Early life

Jones was born and raised in Bournville, an affluent suburb of Birmingham, the daughter of Julia née Hadley, and Gareth Jones. Her uncle is actor Michael Hadley. She has one sibling, a brother. Her father was a journalist while her mother was in advertising. Her parents divorced when she was three, and she was brought up by a single mother.

After Kings Norton Girls' School, Jones attended King Edward VI Handsworth School, to complete A-levels and went on to take a gap year (during which she appeared in the BBC series Servants). She then read English at Wadham College, Oxford, graduating with an upper second in 2006. While studying English, she appeared in student plays, including Attis in which she played the title role, and, in 2005, Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors for the OUDS summer tour to Japan, starring alongside Harry Lloyd.

Career

Jones began acting at 11 years at after-school workshop Central Junior Television funded by Central Television. She appeared in the first series of The Worst Witch. When Weirdsister College began in 2001, Jones returned as Hallow. Her longest and probably best known role overall was on the BBC Radio 4 soap opera The Archers, where she played Emma Carter (who is now played by Emerald O'Hanrahan).

In 2003, she starred as Grace May in the BBC drama Servants. She took the leading role in the 2007 ITV adaptation of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, and made her stage debut in Polly Stenham's That Face at the Royal Court Theatre in April 2007.

In 2008, she appeared in the films Brideshead Revisited and Flashbacks of a Fool, the Doctor Who episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp" and a revival of Enid Bagnold's The Chalk Garden at the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London. In January 2009, the five-part TV serial The Diary of Anne Frank, in which Jones played the role of Margot Frank alongside Tamsin Greig (as Edith Frank-Holländer) and Iain Glen (as Otto Frank), was broadcast on BBC One. Later that year in May, she performed in a rehearsed reading of Anthony Minghella's Hang Up at the High Tide Festival. Jones played the role of Julie in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's 2010 film Cemetery Junction. She also appeared in Soulboy and in Julie Taymor's big screen adaptation of The Tempest as Miranda.

On 29 January 2011, Jones won a Special Jury Prize (Dramatic) at the Sundance Film Festival for her performance as Anna in Drake Doremus's Like Crazy. She had to do her own hair and make-up in the film, while the dialogue was entirely improvised. Her performance earned comparisons to Carey Mulligan's Academy Award-nominated role in An Education. She also received the Best New Hollywood Award for this film at the 2011 Hollywood Film Awards. She appeared alongside Gossip Girl actor Ed Westwick in Chalet Girl, a romantic comedy released in March 2011, for which she had to undergo two months of snowboarding training and work undercover in a chalet at St Anton, scrubbing toilets and partying at the Krazy Kanguruh bar in preparation for the role. Jones said that the role was "something of a relief" after a string of costume roles and she was also keen to take on a comic role. Jones performed in Luise Miller, a new translation of Schiller's Kabale und Liebe by Mike Poulton at the Donmar Warehouse theatre in London, in June and July 2011. Jones lived with a Catholic family and attended Mass to prepare for the role. In 2011, Jones was announced as the new face of Burberry. In November, she was also announced as the new face of Dolce & Gabbana. She also co-starred in The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which was released on 2 May 2014. She played Felicia Hardy; an assistant of Harry Osborn.

Her current highlight is her 2014 performance as Jane Hawking in the film The Theory of Everything, a biopic charting the life and love between Jane Wilde Hawking and the world-renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, with Eddie Redmayne starring as Hawking. The film has received critical acclaim mostly due to her and Redmayne's performances. For her role as Jane, she received widespread acclaim and nominations from numbers of organizations, including an Academy Award for Best Actress, a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, a Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.

In February 2015, she was cast as Jyn Erso in the Star Wars spin-off film, Rogue One with Gareth Edwards directing.

Personal life

In 2013, Jones split from her boyfriend of ten years, sculptor and Internet artist Ed Fornieles, whom she met at Oxford when he was at the Ruskin School of Art.

