Anna Popplewell Biography
Popplewell, eldest of three children, is the daughter of Andrew Popplewell and Dr. Debra Lomas, a dermatologist. She was born in London. She has two younger actor siblings: Lulu Popplewell and Freddie Popplewell, who starred as Michael Darling in the movie Peter Pan. Her paternal grandfather, Sir Oliver Popplewell, is a distinguished former judge. She attended North London Collegiate School and was Head Girl 2006–2007.
Popplewell began acting at the age of six, taking classes at the Allsorts Drama School. She began acting professionally in the TV production Frenchman's Creek in 1998. She made her film debut in 1999 in the film Mansfield Park and has since appeared in supporting roles in films like The Little Vampire (2000) and Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003) with Scarlett Johansson. In 2001 she appeared as Victoria in the BBC serial Love in a Cold Climate.
Her first major role was in the film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) where she played Susan Pevensie. She has a phobia of mice, which required a double to do part of her scene at the Stone Table in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. She reprised her role in the sequel, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, in which she acted with William Moseley, Skandar Keynes, Georgie Henley and Ben Barnes. The movie opened in theatres 16 May 2008. She also made a cameo appearance in the third Narnia film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, despite her character's absence in the book on which it is based.
She was awarded the Cuppers Prize in 2007 for Best Supporting Actress in a student production of Five Kinds of Silence. In December 2007, she played Lady Macbeth in a student production of Macbeth at the OFS Studio in Oxford. In 2008 she performed as the character Wendla in the controversial play Spring Awakening.
Popplewell is friends with her Narnia film co-stars: Georgie Henley, Ben Barnes, William Moseley, and Skandar Keynes.
Since 2007, Popplewell has been a student of English at Magdalen College, Oxford. She resides in Highbury, North London.
