Sydney Sweeney

Sydney Sweeney (born September 12, 1997) is an American actress.

Sydney Sweeney was born on September 12, 1997, in Spokane, Washington, to Lisa ( Mudd) and Steven Sweeney.

Her mother is a former criminal defense lawyer, and her father is a hospitality professional.

She has one brother.

Sweeney was raised in northwestern Idaho in the state's Panhandle region along the Washington border, at a rural lakeside home that her family has inhabited for five generations.

Sweeney stated that she has a "religious family."

Sweeney attended Saint George's School in Spokane.

She was active in numerous athletics: "I was in every single sport possible", she said.

"I was on the soccer team, the baseball team, the snow slalom ski team, I was wakeboarding."

Sweeney shared that she had a wakeboarding accident as a child where the edge of her board propelled backward and sliced the area next to her eye, leaving a permanent scar.

In high school, Sweeney was on the Robotics team and participated in the mathematics club 'Math is Cool.' She studied multiple languages and graduated with top grades, making her valedictorian.

Sweeney became interested in acting after auditioning to be an extra in an independent film that was shooting in the Spokane area.

To convince her parents to allow her to pursue acting, she presented them with a five-year business plan.

Sweeney began to audition and book commercial acting jobs in Seattle and Portland, Oregon, where the family temporarily resided, until choosing to relocate to Los Angeles, when she was 14 years old.

In 2016, Sweeney started training to be a tour guide at the Studio Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood, but left shortly after as she had been hired for an acting job.

She briefly attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Sweeney began her career as a guest star in TV shows such as 90210, Criminal Minds, Grey's Anatomy and Pretty Little Liars.

Sweeney first gained attention in 2018 for appearing in the television series Everything Sucks! and The Handmaid's Tale, and in the limited series Sharp Objects.

In the following year, she was featured in Quentin Tarantino's film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

In 2023, she portrayed Reality Winner in the drama film Reality and starred in the romantic comedy Anyone but You.

Sweeney starred as Emaline Addario on the 2018 Netflix series Everything Sucks!, which revolved around two groups of high school students in Oregon in 1996.

She then appeared in the HBO miniseries Sharp Objects, recurring as Alice, a roommate whom Amy Adams' character meets at a psychiatric facility.

Her character was originally supposed to have a smaller role, but the director kept bringing her in for more scenes.

For the role, Sweeney studied stories of girls who suffered from mental illness and self-harming, and visited hospitals who had patients who self-harmed.

She filmed Everything Sucks! and Sharp Objects concurrently, the former during the week and latter on weekends.

Sweeney had a role in the thriller film Under the Silver Lake in 2018.

She had a recurring role during the second season of the dystopian drama series The Handmaid's Tale as Eden Spencer, a pious and obedient girl from the totalitarian and theocratic Republic of Gilead.

She also starred as the heroine in the horror film Along Came the Devil.

The next year, Sweeney appeared in the drama film Clementine, the coming-of-age film Big Time Adolescence, and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

She is known for her roles in the HBO drama series Euphoria (2019–present) and the first season of the anthology series The White Lotus (2021), which earned her nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards.

In June 2019, Sweeney began portraying Cassie Howard, a teenager with a promiscuous reputation, in the HBO drama series Euphoria. Her performance received praise, earning a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2022.

Variety asserted that the role of Cassie "proves that Sweeney’s one hell of a shapeshifter between her deft turns in this, The Handmaid’s Tale, Everything Sucks and Sharp Objects".

Her many nude scenes in the series received significant attention, generating discussions about nudity in film and the male gaze.

Despite this, Sweeney has stated she would not stop doing nude scenes.

Sweeney is the founder of production company Fifty-Fifty Films, launched in 2020.

She starred in the TV film Nocturne in 2020.

In 2021, Sweeney appeared in the first season of Mike White's anthology black comedy series The White Lotus as a sardonic college sophomore, receiving critical acclaim for the role.

For her portrayal of the character, she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie in 2022.

Her accomplishments earned her a place on the Time 100 Next list for 2022.

In January 2023, Sweeney became a brand ambassador for companies Armani Beauty and Laneige.