Morfydd Clark shot to fame back in 2019 thanks to her breakout performance as a devout hospice nurse in the psychological horror film, Saint Maude, which earned her a BAFTA Cymru Award and a BAFTA Rising Star nomination. Since then, her acting career has gone from strength to strength with roles in His Dark Materials, Murder is Easy, and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which returns with its second season this week.
But how much do you know about Morfydd's life away from the cameras? Here's all we know about the Welsh actress, including her upbringing and home life.
Morfydd's upbringing in Wales and acting career
While Morfydd, 35, was born in Sweden in 1989, she grew up in the Welsh town of Penarth, where she was raised speaking both Welsh and English. Although her parents spoke English at home, her maternal grandparents were from a north Wales farming family and so Morfydd and her sister Siwan were enrolled at a Welsh language school.
"I think, in English, I'm a lot more apologetic and smaller," she told Elle. "When I speak Welsh, it feels deeper and more connected," explained the actress, who tries to tap into her Welsh voice when speaking the Elvish language known as Quenya in Rings of Power.
© Matt Grace/Prime VideoWhen she was seven, Morfydd was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a condition which made it difficult to concentrate in school. "I very much didn't enjoy school, and was depressed and miserable as a teenager," she previously told The Guardian.
© Courtesy of Prime VideoBut after dropping out of secondary education at the age of 16, the stars began to align for Morfydd after auditioning for the National Youth Theatres of both Wales and Great Britain, as well as the Welsh National Youth Opera. "I got into all of them, which was really not what I expected at all," she said. "And that was when my life started to become really happy."
After encouragement from one of her mentors, Morfydd enrolled in a three-year course at Drama Centre London. From there, job offers came in thick and fast and the actress soon found herself starring amongst the likes of Freddie Fox in a production of Romeo and Juliet at the Sheffield Crucible, and Dominic West in Les Liaisons Dangereuses in London's West End.
© BBCShen went on to land various film and TV roles, including in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, The Personal History of David Copperfield, and Outsiders.
Morfydd's home life away from the cameras
While Morfydd tends to keep her love life out of the spotlight, we do know that she's a doting dog mum to her adorable toy poodle-bichon cross Matty, who the actress has referred to as her "timetable enforcer".
© @morfydd_clark/Instagram
"Because you have to take her out in the morning. In my 20s, there was a point where I was like, 'I'm in chaos…' And not necessarily bad chaos. But I was like, 'There is no order to my life at all.' And then I got a dog because it was, 'I have to walk her,'" she told The Guardian.
Morfydd also shares a close relationship with her sister, Siwan, an Oxford University graduate who has worked as a teacher and researcher.
© @morfydd_clark/InstagramOpening up about their sibling bond, the Dracula star explained how her sister helps her prepare for acting roles. "Siwan has been part of making all my characters, we are like a little duo together," she explained. "So much of being an actor is thinking and talking and she's the best person to think and talk to. It's the biggest blessing of my career, probably, being able to work with her."
