Sophie Thatcher, Deauville Rising-Star Award at the 52^nd Deauville American Film Festival

Fearless

“I want to work with direc­tors that I admire, and that have visions that are strange… I want to be genre-less!”

Sophie Thatch­er

Sophie Thatch­er embod­ies a dis­tinc­tive style, a strik­ing pres­ence, a sin­gu­lar­i­ty and an inner strength that have enabled her, in just a few years, to emerge as one of the most cap­ti­vat­ing young per­form­ers work­ing today, mov­ing effort­less­ly between pres­tige tele­vi­sion, inde­pen­dent cin­e­ma and ambi­tious genre filmmaking.

Born from the worlds of fan­ta­sy and sci­ence fic­tion, Sophie Thatch­er is, above all, a gaze that draws you into the unknown—a gaze at once intense and pre­cise, lay­ered with nuance and uncan­ny mystery.

A Chica­go native, Sophie Thatch­er began her career on stage. Her the­atre cred­its include the musi­cals Oliv­er! and Seussi­cal, as well as stage adap­ta­tions of The Diary of Anne Frank and The Secret Gar­den.

In 2019, she made her fea­ture film debut in the sci­ence fic­tion film Prospect direct­ed by Zeek Earl and Christo­pher Cald­well, star­ring oppo­site Pedro Pas­cal and Jay Duplass and appeared in The Tomor­row Man by Noble Jones.

In 2021, she rose to inter­na­tion­al promi­nence with her role as Natal­ie in Showtime’s Emmy-nom­i­nat­ed com­ing-of-age sur­vival dra­ma series Yel­low­jack­ets. 

In 2023, she starred in the adap­ta­tion of Stephen King’s The Boogey­man direct­ed by Rob Sav­age. The fol­low­ing year, she played Sis­ter Barnes in A24’s award-win­ning reli­gious hor­ror film Heretic, oppo­site Hugh Grant. In 2025, she starred as Iris in the sci­ence-fic­tion thriller Com­pan­ion along­side Jack Quaid. Her per­for­mance earned wide­spread crit­i­cal acclaim, fur­ther cement­ing her rep­u­ta­tion as one of the most excit­ing young actors work­ing today. Rolling Stone praised Thatch­er’s per­for­mance, not­ing that she has ‘earned the right to wear the crown with the best of them.’ 

This year, she stars in Her Pri­vate Hell, direct­ed by Nico­las Wind­ing Refn, mark­ing the filmmaker’s return to the big screen after a decade-long absence. She plays Elle, a ris­ing actress whose best friend mar­ries her father as a ser­i­al killer ter­ror­izes a futur­is­tic metrop­o­lis. The film pre­miered at the last Cannes Film Festival.

Upcom­ing projects include Jen­ny Suen’s com­e­dy Peach­es, Jen­nifer Kent’s sci­ence-fic­tion dra­ma The Girl Who Was Plugged In, and Chris Andrews’ action film Cavendish.

The Deauville Ris­ing-Star Award cer­e­mo­ny will take place on Sat­ur­day, Sep­tem­ber 5 and will be fol­lowed by a screen­ing of Her Pri­vate Hell, in the pres­ence of Sophie Thatch­er and direc­tor Nico­las Wind­ing Refn.