Riley Emilia Voelkel (born April 26, 1990) is an American-born Canadian actress. She is known for portraying Freya Mikaelson on

The CW ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...

television series '' The Originals'' and '' Legacies''. Voelkel also played the role of Jenna Johnson on the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

television series '' The Newsroom''. In 2013, she played the younger version of

Jessica Lange Jessica Phyllis Lange (; born April 20, 1949) is an American actress. She is the 13th actress to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting, having won two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award, along with a Screen Actors G ...

's character, the witch

Fiona Goode The third season of the American horror anthology television series '' American Horror Story'', subtitled ''Coven'', is set in 2013 New Orleans and follows a coven of witches descended from Salem as they fight for survival, and features flashbac ...

in the FX series '' American Horror Story: Coven''.

Early life

Voelkel was born in

Elk Grove, California Elk Grove is a city in Sacramento County, California, located just south of the state capital of Sacramento. It is part of the Sacramento–Arden-Arcade– Roseville Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 Census, the population o ...

but raised in

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, maki ...

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

. Just a month away from going to college, a modeling scout came to her town and she decided to try her luck. The scout picked her and she went to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

where she was very much liked by several agents. She moved to Los Angeles to model, but, soon after, she joined an acting class recommended by an agent.

Career

Voelkel's first role was of a club girl in ''

The Social Network ''The Social Network'' is a 2010 American biographical drama film directed by David Fincher and written by Aaron Sorkin, based on the 2009 book '' The Accidental Billionaires'' by Ben Mezrich. It portrays the founding of social networking ...

'', winning the part by audition. Afterwards, she signed with an agent, and booked her first starring role, as Carrie in the independent film, ''

The Secret Lives of Dorks ''The Secret Lives of Dorks'' is a 2013 American independent comedy film directed by Salomé Breziner and starring Gaelan Connell, Vanessa Marano, Riley Voelkel, Beau Mirchoff and Jim Belushi. Plot Samantha, a dork, loves Payton, also a dork, ...

'', released in 2013. In 2012, she joined the

series '' The Newsroom'' only for the pilot episode, but later became the character of Jenna. In 2014, she was cast as one of the leads in the Amazon

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

''Point Of Honor''. In the fall 2014, Voelkel was cast in an unnamed recurring role on

series '' The Originals'' during its second season. Her character on ''The Originals'', Freya Mikaelson, was upgraded to a series regular for the show's third season.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Voelkel, Riley 1990 births Living people 21st-century American actresses Actresses from Calgary Actresses from California Canadian film actresses Canadian television actresses People from Elk Grove, California