SHE’S the most-watched movie star you may never have heard of – but that won’t be for long.
Brit actress Ella Purnell is about to go stratospheric as her Amazon Prime show Fallout became the most watched programme on any streaming service last month, with more than 7 million views.
Ella, 27, plays naive vault-dweller Lucy in the post-apocalyptic show, venturing out into the wasteland to find her kidnapped father.
Fallout went straight to number one on its release and is sure to catapult the stunning actress to super-stardom.
Ella has already started to amass the trappings of an A-list life with 1.2million Instagram followers, a rocker boyfriend and an LA pad.
Not that this is her first big role. She may have flown under the celeb radar until now but she already has plenty of impressive parts under her belt, with her talent spotted early by the likes of Tim Burton and Angelina Jolie.
Born and raised in London, with her mum, step-dad and three brothers, while her dad and step-mum lived down the road, she landed a place at Sylvia Young’s theatre school at the age of 9 and also starred as a child model.
She won her first big role aged 11, beating hundreds of other kids to a part in the West End production of Oliver!
The show gave her the acting bug and she quickly became the first-choice child star for directors looking for a girl to play younger versions of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
In Disney’s Maleficent she played a young Angelina Jolie. In Never Let Me Go she played the child version of Kiera Knightley, and in The Legend of Tarzan she was the younger Margot Robbie.
In an interview Ella said she once worried that playing the younger version of lead actors might hamper her career, but she figured: “If someone asks me to be the young Margot Robbie I am not gonna say no!”
And she was right – she got to work with and learn from some of the biggest and best female stars in the world.
“It really helped, watching how disciplined they were and how they were devoted and committed to their craft,” she said to Crash.
“I actually just like to get to know them and see them as real-life human beings. Working with smart, driven women was a huge inspiration at a young age.”
Career battle
But despite this early brush with fame, Ella still saw acting as a hobby until aged 18 she landed the role of Emma in legendary director Tim Burton’s 2016 “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.”
After that major success her career suddenly slowed down and she started to question her acting ambitions.
“I thought, ‘I’m 21, I haven’t had a job in a while, I really don’t know if this is a job I want to continue doing,” she confessed to the Belfast Telegraph.
She didn’t want to take on roles like “the girlfriend of the main, male character; a female that needs saving; or the goal, something that is wanted. Just there to be a sex object, portrayed as weak, pretty, nice.”
Ella even considered pausing her career and heading to uni until she landed her first “grown-up” role as Tess in Sweetbitter, which saw her make the move across the pond to live and work in ork/.
As a huge fan of tattoos she was thrilled when she was told her character was going to get a tattoo on the top of her back. So she actually got the tattoo in real life – and converted her mum to body art too.
She said: “She’d been against me getting tattoos for all 21 years of my life. But suddenly she’s like ‘I’m going to get one too’.
“And now I can’t stop her. She has so many, she won’t stop. It is like she’s addicted to the ink.”
Ella then switched to live in LA and landed the role of Jackie In Yellowjackets, the slow-burning hit which went viral telling the story of a girls’ football team who face a fight for survival after their plane crashes in the Rocky Mountains.
'Rapid rise makes her UK's Sydney Sweeney'
Brand and culture expert Nick Ede says: Ella is one of those stars who have slowly crept up on audiences and we know we recognise, but we cant figure our where from.
That’s all about to change as she has wowed audiences in the hit Amazon Prime show Fallout and in the dark thriller Yellowjackets.
She is fast becoming the UK’s Sydney Sweeney and her trajectory to superstardom is happening in 2024.
With her stunning looks, brilliant acting ability and a knack of holding down any accent she puts her voice to, she’s one to watch.
She has proved that she can do costume drama as well as kick ass fight scenes, which makes her a casting dream.
She’s also not afraid to talk about her ups and downs with mental health battels that makes her all the more relatable.
With Hollywood falling for her, it wont be long before big brands come calling and she is cast in major advertising campaigns for fashion and beauty brands.
With her near-million social media following, she’s going to fast become the toast of the town and I am here for it!
I see Ella leading the new Hollywood Brit pack alongside Leo Woodall, Amy Jackson, Kit Connor, Ncuti Gatwa, Andrew Scott and Ambika Mod.
The show’s success took everyone by surprise – not least Ella.
“We had no idea people were going to respond this way,” she told The Face.
“When you’re making it, you’re only really living 50 per cent of the show. But when you add the music and the adult counterparts’ storylines, it works brilliantly. Still, it really was a surprise to all of us. None of us saw this coming!”
As a result of the success of Yellowjackets and now Fallout, Ella’s gained an army of fans and social media followers who are lapping up her new glam red carpet shots as well as weekends spent at Coachella with her friends.
And the constant on her Instagram is her boyfriend of three years – musician Max Bennett Kelly.
When asked by a fan on Insta who her celebrity crush is, Ella didn’t hesitate to name her Max as the only one for her.
The couple live together in LA with their dog, and regularly gush about each other online.
The pair released a short film they made together last year, called Junk Male, about which Max posted: “I can’t believe it’s actually happening. kinda feels surreal to spend almost a year on something and then boom it’s just out.
“Couldn’t have done it without Ella, she really brought this film to life. so professional so bold ugh i’m so proud. seriously such an amazing director and i’m very happy we got to do this together :),”
‘My rock’
While Ella describes Max as “her rock” and made a heartfelt Instagram tribute to him in 2022 when her car got stolen with all her belongings in when she was moving house.
She wrote: “How overwhelming his love is. It’s emotional being loved like this—being in the light of someone so kind and generous and gentle.
Max, I adore you. You are so wonderful, so vibrant, so funny, so talented, so smart. I love the way your brain works. I love the way you interact with the world. The way you treat people. The way you dance. I love everything about you. It’s a joy to know you, let alone do life with you.
“I am so lucky, it’s insane. Thank you for being you, for holding it down and making me laugh and knowing what I need before I even know I need anything. Thank you for slowing me down and reminding me to breathe. Thank you for supporting all of my crazy ideas and big dreams. You bring out the best in me, and then some.”
So it looks like hard luck to Ella’s growing army of male fans – she appears to be most definitely taken.
