Anya Chalotra
Anya Chalotra is an English actress. She began her career with a 2017 production of Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe, then made her screen debut in the BBC One drama series Wanderlust and The ABC Murders. Since 2019 she has played the role of Yennefer in The Witcher.
Early life
Anya Chalotra was born in Wolverhampton in either 1994 or 1995, the daughter of an English mother and Indian father. She grew up in nearby Lower Penn alongside her older sister and younger brother, and attended St Dominic's Grammar School in Brewood. She started performing at school and youth theatre groups, then moved to London to complete a year-long foundation course at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, followed by a three-year degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.Career
Chalotra has starred in several stage productions. She was nominated for The Stage Debut Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance as Hero in Matthew Dunster's production of Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe in 2017, and subsequently earned acclaim for her roles in April De Angelis' The Village at Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2018, David Hare's Peter Gynt at the National Theatre in 2019, and Rupert Goold's stage adaptation of Cold War at the Almeida Theatre from 2023 to 2024.Chalotra's first on screen role came in 2018 when she portrayed Jennifer Ashman in the BBC comedy-drama series Wanderlust. That same year, she appeared as Lily Marbury in the BBC adaptation of Agatha Christie's The ABC Murders. In October 2018, it was announced that she had been cast as Yennefer of Vengerberg in the Netflix fantasy drama The Witcher.
Chalotra was listed as one of Screen Daily's Stars of Tomorrow 2020. On 15 July 2020, it was announced that she would be headlining the voice cast of the sci-fi animation series New-Gen. On 30 September, she starred in a short film called No Masks that aired on Sky Arts, based on real-life testimonies of key frontline workers in East London during the COVID-19 pandemic in London. She also voiced Sabrina in the 2020 BBC Sounds sci-fi podcast The Cipher, Agatha in the 2023 Audible mystery drama podcast Moriarty, Haroona in the 2024 action-adventure game Unknown 9: Awakening, and Circe in the 2024 animated series Creature Commandos.