Emilia Jones

Emilia Jones (born 23 February 2002) is a British actress. She is best known for her lead role as a child of deaf adults in the drama film CODA (2021), for which she received a British Academy Film Award nomination for Best Actress. Jones is also known for starring in the Netflix adventure series Locke & Key (2020–2022) and the HBO crime series Task (2025).

Jones began her career as a child actress in West End theatre, Doctor Who (2013) and Utopia (2013–2014). Her earlier films include Brimstone (2016), Ghostland, Two for Joy (both in 2018), and Horrible Histories (2019).

Jones was born on 23 February 2002 in London to Welsh singer and presenter Aled Jones and his wife, English circus performer Claire Fossett. She grew up in Barnes with her younger brother Lucas. Jones attended an improv class run by an agent, through whom Jones was cast in One Day.

Jones' acting career began in 2010, at age eight, when she appeared as Jasmine in the film One Day. Jones portrayed Alice in the Channel 4 drama Utopia, and later that year, she played the young Queen of Years Merry Gejelh in the British television series Doctor Who episode "The Rings of Akhaten" (2013). The Boston Standard lauded Jones for "carr[ying] off her scenes with aplomb" and for "really sell[ing] Merry’s mixture of naivety, knowledge and childlike fear," while the website Zap2It praised Jones' performance as "spot on." She had a small role in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011).

In 2011, Jones made her theatrical debut playing the princess Young Fiona in the original production of Shrek the Musical at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Two years later, Jones appeared in Rebecca Lenkiewicz's stage adaptation of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw as nine-year-old Flora, alternating between two other girls each night. After her performance on press night, Jones said, "I don’t find it scary, I just find it so much fun... I love every bit of it."

In December 2018, it was announced that Jones was cast as Kinsey Locke, one of the main characters in the Netflix fantasy drama series Locke & Key (2020–2022). The first season was released on 7 February 2020. It was Jones' first main role in a television series. She was attracted to the part because of the prospect of playing two versions of the same character: Kinsey before and after she removes her fear.

In 2021, Jones starred in the Apple TV+ comedy-drama film CODA as Ruby Rossi, the only hearing member of her family who dreams of going to Berklee. For the part, Jones spent nine months (during production of Locke & Key) learning American Sign Language, while also learning how to operate a professional fishing trawler. Principal photography ran from September 2019 to January 2020. The film premiered on 28 January 2021 at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was bought by Apple Original Films for $25 million. It premiered on Apple TV+ on 13 August 2021 and received positive reviews; Jones and co-star Troy Kotsur were critically acclaimed and received several accolades. The film won the award for Best Picture at the 94th Academy Awards, the first Sundance-premiered film to do so.

Post-CODA, Jones starred in the films Cat Person (2023), Fairyland (2023), and Winner (2024), all of which received lukewarm reviews from critics. 2025 marked another highlight for the actress' career as she was cast in her first blockbuster project: Edgar Wright's adaptation of The Running Man, as well as the first season of HBO's crime drama series Task, the latter garnering her first BAFTA TV Awards nomination for Best Supporting Actress. That same year, she declined to audition the part for Supergirl (2026), which ended up to Milly Alcock.

Her upcoming projects include the romantic drama Charlie Harper (2025), the sports drama The 99'ers, and the biopic drama Tony.

• Emilia Jones at IMDb