Jessica Henwick

It took only a single year to raise English actress Jessica Henwick from relative obscurity to global attention, thanks to a significant role on "Game of Thrones" (HBO, 2011-) and in "Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens" (2015). Born in Surrey, England, Henwick was the daughter of a British father and a Singaporean-Chinese mother, and spent much of her childhood traveling between the two countries. She received her initial training in performance at the Redroofs Theatre School and National Youth Theatre before making her television debut at the age of 16 on BBC Two's "Spirit Warriors" (2010-). The children's adventure series, about a trio of Asian siblings who discover that they possess magical powers, was the first U.K. series to feature a predominately East Asian cast, and won critical praise as well as awards from several TV groups. When the show ran its course the following year, Henwick began a steady schedule of guest appearances on television series like Armando Ianucci's "The Thick of It" (BBC Four, 2005-) and as activist and writer Jane Jeong Trenka on an episode of "Obsession: Dark Desires" (Investigation Discovery, 2014-), which concerned incidents of stalking. After making her feature debut in the independent thriller "Dragonfly" in 2015, Henwick was vaulted to international attitude when she was cast as Nymeria Sand on the fifth season of "Game of Thrones." A member of a group of sisters known as the Sand Snakes, Nymeria is the illegitimate daughter of Prince Oberyn Martell (played by Pedro Pascel), and is frequently called with her siblings into plots against the Lannister family. That same year, she was also cast in an unnamed role in "The Force Awakens."