Hayley Atwell

Hayley Elizabeth Atwell (born 5 April 1982) is a British and American actress.

Hayley Elizabeth Atwell was born on 5 April 1982 in London as the only child of her parents; her mother, Allison Cain, is English and her father, Grant Atwell, is an American photographer from Kansas City, Missouri, of Irish and partial Native American descent.

Atwell has dual citizenship of the United Kingdom and the United States.

After attending Sion-Manning Roman Catholic Girls' School in London, she took her A-Levels at the London Oratory School.

Atwell took two years off to travel with her father and work for a casting director.

She then enrolled at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she trained for three years, graduating in 2005 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in acting.

Atwell made her professional stage debut in Prometheus Bound (2005) at the Sound Theatre in London, portraying Io, a maiden exiled by Zeus.

Her role received positive reviews with the British Theatre Guide praising her performance, writing that that she "makes us respond to the anguish without for a moment inviting a chuckle at her bandaged hands".

In 2006, she starred as the protagonist's wife, Bianca, in Women Beware Women at the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The Guardian praised Atwell for projecting "the right seductive beauty".

Atwell appeared in two productions from 2007 to 2008 at the Royal National Theatre, both directed by Nicholas Hytner: Man of Mode and Major Barbara.

In the former, she portrayed Belinda, a SoHo PR worker and for the latter, she received an Ian Charleson Commendation.

Atwell made the transition to film roles with her first major role coming in Woody Allen's 2007 film Cassandra's Dream, playing stage actress Angela Stark.

After appearing on various West End productions, Atwell gained popularity for her roles in period-drama films, appearing in the films Brideshead Revisited (2008), The Duchess (2008) and the miniseries The Pillars of the Earth (2010); for the latter two, she was nominated for a British Independent Film Award and a Golden Globe Award respectively.

In 2008, she also appeared in The Duchess, which earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the British Independent Film Awards.

Later that year, Atwell appeared in the Miramax film Brideshead Revisited.

In 2009, Atwell made her West End debut as Catherine, the adopted niece in a troubled household, in Lindsay Posner's A View From the Bridge.

Variety praised her for having an "ideal freshness" and girlishness while still able to shift into uncontrolled rage; her performance was later nominated for an Olivier Award.

Later in the year, Atwell appeared as '415' in AMC Television's November 2009 miniseries The Prisoner, a remake of the 1967–68 series by the same name.

In 2010 Atwell appeared in Channel 4's adaptation of William Boyd's Any Human Heart, and later that year, Ken Follett's miniseries Pillars of the Earth for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination.

In April 2010, Atwell was cast as the love interest in a then-forthcoming film about Captain America as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

She rose to worldwide prominence with her portrayal of Agent Peggy Carter in several films, a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) starting with Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) which inspired the creation of a self-titled ABC television series, Agent Carter (2015–2016).

Her role earned her a Saturn Award nomination for Best Actress on Television.

She also voiced an alternate version of the character called Captain Carter in the animated series What If...? (2021–present), going on to portray the character live in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022).

She first starred as Peggy Carter in the 2011 American superhero film Captain America: The First Avenger.

MTV Networks' NextMovie.com named her one of the "Breakout Stars to Watch for in 2011".

She also voiced Carter in the 2011 video game Captain America: Super Soldier.

Following a short break from the theatre, Atwell later starred in Alexi Kaye Campbell's 2011 production of The Faith Machine, directed by Jamie Lloyd at the Royal Court Theatre.

For her work on stage, Atwell has received Laurence Olivier Award nominations for her leading performances in The Pride (2013) and Rosmersholm (2020).

In 2013, Atwell starred in BBC Two's adaptation of William Boyd's espionage novel, Restless.

In February of that year, she also starred in "Be Right Back", an episode in Charlie Brooker's critically acclaimed science fiction television series Black Mirror.

He role received critical praise being called one of the best performances of the series.

That same year, Atwell also worked with Alexi Kaye Campbell and Jamie Lloyd again in a revival of The Pride at Trafalgar Studios.

Her performance gained her a second Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress.

That year, she also appeared in the Marvel One-Shot short film Agent Carter.

Atwell returned to Marvel for the 2014 film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and in the 2015 films Avengers: Age of Ultron and Ant-Man.

Atwell also starred in the fantasy films Cinderella (2015), Christopher Robin (2018) and Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway (2021), and had a leading role as Grace in the action films Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (2023) and its sequel (2025).

She has also appeared on various television shows including Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Black Mirror.

As Carter, she appeared in two episodes of the ABC television show Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and as the lead role in Agent Carter, which aired from 2015 to 2016.

Agent Carter was cancelled by ABC on 12 May 2016.