Hannah Murray

Hannah Murray
Murray at the Bridgend premiere, 2015.
Born	(1989-07-01) 1 July 1989 (age 27) Bristol, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2007–present

Hannah Murray (born 1 July 1989) is an English actress best known for portraying Cassie Ainsworth in the E4 teen drama series Skins from 2007 to 2008 (and again in 2013) and Gilly in the HBO series Game of Thrones.

Murray was born and raised in Bristol. Her parents both work at Bristol University, her father as a professor and her mother as a research technician. She earned an English degree at Queens' College, Cambridge. She attended North Bristol Post 16 Centre, and was a member of the Bristol Old Vic Young Company.

At the age of 16, Murray heard about an audition for young actors in Bristol, and decided to audition for the experience. The auditions were for the E4 teen drama series Skins. She impressed the producers of the series and was cast as Cassie Ainsworth, a gentle and creative but self-destructive teenager with an eating disorder. Murray and April Pearson were the first two to get cast for the show. Murray went on to appear in the first two series, from 2007 to 2008. She left at the end of the show's second series to make way for a new generation of characters. On the decision to replace the cast, Murray has said that "it would be really silly to be in a teenage drama if you're no longer a teenager".

Following Skins in May 2008, Murray made her stage debut as Mia in the critically acclaimed That Face, a West End production at the Duke of York's Theatre. She was highly praised for her acting in the play, alongside the cast, and it was considered a milestone in her career as she abandoned her well-known "Cassie way". That same year, she had a small role in the black comedy In Bruges, but her scene was eventually cut from the final version of the film.