Daisy Ridley
Ridley began her career with minor roles in the television programmes "Youngers", "Toast of London", "Silent Witness", "Mr Selfridge", and "Casualty". She appeared in the short film "Blue Season", which was entered into the Sci-Fi-London 48-Hour Film Challenge. Ridley played the lead in film three of "Lifesaver", an interactive film which was nominated for a BAFTA Award. She also appeared in the music video for Wiley's song "Lights On", playing the character of Kim. Ridley made her film debut in the 2015 British independent horror film "Scrawl", after her scenes from the British comedy film "The Inbetweeners 2" were removed in the final cut.
In April 2014, Ridley's casting as Rey, one of the lead characters in "", was announced. She was chosen for the film in February 2014. At the time of her casting she was, according to "Rolling Stone", a "total unknown." Her choice by director J. J. Abrams was seen as a repeat of George Lucas's move of casting relatively unknown actors for the lead roles in the first "Star Wars" film in 1977. Ridley began filming her scenes in May 2014 at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, and prior to the film's release in December 2015, she appeared at the launch of a set of "Star Wars" postage stamps issued by the UK postal service Royal Mail, with her character Rey featuring on a stamp along with the droid BB-8. With international revenues of over $2 billion, "The Force Awakens" was a major box-office hit and the highest-grossing film of 2015. After an early screening of the film, Brian Viner of the "Daily Mail" called Ridley the "real star of the show", adding that her performance as Rey should "send her career into orbit." Her performance received critical acclaim, with Richard Roeper describing her portrayal as "a breakout performance" and adding "Ford has a terrific father figure chemistry [shared] with Ridley and [John] Boyega".
Daisy Ridley
Also in 2018, Ridley will film "Daddio", a film that follows a woman who is picked up by a cab at JFK airport and driven to her apartment in Manhattan. On the way there, the woman and cabdriver begin discussing their past and current relationships and the effects those relationships have had on their lives. Additionally, Ridley will reteam with director J. J. Abrams for "Kolma", which Abrams will also produce, a supernatural drama that finds a young woman who has suffered from a car crash that killed her boyfriend. When she dies decades later, she is given the choice of returning to the day of the accident to live her life again or being reunited with her love. Ridley will star in "The Lost Wife" as Lanka, a Polish art student who has a love affair with her best friend's older brother that is torn apart by the German invasion during the onset of World War II. Ridley has also signed on to star in "A Woman of No Importance", another Abrams-produced biographical political-thriller film based on Sonia Purnell's book of the same name. Ridley will portray American heiress and super-spy Virginia Hall, who attempted to break into the ranks of the American Foreign Service in the years before World War II. Ridley will reteam with actor Josh Gad in the superhero-comedy "Super-Normal", to be released by Netflix. Ridley will also star in "Piece of Mind".