Claire Foy is a renowned English actress and producer, widely recognized for her award-winning portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in the Netflix series The Crown. With a flourishing career, Claire’s net worth is estimated at $6 million. Besides her portrayal of the Queen, she has also graced the screen with notable roles such as Anne Boleyn in Wolf Hall (2015).
With more than 30 acting credits, Foy has showcased her versatility through various films, including Vampire Academy (2014), Rosewater (2014), Unsane (2018), First Man (2018), The Girl in the Spider’s Web (2018), and Women Talking (2022). She has also appeared in popular miniseries such as The Promise (2011), White Heat (2012), A Very British Scandal (2021), and TV series like Little Dorrit (2008), Upstairs Downstairs (2010-2012), and Crossbones (2014).
In addition to her acting career, Claire has expanded her talents as an executive producer. She contributed as a producer for A Very British Scandal. Furthermore, in May 2021, Claire was cast as the lead in Marlow, a BritBox crime thriller series, where she would also serve as a producer.
Early Life
Claire Foy was born Claire Elizabeth Foy on April 16, 1984, in Stockport, Greater Manchester, England. She grew up in Leeds and Manchester alongside her mother, Caroline, father, David, and her older siblings, Robert and Gemma. The family later moved to Longwick due to David’s job as a salesman for Rank Xerox.
At the age of 8, Claire’s parents divorced. Her father remarried, adding another daughter to the family. Claire attended Aylesbury High School before enrolling at Liverpool John Moores University, where she studied drama. She further honed her craft by attending the Oxford School of Drama for a one-year course, which she completed in 2007. Afterward, she moved to Peckham, southeast London, where she shared a house with five of her drama school friends.
Career Beginnings and Early Roles
While studying at the Oxford School of Drama, Claire participated in a variety of plays, including Watership Down, Top Girls, and Easy Virtue. She made her television debut in 2008 with the pilot of the BBC Three series Being Human. Later that year, she appeared in Doctors and 10 Minute Tales, followed by a role in Little Dorrit (2008) as Amy Dorrit. The series won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries, and Claire earned a nomination at the Royal Television Society Awards for her performance.
In 2010, Foy starred in the TV movie Pulse and appeared in the miniseries Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal. She began portraying Lady Persephone Towyn in Upstairs Downstairs on BBC One. Her first feature film was Season of the Witch (2011), starring alongside Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman. That year, she also appeared in Wreckers, The Night Watch, and The Promise, marking her early career’s expansion into both television and film.
Claire continued to make her mark with roles in White Heat (2012), The Great War: The People’s Story (2014), and Hacks (2012), in addition to narrating Frankenstein and the Vampyre: A Dark and Stormy Night (2014). She played Kate Balfour on the NBC series Crossbones (2014) and starred in films such as Vampire Academy (2014), Rosewater (2014), The Lady in the Van (2015), and Breathe (2017). One of her most notable roles came in 2015 when she portrayed Anne Boleyn in the miniseries Wolf Hall, which earned her a BAFTA nomination.
Breakthrough with ‘The Crown’
In 2016, Claire Foy gained international recognition when she was cast as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown, a critically acclaimed Netflix series. Her performance won numerous awards, including Primetime Emmys, Golden Globes, and Screen Actors Guild Awards. In 2018, Claire also hosted Saturday Night Live and appeared in films such as Unsane, and First Man, and played Lisbeth Salander in The Girl in the Spider’s Web.
In 2021, Claire starred as Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, in A Very British Scandal, a BBC miniseries. She also featured in The Electrical Life of Louis Wain and My Son. In 2022, Claire starred in Women Talking, a film that garnered Best Ensemble awards.
Salary for ‘The Crown’
During the early days of The Crown, it was revealed in a 2018 panel discussion that Claire Foy earned $40,000 per episode, which was less than her male co-star Matt Smith, who played Prince Philip. Claire appeared in 20 episodes across seasons 1 and 2, resulting in total earnings of $800,000. Though Matt Smith’s salary was not disclosed, it is important to note that he was a more established actor at the time. Following the controversy, Foy received $274,000 in backpay as compensation for the pay disparity.
Awards and Accolades
Throughout her career, Claire Foy has accumulated numerous prestigious awards and nominations. She has received three Primetime Emmy nominations for The Crown, winning Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2018 and Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series in 2021. Additionally, she won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Drama for her role in The Crown in 2017.
Foy’s performance in First Man earned her a nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture in 2019. She has received four BAFTA Award nominations, including Best Leading Actress for Wolf Hall (2016) and The Crown (2017 and 2018), as well as Best Supporting Actress for First Man (2019). The Crown also brought Claire recognition from various other award bodies, including the Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, Online Film & Television Association Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Claire received several accolades for her work in First Man, including the Odyssey Award and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival’s Virtuoso Award. She earned nominations from the AACTA International Awards, Critics Choice Awards, and Golden Schmoes Awards, among others. Foy was named British Artist of the Year at the 2017 BAFTA/LA Britannia Awards. In 2019, she received the SeeHer Award at the Critics Choice Awards.
More recently, Claire’s work in Women Talking won the Robert Altman Award at the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards, with the cast also earning awards from the Boston Society of Film Critics and Gold Derby Awards. She received nominations for Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the Satellite Awards and St. Louis Film Critics Association Awards, further adding to her impressive list of achievements.
In addition, Claire has earned recognition for her roles in A Very British Scandal, Unsane, and Little Dorrit, with nominations from the Royal Television Society Awards and Fright Meter Awards. Her performances in First Man, The Girl in the Spider’s Web, and Unsane earned her Supporting Actress of the Year nominations from the London Critics Circle Film Awards in 2019.
Claire Foy’s continued excellence in both television and film has solidified her place as one of the most respected actresses in the industry, with her talent, awards, and memorable roles contributing to her remarkable success.
