Rose Leslie

Rose Eleanor Arbuthnot-Leslie[a][1] (born 9 February 1987)[1] is a Scottish actress. After receiving critical acclaim for her role in New Town, she rose to fame as Gwen Dawson in the ITV drama series Downton Abbey and Ygritte in the HBO fantasy series Game of Thrones. She starred as Maia Rindell for three seasons of the CBS All Access legal and political drama The Good Fight.

Leslie was born in Aberdeen, Scotland,[2] and raised at Lickleyhead Castle in Aberdeenshire, her family’s 15th-century ancestral seat, where she lived until the age of 10.[3] Her father, Sebastian Arbuthnot-Leslie, is the Chieftain of the Aberdeenshire branch of the Scottish Clan Leslie. Her mother is Candida Mary Sibyl “Candy” Leslie (née Weld) of Clan Fraser of Lovat, whose maternal great-grandfather was Simon Fraser, 13th Lord Lovat and a descendant of King Charles II.[4] Through her mother, Leslie is a great-great-granddaughter of Frederick Weld, the sixth prime minister of New Zealand and, through her father, she is a great-great-granddaughter of Don Guillermo Landa y Escandón, who served as governor of Mexico City.[5] Leslie’s ancestors include Ambrose Lisle March Phillipps De Lisle, politician Charles March-Phillipps and MP James Grimston, 3rd Earl of Verulam. Her family currently lives at the 12th-century Wardhill Castle in Old Rayne.[6][7][8]

She was first educated at Rayne North School in Aberdeenshire. At 10, she went to Ermitage International School in Maisons-Laffitte, France, where her family lived for 3 years.[9] Upon their return to the UK, she was sent to Millfield, a boarding school in Street, Somerset,[10] before spending three years at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.[11] She won a BASSC certificate in stage combat and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with Honours in 2008