Filmography

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1996	The Treasure Seekers	Alice Bastable	Movie
1998-99	The Worst Witch	Ethel Hallow	11 episodes
2001	Weirdsister College	Ethel Hallow	13 episodes
2003	Servants	Grace May	6 episodes
2007	Northanger Abbey	Catherine Morland	Movie
2007	Cape Wrath	Zoe Brogan	8 episodes
2008	Doctor Who	Robina Redmond	Episode: "The Unicorn and the Wasp"
2009	The Diary of Anne Frank	Margot Frank	5 episodes
2011	Page Eight	Julianne Worricker	Movie
2014	Salting the Battlefield	Julianne Worricker	Movie
2014	Girls	Dot	Episode: "Role-Play"

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2008	Flashbacks of a Fool	Young Ruth
2008	Brideshead Revisited	Lady Cordelia Flyte
2009	Chéri	Edmée
2010	Cemetery Junction	Julie Kendrick
2010	Soulboy	Mandy Hodgson
2011	The Tempest	Miranda
2011	Chalet Girl	Kim Matthews
2011	Like Crazy	Anna Maria Gardner
2011	Albatross	Beth Fischer
2011	Hysteria	Emily Dalrymple
2012	Cheerful Weather for the Wedding	Dolly Thatchem
2013	Breathe In	Sophie
2013	The Invisible Woman	Nelly Ternan
2014	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	Felicia Hardy
2014	The Theory of Everything	Jane Wilde Hawking
2015	True Story	Jill
2016	Collide	Juliette	In post-production
2016	A Monster Calls	Mum	In post-production
2016	Inferno	Sienna Brooks	In post-production
2016	Rogue One: A Star Wars Story	Jyn Erso	In post-production

Theatre

• The Snow Queen, Creation Theatre Company (2005-06), Gerda
• That Face, Royal Court Theatre (2007), Mia
• The Chalk Garden, Donmar Warehouse (2008), Laurel
• Luise Miller, Donmar Warehouse (2011), Luise Miller

Awards and nominations

Award	Year	Film(s)	Category	Result	Ref.
AACTA Awards	2015	The Theory of Everything	Best Actress - International	Nominated
Academy Awards	2015	The Theory of Everything	Best Actress	Nominated
Alliance of Women Film Journalists	2014	The Invisible Woman	Most Egregious Age Difference Between the Leading Man and the Love Interest	Nominated
British Academy Film Awards	2015	The Theory of Everything	Best Actress	Nominated
British Independent Film Awards	2011	Albatross	Best Supporting Actress	Nominated
	2013	The Invisible Woman	Best Actress	Nominated
Critics' Choice Movie Awards	2015	The Theory of Everything	Best Actress	Nominated
Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association	2014	The Theory of Everything	Best Actress	4th place
Denver Film Critics Society	2012	—	Best Breakout Star	Nominated
	2015	The Theory of Everything	Best Actress	Nominated
Detroit Film Critics Society	2011	Like Crazy	Best Actress	Nominated
			Breakthrough Performance	Nominated
Empire Awards	2012	Like Crazy	Best Female Newcomer	Won
	2015	The Theory of Everything	Best Actress	Nominated
Golden Globe Awards	2015	The Theory of Everything	Best Actress - Drama	Nominated
Gotham Awards	2011	Like Crazy	Breakthrough Actor	Won
Hollywood Film Awards	2011	—	New Hollywood Award	Won
Houston Film Critics Society	2015	The Theory of Everything	Best Actress	Nominated
London Film Critics' Circle	2015	The Theory of Everything	British Actress of the Year	Nominated
National Board of Review	2011	Like Crazy	Breakthrough Performance	Tied
San Diego Film Critics Society	2014	The Theory of Everything	Best Actress	Nominated
Santa Barbara International Film Festival	2015	The Theory of Everything	Cinema Vanguard Award	Won
Satellite Awards	2015	The Theory of Everything	Best Actress	Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Awards	2015	The Theory of Everything	Best Actress	Nominated
			Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture	Nominated
St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association	2014	The Theory of Everything	Best Actress	Nominated
Sundance Film Festival	2011	Like Crazy	Special Jury Prize	Won
Teen Choice Awards	2015	The Theory of Everything True Story	Choice Movie Actress: Drama	Nominated
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association	2014	The Theory of Everything	Best Actress	Nominated
Women Film Critics Circle	2014	The Theory of Everything	The Invisible Woman Award	Won

[ Source: Wikipedia ]