Dafne Keen British Actress Known for Logan

Early life

Dafne Maria Keen Fernandez was born on 4 January 2005 in Madrid. She is a British actress, and her father is the English actor Will Keen. Her mother, María Fernández Ache, is a Spanish actress and director. Her great-grandfather on her father's side was Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe.

Career

Keen made her screen debut in 2015, aged ten, in the BBC series The Refugees, where her father also appeared. The series ran for one season that year.

Her breakthrough came with the superhero film Logan, released in 2017 and directed by James Mangold. She played Laura, also known as X-23, a young clone of Wolverine, opposite Hugh Jackman. The film took about $619 million at the worldwide box office. For the role she won the Empire Award for Best Newcomer and received nominations from the Critics' Choice Movie Awards, the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Saturn Awards. Reviewers of the film singled out her physical performance and her ability to convey the character's wary, untamed nature.

Straight after Logan, Keen worked on Ana, a comedy drama directed by Charles McDougall in which she appeared with Andy Garcia. After a series of delays the film reached audiences in 2020.

In 2018 she was cast as Lyra Belacqua in His Dark Materials, the BBC and HBO adaptation of the fantasy trilogy by Philip Pullman. She has said that she read the books in the first two weeks on set to prepare. Her father joined the cast as Hugh MacPhail. The series ran from 2019 to 2022, and Keen has described it as a show she grew up on.

In 2022 she joined the cast of The Acolyte, a Star Wars series created by Leslye Headland. Headland wrote the character Jecki Lon for her after watching her performance in Logan. Keen has said she prepared for the part partly by listening to David Bowie. The series premiered on Disney+ in 2024.

The same year she returned as X-23 in Deadpool & Wolverine, a Marvel Cinematic Universe film in which she was reunited with Jackman. Her appearance was kept as a surprise for audiences. The film became her highest-grossing release and was the second-highest-grossing film of 2024. She also took the lead role of Chrys Willet in the horror film Whistle, directed by Corin Hardy. Outside film and television, she took part in the 2021 podcast The Battersea Poltergeist.

Keen has named Gena Rowlands, Meryl Streep, Olivia Colman, Jennifer Lawrence and Timothee Chalamet as performers who influenced her. Among her favourite films she has listed Singin' in the Rain, West Side Story and In the Mood for Love.

Recognition

Keen won the Empire Award for Best Newcomer for Logan, and the film also brought her nominations from the Critics' Choice Movie Awards and the Saturn Awards, along with recognition from several critics' associations. In 2020 she received a nomination for Best Actress at the British Academy Cymru Awards for her work as Lyra in His Dark Materials.

Personal life

Keen's father is Will Keen. The two have worked together on The Refugees and on His Dark Materials. Her aunts are the poet Alice Oswald and the writer Laura Beatty.