Jessica Barden's Real Name: Jessica Barden

Quick answer: The actress works under her own name, Jessica Barden. The Northern Echo says she was born in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, in 1992 and moved to Wetherby, West Yorkshire, at three. A Library of Congress record gives her birth date as July 21, 1992, in Northallerton. The Scotsman calls her "Yorkshire-born" and describes her as 25 in October 2017.

Real name and early life

The Northern Echo, in a March 2022 profile, says, "Jessica Barden was born in the North Yorkshire town in 1992 and moved away to Wetherby, West Yorkshire when she was three." The Library of Congress authority file records July 21, 1992, in Northallerton. The Scotsman, in an October 2017 interview, calls her "Yorkshire-born" and "now 25," which fits that date.

The Scotsman says she started acting as a child at school in Wetherby, went on to drama classes, and worked as an extra on television shows. It says her father is a prison officer and her mother an accountant, that she has two brothers, and that watching Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz crystallised her ambition to act. It says her father's love of films such as Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption was an early influence, and that she still calls Yorkshire home.

Career highlights

The Northern Echo says she played Kayleigh Morton on ITV's Coronation Street from 2007 to 2008 and appeared in No Angels. The Scotsman lists TV work on Vera, Coming Up, and Penny Dreadful, and the lead in Channel 4's BAFTA-winning 2016 drama Ellen. It says Screen International named her a Star of Tomorrow in 2015.

Both sources list film roles in Hanna and The Lobster. The Scotsman adds Tamara Drewe, Far from the Madding Crowd, and Mindhorn, and says she played Nosebleed Woman in Yorgos Lanthimos's The Lobster, auditioning by pretending to choke on a peanut. It also lists Lullaby, opposite Amy Adams, Anna, with Mark Strong, and the horror film Habit. The Northern Echo adds The New Romantic (2018), in which she played Blake, and Pink Skies Ahead.

Both sources say she is best known as Alyssa in The End of the F***ing World, the Channel 4 and Netflix series based on Charles Forsman's graphic novels. The Scotsman says she first played the role in Jonathan Entwistle's short film of the same name, opposite Alex Lawther as James. The Northern Echo says that in 2022 she was starring as Jane in the Netflix series Pieces of Her.

Name notes for searchers

People looking up Jessica Barden are looking for the English actress. Alyssa and Kayleigh Morton are characters, not her names.