Gwendoline Christie's Real Name: Gwendoline Christie

Quick answer: The actress works under her own name, Gwendoline Christie. The Radio Times says she was born in Worthing, West Sussex, and Interview magazine described her in December 2015 as a "35-year-old Sussex, England native." A Library of Congress record gives her birth date as October 28, 1978. She is best known as Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones.

Real name and early life

The Radio Times, in a July 2024 interview, says, "Born in Worthing, West Sussex, Christie trained as a gymnast as a child, but after a spinal injury, she switched to acting." Interview magazine, in a December 2015 conversation with Samuel L. Jackson, calls her a 35-year-old Sussex native, and the Library of Congress authority file records "b. 1978, Sussex, England" and a separate note giving October 28, 1978.

In Interview, Christie said she grew up in the Sussex countryside, began ballet at five, took up rhythmic gymnastics around seven, and was in the Sussex squad. She told Vogue in 2015 that she went to a village school and was 6 feet 1 inch by 14, and she is now about 6 feet 3. The Radio Times says she attended Varndean College in Brighton and Hove and graduated from Drama Centre London in 2005; she told Interview she chose Drama Centre after seeing a television documentary about it at about 12.

Career highlights

The Radio Times says she worked in theatre after drama school and was the subject of photographer Polly Borland's series Bunny. Interview lists her early feature films as Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and The Zero Theorem.

The Radio Times says Game of Thrones made her a mainstream star after she was cast in 2011 as Brienne of Tarth. Interview describes Brienne as a noblewoman mocked for her stature who is welcomed into Renly Baratheon's king's guard, and Vogue notes the character's season-four fight with the Hound. Vogue says that in 2015 she also appeared as Commander Lyme in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 2 and joined J.J. Abrams's Star Wars; Interview and the Radio Times identify her Star Wars role as the villain Captain Phasma.

The Radio Times lists later work including Jane Campion's Top of the Lake, The Sandman, in which she played Lucifer, Tim Burton's Wednesday, and Peter Strickland's In Fabric and Flux Gourmet. It says her first family film was the Sky Cinema original Robin and the Hoods, in which she plays a woodland recluse named Aura. Interview says she has modelled for Vivienne Westwood and Iris van Herpen.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Gwendoline Christie, sometimes misspelled Gwendolyn Christie, are looking for the same actress. Brienne of Tarth and Captain Phasma are characters, not her names.