium.
Fashion and public presence
Christie’s work in fashion has become a visible part of her public career. She has a long-standing relationship with British fashion designer Giles Deacon, and in 2024 walked for Maison Margiela during Paris Couture Week, wearing the collection’s closing look. She also hosted Vogue’s livestream coverage of that year’s Met Gala with La La Anthony and Ashley Graham, alongside special correspondent Emma Chamberlain.
Her height, recorded as 1.91 metres, has been a recurring feature of public discussion about her career. Christie has spoken of being bullied when younger, and the distinctive physicality that once made conventional screen work seem less accessible became integral to roles such as Brienne and Phasma. That history is relevant to her work without reducing it to a simple story of overcoming an obstacle: her performances depend on preparation, craft and choices made across theatre and screen.
Why Gwendoline Christie deserves a place in British Legacy
Gwendoline Christie’s place in British Legacy rests on a substantial career rooted in British training and performance. Born in West Sussex and a graduate of Drama Centre London, she has worked on stages including the Barbican, the Royal Exchange and the Bridge Theatre. Her theatre roles range from Shakespeare’s Queen in Cymbeline to Lucifer in Doctor Faustus and the paired roles of Titania and Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This body of work matters alongside her international screen success: it shows an actor moving between theatrical traditions and global productions rather than being defined by one television character.
Her performance as Brienne of Tarth brought a distinctive physical presence to a major television drama, and her Emmy nomination recognised that work. Roles in Wizards vs Aliens, Top of the Lake, The Sandman, Wednesday and Severance further demonstrate her range across genres and formats. Christie’s fashion work also makes a concrete connection to British creative life through her relationship with Giles Deacon. Taken together, her acting and public work offer a specific British legacy: an artist trained and shaped by British theatre who has carried that experience into internationally prominent film, television and fashion.
Sources
Adapted in part from Gwendoline Christie by Wikipedia contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Text has been edited and combined with the existing article; this adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.
