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".
Dido Miles
Miles made her first high profile appearance and film debut in the movie "Black Beauty" (1994) in a supporting role, before going on to star in "First Knight" during 1995 before gaining further recognition from various guest roles in television shows such as "Casualty", "Wycliffe" and "Frontiers". Miles starred in the movie "Emma" (1996) as Isabella Knight, the movie went n to be awarded two Primetime Emmy Awards. Following this, Miles went on to appear in British shows such as "The Bill" (2003),"Making Waves" (2004), "Silent Witness" (2006), "EastEnders" (2009) and "Dani's House" (2009). In 2012, Miles went on to make her first appearance in the BBC One soap "Doctors" in the episode "Reports of My Death" as Dr. Emma Reid. On her new role in "Doctors" Miles stated that there "twists and turns" coming up for her character, and that the storyline will become darker and the viewers will "see that as it unfolds". Whilst on the show Miles's character's storylines have included dealing with her marriage breakdown, being raped, having a very difficult relationship with her son as he goes toward criminality, almost killing her husband, medical malpractice, struggling with coming out as a lesbian, having a relationship with a married woman and suffering from depression. For her portrayal of Emma Reid in the show over the years Miles has garnered several nominations at "The British Soap Awards", under the category of "Best Onscreen Partnership" paired with Ian Kelsey at the 2016 awards and also under "Best Dramatic Performance" at the 2013 and 2017 awards.