Anya Chalotra

Anya Chalotra’s one of those faces you see once and remember, mostly because she owns every role she steps into. She first popped up on people’s radar thanks to Wanderlust back in 2018, playing Jennifer Ashman. But, c’mon, if you know her, it’s probably because of The Witcher—Netflix’s dark fantasy juggernaut—where she plays Yennefer of Vengerberg. Talk about a career-defining move. She’s got this interesting mix in her background: British-Indian, with her dad rocking the Indian roots and her mum being English. She spent her early days in this small village called Lower Penn in South Staffordshire (not exactly Hollywood glamour, but hey, everyone starts somewhere). Grew up there with her parents and two siblings, which, honestly, probably kept her humble. School-wise, she did her thing at St. Dominic’s Grammar School for Girls in Brewood, then went full thespian and trained at LAMDA and Guildhall, which are like the Ivy League for theater geeks. Theater’s a big part of her story, too. She’s tackled classics like Much Ado About Nothing and The Village—so she’s got the chops, not just a Netflix pretty face. She’s repped by The Artists Partnership, which means she’s got a solid team behind her. When Deadline dropped the news in October 2018 that she’d landed the main role as Yennefer, fans lost it. The Witcher finally hit Netflix in December 2019, and the rest is kind of streaming history.