Ever since stunning audiences with her first real starring turn in The Witch in 2015, Anya Taylor-Joy has become one of the busiest and most sought-after young actresses currently working in Hollywood. The Miami native has accrued nearly 30 big and small screen credits over the past five years, most recently winning audiences over for her titular performance in the period-drama, Emma.
With additional features currently in post-production, Taylor-Joy is poised to continue to build her filmography. As we wait with bated breath, check out Anya Taylor-Joy’s best movies, according to IMDb.
Updated on February 1st, 2021 by Kristen Palamara: Anya Taylor-Joy continues to build her filmography with interesting and diverse choices of movies in star in from animated voice acting to Marvel movies to dramatic roles to horror movies to period pieces. Taylor-Joy also starred as Beth Harmon in the engrossing Netflix miniseries The Queen’s Gambit and Taylor-Joy received more recognition as an actor after starring in the popular series. There will surely be more movies, and possibly television shows, that star Taylor-Joy as she continues to prove her acting ability in every role she’s appeared in despite the IMDb score.
13 Playmobil: The Movie (2019) 4.8/10
The Playmobil movie attempted to make a similar move to The Lego Movie that focused on popular toys coming to life and build a story out of the various characters brought to life in the movie.
Marla (Taylor-Joy) goes looking for her missing brother with the help of various characters like Rex Dasher (Daniel Radcliffe). The movie doesn’t have great reviews but it’s an interesting and unique entry in Taylor-Joy’s filmography.
12 The New Mutants (2020) 5.3/10
Marvel attempted a new type of superhero movie in 2020 with The New Mutants. The movie had more of a science-fiction verging on a horror movie approach which is completely different from other MCU movies that usually stay in the action-adventure and comedy genres.
The New Mutants focused on a group of young mutants discovering their powers and trying to work together to escape capture including Illyana Rasputin (Taylor-Joy) as part of the main cast.
11 Vampire Academy (2014) 5.5/10
Although she technically went uncredited in the film, Taylor-Joy made her big-screen debut via the British horror-comedy Vampire Academy in 2o14. Awarded with the honorable role of “Feeder Girl,” Joy made little impact in the farcical tale of vampirism starring Zoey Deutsch, Gabriel Byrne, Claire Foy, and more.
The film follows Rose Hathaway (Deutsch), a half-vampire and half-human trainee who must escape her academy in order to rescue her close friend Lissa (Lucy Fry) from bloodsucking peril.
10 Barry (2016) 5.8/10
In Vikram Gandhi’s compelling biopic on the formative years of Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States, Taylor-Joy takes second-billing as Charlotte Baughman, Barry’s seminal girlfriend during a time of intense racial strife.
Barry (Devon Terrell) and Charlotte meet in college and begin to bond over their shared interest in politics. As barry tries to navigate a world of racism while dating the young white woman, his eyes are opened to the harsh societal prejudices he’d go on to fight later in life as an elected politician.
9 Morgan (2016) 5.8/10
In one of her first starring roles post-Witch, Taylor gave a complex and nuanced performance as the titular Morgan in the 2016 sci-fi horror yarn from director Luke Scott.
In the vein of Ex Machina, the film focuses on Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) a risk-assessment manager tasked with deciding the efficacy of saving or destroying an A.I. robot named Morgan. As Morgan continues to age rapidly and exponentially increase its computing powers, Lee and her squad become endangered by the bot’s desire to escape human enslavement.
8 Radioactive (2019) 6.2/10
Taylor-Joy spent the bulk of her 2019 in two high-profile TV series, Peaky Blinders and The Dark Crystal. But in between those two projects, she appeared in a little known period-movie called Radioactive.
Filmed in Hungary, the rom-com biopic tracks the loving bond between Polish scientist Marie Curie (Rosamund Pike) and her eventual husband, Pierre Curie (Sam Riley). As the two navigate personal issues, their lasting contributions to the world of medicine in the 20th century are celebrated in kind.
7 Marrowbone (2017) 6.7/10
In Sergio G. Sanchez’s slow-burning mysterious horror flick Marrowbone, a malefic presence threatens to undo a family bound together by a harrowing secret from the past.
When their mother suddenly dies, a quartet of siblings keeps the death a secret to avoid being separated. Billy (Charlie Heaton), Jack (George McKay), Jane (Mia Goth), and Sam (Matthew Stagg) decide to hide out in a moldering old barn, known as Marrowbone Residence, only to become terrorized by an evil presence once they arrive. Taylor-Joy plays Allie in the film, a local librarian who holds the key to the entire mystery.
6 Thoroughbreds (2017) 6.7/10
In the cynical vein of Heathers or Funny Games, Taylor-Joy stars opposite Olivia Cooke in Thoroughbreds, a tale of two bored and hyper-violent teen suburbanites who concoct a vengeful scheme.
Amanda (Cooke) and Lily (Taylor-Joy) are two estranged and deeply troubled friends who come together after years apart. However, Amanda knows her mother has hired Lily to hang out with her, causing her great ire. Confined to their upscale Connecticut home, the girls hatch a wild plot to rid each other’s problems by lashing out violently towards Amanda’s parents. Shocking stuff!
5 Glass (2019) 6.7/10
Taylor-Joy aptly reprises her role as Casey Cooke in Glass, the harried young woman held captive by the psychotic multiple-personality-ridden madman Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) in the preceding film, Split.
IMDB voters have favored the film more than critics, as M. Night Shyamalan ambitiously ties together the narrative threads woven in Split and Unbreakable, two movies released 16 years apart. Despite a longer runtime, Taylor-Joy’s role is decreased from Split to make way for the expanded cast, including Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson.
4 Emma (2020) 6.7/10
Taylor-Joy has been winning all sorts of plaudits for her most recent turn as the titular Emma in the umpteenth adaptation of the classic Jane Austen novel.
Emma is one preening, rich and spoiled high-socialite in 19th-century England. As she sets out to find companionship in her quaint little village, she endures the hilarious trials and tribulations of one failed romance after another. The charming coming of age tale stresses the class differences of the time while celebrating the search for true love.
3 The Witch (2015) 6.9/10
Without Anya’s wicked turn in Robbert Eggers’ masterful horror debut The Witch, chances are this entire list would cease to be. That’s how much the delicate balancing act of the movie’s structure rests on Taylor-Joy’s young shoulders.
The film is a slow-mounting tale of suspense based on old Salem witch trial folktales. A family of settlers builds a home on an accused piece of land where a sinister presence takes hold of every living entity in sight, including the livestock. The film gets under your skin, builds, festers, and rankles until an explosive cauldron of jaw-dropping terror erupts in the finale. The Witch is easily one of the best horror films to come out in the last decade.
2 Split (2016) 7.3/10
Anya appeared in three films that were released in 2016, but none more popular among IMDB users than M. Night Shymalan’s oddly comedic tale of terror in Split.
With a tour-de-force turn from James McAvoy as a man tormented with more than 20 split personalities, Joy proved she can go head-to-head with such a good actor in such an iconic performance. Taylor-Joy plays Casey Cooke in the film, one of three young female captives who are subjected to harsh treatment by Kevin Wendell Crumb (McAvoy).
1 Here Are The Young Men (2020) 7.9/10
Here Are the Young Men is set in the early 2000s and focuses on three Irish teenagers living in Dublin with different personalities; Matthew (Dean-Charles Chapman), Rez (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), and Kearney (Finn Cole).
The three are excited for a summer of partying including drugs and alcohol when the trio meets Jen (Taylor-Joy) and Matthew falls in love with her.
