Freya Allan

Freya Allan (born 20 September 2001) is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Princess Cirilla of Cintra in the Netflix series ''The Witcher'', for which she was nominated for two Saturn Awards, and as Mae in the 2024 action film ''Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes''. She has also appeared in the 2021 film ''Gunpowder Milkshake'' and the AMC series '' Into the Badlands''.

Early life and education

Allan was born on 6 September 2001 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, and attended Headington School in Oxford. Her parents separated when she was one and she lived with her mother in Australia and the French Pyrenees, where she attended a French-language school before returning to Oxford; she now lives in London. She has a younger half-brother and half-sister.

At school Allan studied drama and ballet and was part of the company in a touring production of ''Rapunzel'' at age eleven.
She starred in two short films, ''Bluebird'' and ''The Christmas Tree'' produced by National Film and Television School and later performed the part of Linda in the short film ''Captain Fierce'', produced by Bournemouth Film School.

Career

Allan played a minor role in the first episode of the 2019 BBC drama ''The War of the Worlds''. The same year she appeared on the front cover of ''Schön!'' magazine, whilst they were celebrating their 10th anniversary.

Since 2019, Allan has starred as Princess Ciri alongside Henry Cavill and Anya Chalotra in the Netflix fantasy drama series ''The Witcher'', adapted by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich from the book series by Andrzej Sapkowski. Originally cast as a one-off character before being recast as Ciri, she lived in Budapest, Hungary for eight months during the filming of the first series. Allan reprised the role of Ciri for the second series, which was produced in London in early 2020 and released in 2021 on Netflix. The third season began in June 2023 and saw Ciri training to become a warrior, for which Allan was trained in sword fighting. Allan was nominated for Saturn Award for Best Performance by a Younger Actor in 2021 and 2024 for her work on ''The Witcher''.

In 2021, Allan played the lead role in the horror film ''Baghead'', directed by Alberto Corredor and co-starring Ruby Barker. In 2023, Allan filmed ''Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes'' in Australia, playing human character, Mae. Acknowledging the physicality of the role, Allan opted to perform some of her own stunts. While later promoting the film she refuted reports she kept the dirt make-up on as part of her method, but instead that it took too long to wash it all off. She was barefoot for the majority of filming and admitted to becoming self-conscious of people looking at her feet, as they ended up becoming stained with fake blood and dirt. While promoting the film she posted clips of her performing stunts and playing with her dirtied feet on her Instagram. ''Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes'' was released on 10 May 2024 and went on to gross $397 million at the worldwide box office.

Allan was cast in director Janell Shirtcliff's horror film ''Triton'', which wrapped filming in Greece in early 2024. In 2025 she was reported to be attached to play Marianne Faithfull in a biographical film of the singer.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Allan, Freya
2001 births
Living people
21st-century English actresses
Actresses from Oxford
Alumni of the National Film and Television School
English film actresses
English television actresses
People educated at Headington School