Meet House of the Dragon Star Emily Carey

Emily Carey began her acting career at age 9 on the West End, and has since had roles in Wonder Woman, the Tomb Raider reboot, Netflix's Anastasia film, and even appeared in an Idina Menzel and Michael Bublé music video.

Carey is now starring star in HBO's highly anticipated House of the Dragon as a young Alicent Hightower, the daughter of Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), the Hand of the King. (The older Alicent is portrayed by Olivia Cooke.)

Now that the season is underway, here's everything you need to know about Emily Carey.

Carey was born and raised in London.

Carey was born on April 30, 2003, making her 19 years old upon the release of House of the Dragon.

"I have a very theatrical family and in my head it was never a question of will I get to be on the stage, it was always a question of when will I get to be on the stage!" they shared. "I was lucky enough to be spotted by an agent when I was eight and that was what sort of made it for me and from there I did Shrek."

Their first role was on the West End, as young Shrek and Grumpy the Dwarf in Shrek the Musical at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Carey recalls, "It was such an incredible experience. I was only nine at the time and I just cannot describe in words how much I loved it and, as my first professional experience, I’d never been on a stage that big. Of course, it’s such a fun show and I got to wear the prosthetics, I just loved it."

From Shrek, Carey was then cast as Marta Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, which was nominated for Best Musical Revival at the 2014 Olivier Awards. The same year, she starred in the viral "Baby It's Cold Outside" video by Michael Bublé and Idina Menzel.

She portrayed a young Diana, a.k.a. Wonder Woman, in 2017's Wonder Woman.

Carey's first major Hollywood role was as a young Diana, who trains on the hidden island of Themyscira with her fellow Amazons. Carey plays a 12-year-old Diana, who was portrayed by Gal Gadot for the majority of the film. Carey wrote on Instagram, "An honour and a privilege to work with such strong, talented and inspirational women."

That's not her only famous role, however; Carey had a long-running arc as Grace Beauchamp on the British medical soap drama Casualty from 2014 through 2021. They also appeared in Netflix's Get Even TV show as Mika, and the British mini series Houdini and Doyle as Mary Conan Doyle.

Carey is extremely active on social media.

Find them on Instagram @TheEmilyCarey, on Twitter @TheEmilyCarey, on Facebook @TheEmilyCarey, and on TikTok—you guessed it!—@TheEmilyCarey. They share about their life as an actor, fashion posts, and more candid thoughts:

They have a girlfriend, Kellimarie.

Kellimarie Willis won The X Factor: The Band in 2019 with the band Really Like You. Willis and Carey shared their relationship publicly earlier this year:

Carey also has shared that she identifies as queer, uses she/they pronouns.

Though she has been acting for a decade, House of the Dragon is her biggest role to date.

Carey portrays Alicent Hightower in the early episodes of the series, a close friend of Princess Rhaenyra's—though the two eventually have a falling out.

"Friendship is such a wild, intense journey," Carey says of Alicent and Rhaenyra's relationship. "You feel so much at that age for your friends. That was definitely something that we played around with. They go through a lot as people, individually and together. Their relationship with each other changes them as the story line continues."

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