Daisy Ridley Trivia: 32 interesting facts about the Star Wars star!

Daisy Ridley is an English actress. She began her acting career by appearing in minor television roles and short films before being cast as the main protagonist, Rey, in the Star Wars sequel trilogy – first appearing in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015).

Let’s find out some facts about her!

1. Daisy Ridley was born on 10 April 1992 in Westminster, London.

2. She is the youngest of three daughters born to Louise Fawkner-Corbett and Chris Ridley. She has two older sisters, Kika Rose and Poppy Sophia.

She also has two older half-sisters from her father’s first marriage.

3. Her mother’s family, the Fawkner-Corbetts, were landed gentry with a military and medical background.

4. Her great-uncle was Dad’s Army actor and playwright Arnold Ridley.

5. When she was growing up, her favourite film was Matilda (1996), an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s children’s story, with the title character (played by Mara Wilson in the film) a role model to her.

6. Ridley won a scholarship to Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Hertfordshire, which she attended between the ages of 9 and 18.

7. She then began reading classical civilisation at Birkbeck, University of London, before dropping out to concentrate on her acting career.

8. Ridley began her career with minor roles in the television programmes Youngers, Toast of London, Silent Witness, Mr Selfridge and Casualty.

9. She also appeared in the short film Blue Season, which was entered into the Sci-Fi-London 48-Hour Film Challenge.

10. Ridley played the lead in film three of Lifesaver,[16] an interactive film which was nominated for a BAFTA Award.

11. She has also appeared in the music video for Wiley’s song “Lights On”, playing the character of Kim.

12. In April 2014, Ridley’s casting as Rey, one of the lead characters in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, was announced.

13. She was chosen for the film in February 2014.

14 .At the time of her casting she was, according to Rolling Stone, a “total unknown.”

15. Her choice by director J. J. Abrams was seen as a repeat of George Lucas’s move of casting relatively unknown actors for the lead roles in the first Star Wars film in 1977.

16. Prior to the film’s release in October 2015, Ridley appeared at the launch of a set of Star Wars postage stamps issued by the UK postal service Royal Mail, with Ridley’s character Rey featuring on a stamp along with the droid BB-8.

17. With international revenues of over $2 billion, The Force Awakens was a major box-office hit and the highest-grossing film of 2015.

18. After an early screening of the film, Brian Viner of the Daily Mail called Ridley the “real star of the show,” adding that her performance as Rey should “send her career into orbit.”[24] Her performance received critical acclaim, with Richard Roeper describing her portrayal as “a breakout performance” and adding “Ford has a terrific father figure chemistry (shared) with Ridley and (John) Boyega”.

19. Ridley will continue her role as Rey in Star Wars: Episode VIII opposite Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, which is scheduled to be released in December 2017.

20. Ridley is to star in a film adaptation of Agatha Christie’s detective novel Murder on the Orient Express. Directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, production began in London in November 2016.

21. In August 2016, it was announced that she is set to star in the movie adaptation of the young adult novel series Chaos Walking.

22. In 2018, Ridley is set to star in an animated/live-action adaptation of Peter Rabbit, the central character from the children’s stories by Beatrix Potter.

23. Ridley voiced the lead role of Taeko in the English dub of the Japanese animated film Only Yesterday (1991), released on 1 January 2016 in New York City, with a wider US release through 26 February.

24. The film allowed Ridley to work alongside another Star Wars veteran voice actress Ashley Eckstein (who is known for voicing Ahsoka Tano, the most prominent female protagonist in Star Wars animation) in the role of her sister Yaeko.

25. Ridley became executive producer of the documentary The Eagle Huntress in January 2016.

26. Ridley has a tattoo of three stars on her left foot that she got when she was 15, a tattoo of the alchemical symbol of air on her upper right thigh, and a peace symbol tattoo behind her right ear.

27. Ridley also owns a dog called Muffin.

28. She was voted No. 1 on AskMen.com’s Crush List 2016, and also appeared in People magazine’s World’s Most Beautiful 2016 list.

29. Ridley suffers from endometriosis, caused by polycystic ovaries, which required her to undergo multiple laparoscopic surgeries.

30. She revealed over the social media site Instagram that she was diagnosed with the condition at the age of 15, and admitted that the condition left her feeling low in self-confidence due to acne that followed. Ridley was praised for her message by news outlets and fans alike.

31. In August 2016, after receiving harsh criticism for posting an anti-gun violence message on her Instagram account, Ridley deleted her Instagram account.

32. The actress briefly returned to Instagram and said that the reason behind the deletion was because she had “a busy few months ahead and [so] wanted less distractions.”