Freya Allan

Freya Allan was born in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, and attended Headington School in Oxford. Her parents separated when she was one, and she spent parts of her childhood living with her mother in Australia and the French Pyrenees before returning to Oxford. She attended a French-language school while living in the Pyrenees and has a younger half-brother and half-sister.

Allan studied drama and ballet at school. At 11, she performed in a touring production of Rapunzel with the Ballet Lorent company. She also appeared in the short films Bluebird, The Christmas Tree and Captain Fierce, beginning a screen career before her major television roles.

Allan became widely known as Princess Cirilla of Cintra, or Ciri, in Netflix's The Witcher. She was initially cast as Marilka, a smaller character in the first episode, before being recast as Ciri after casting director Sophie Holland recommended her to showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich. Allan was 16 when she was cast in the role.

She stars in the series alongside Henry Cavill and Anya Chalotra. During production of the first season, Allan lived in Budapest, Hungary, for eight months. She returned as Ciri for the second season, filmed in London, and trained in sword fighting for the third season as the character developed into a warrior. Her performances brought Saturn Award nominations for Best Younger Performer in a Television Series in 2021 and 2024.

In Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Allan played Mae, the film's human lead. She filmed the science-fiction action movie in Australia in 2023 and performed some of her own stunts, reflecting the physical demands of the role.

The film was released in 2024 and became another prominent feature in Allan's career. She received a 2025 Saturn Award nomination for Best Younger Performer in a Film for her performance.

Allan made early television appearances as Young Minerva in Into the Badlands and as Mary in the BBC drama The War of the Worlds. She later played Kail in the HBO series The Third Day, appearing in five episodes, and Young Sam in the action film Gunpowder Milkshake.

Her film roles have included Iris Lark in Baghead and Linda in the short film Captain Fierce. She also appeared in The Rats: A Witcher Tale as Ciri. Allan was cast as Helle in the horror fantasy film Triton and as singer Marianne Faithfull in the biographical film Faithfull.

Allan has described painting as one of her interests, particularly portraits of people when they are not at their best. She has also spoken about singing musical songs when she is home alone.

She recalled that acting first appealed to her during a school Christmas nativity play at age four. She was cast as a wolf and became a vegetarian version of the character after objecting to playing a villain. Her early imaginative play included pretending to be a dog or a horse and talking to herself.