Kaya Scodelario's 10 Best Movies And TV Shows

Kaya Scodelario got her start in television with no acting experience at all when she auditioned for the British series Skins at 14, and since then, her best movies and tv series have demonstrated that she was born to be in the business. Despite not having formal training, Scodelario has captivated audiences since her very first performance and she has a varied resume that has allowed her to learn and hone her craft in a variety of settings.

Scodelario has had roles in everything from teen television to science fiction movies to romantic comedies to horror. She never plays the same type of role twice, though many of her characters can be noted for their bravery and their intelligence. Scodelario has made her career off of mysterious women with emotional stories and her best movie and tv series roles are ones in which she shines even in small moments.

10 Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City (2021)

As Claire Redfield

The Resident Evil franchise features a slew of movies inspired by the video games. There are live-action projects, animated projects, and a whole group of films starring Milla Jovovich. This movie essentially reboots the franchise to the beginning with the original fall of Raccoon City.

The movie centers on a group of characters, all from the Resident Evil video game franchise, whose lives converge on Raccoon City just as an infection begins to spread among its residents. Those characters include the Redfield siblings.

Claire is often dismissed as simply the younger sister of Chris Redfield, but the character has appeared in many pieces of the franchise in her own right. While the script for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City has been criticized for a lack of character development among those characters chosen for the movie, Kaya Scodelario does her best with the material she has been given. Much of her backstory is absent from the movie, but it’s clear she is being poised to be a hero in a new chapter of the franchise that may not move forward.

9 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)

As Carina Smyth

Dead Men Tell No Tales sought to revitalize the Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise without relying on the chemistry of Orlando Bloom and Kira Knightley. It introduced younger characters to accompany Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow on his adventures.

The movie follows Jack Sparrow while he is pursued by a ghostly crew of pirates that have escaped the Devil’s Triangle. Scodelario portrayed a young woman interested in astronomy who is often dismissed because of the role women are relegated to in society at the time. She is accused of witchcraft and also eventually revealed to be the daughter of a pirate.

It can be hard for a new player to be thrust into the middle of a successful franchise. Established characters tend to remain fan-favorites at the expense of new ones. Despite that, Scodelario is a bright spot in a movie that many critics questioned was even necessary. Carina is intelligent and tenacious in a different way than Elizabeth in the first three movies. Her dreams are different and her place among the pirates makes for a different dynamic. She is a great leading lady for the movie.

8 This Is Christmas (2022)

As Emma

Scodelario has a lot of genre projects in her resume where she has to be hard and tough and not very many romantic comedies. This Is Christmas is both a romantic comedy and a holiday flick.

The movie follows Emma (Scodelario) and Adam (Alfred Enoch) during their daily commutes during the holiday season. They take the same route every day and interact with the same people. Adam eventually invites Emma to a holiday party, and though she starts off the movie shy and reserved, she starts to come out of her shell.

While this might not be one of the best Christmas movies of all time, it is a solid rom-com and a great addition to Scodelario’s body of work. It allows her to show a lighter side of her acting abilities and her chemistry with Enoch is fantastic.

7 The Maze Runner Franchise (2014-2018)

As Teresa

Teresa is an enigma at first...

The Maze Runner movies are inspired by the young adult novels by James Dasher. Though there are many differences between the movies and the novels, the movies still hold up. The first two movies are arguably better than the third, but Scodelario appears in all three.

The movie franchise begins with a boy who does not know he is Thomas (Dylan O’Brien), or anything else about his past), being released from a caged elevator into a glade where other teenage boys live. There, they spend each day sending runners to explore a lethal maze before they return to the glade at sundown. Following the first movie, the story expands to the outside world and the zombie-like virus that exists there.

Scodelario appears as the only young woman released into the maze in the first movie. Teresa is an enigma at first but is eventually revealed as working for the organization that placed them in the maze in the first place. She is a morally gray character, but she is also staunchly loyal to Thomas, and Scodelario is perfectly suited to play the mysterious woman willing to sacrifice everything to save Thomas.

6 Crawl (2019)

As Haley

Creature features can be hit or miss. The idea of main characters in vulnerable positions with an animal closing in is a popular one for horror, but some of the movies end up being cheesy and “so bad they’re good” instead of appreciated as good movies.

Crawl centers on a woman (Scodelario), her father (Barry Pepper), and their dog when they are stuck in the middle of a Category 5 hurricane. As the storm worsens though, they become trapped in their home with rising waters and hungry alligators.

The concept sounds a little cheesy, but it does a great job at combining eco-horror with a creature feature. Scodelario is incredibly capable and captivating in a movie that sees her spend much of her time in waist-high water looking for threats just below the surface. It’s a very physical role, but she does a great job at balancing it emotionally as well.

She was nominated for Best Actress for the British National Film and TV Awards for Crawl.

5 Wuthering Heights (2011)

As Catherine Earnshaw

Wuthering Heights is a classic Emily Bronte novel. The story has been adapted many times, but the 2011 movie version takes a different approach.

The original story is set in the 1800s and explores a love story between Cathy and Heathcliff. Their different upbringinings, their place in society, and the color of their skin make them very different people. Despite that, they still fall for one another. In the movie, another layer is added to their story by making Heathcliff explicitly a man born into slavery, further complicating the dynamic between them and the love story that unfolds.

Wuthering Heights is often a story about longing, and that is true here as well. Though Cathy and Heathcliff can be acerbic with one another, they are also always longing for the other’s presence. Scodelario pulls that off well. She is both brooding and emotional and a complex woman in a difficult situation.

4 The Truth About Emanuel (2013)

As Emanuel

Many fans of Kaya Scodelario will likely compare her role here with that of Effy in the British series Skins. Both roles require a more physical and visceral performance than necessarily a verbal one.

The Truth About Emanuel follows the titular character as a teenager while she deals with grief and guilt over the loss of her mother. Her mother, however, died during childbirth. Emanuel obsesses about her mother’s death, convinced that her life caused her mother’s end. It’s a heavy topic for a teen and Scodelario carries the full weight of it in the movie.

The movie delves fully into the themes of psychological trauma and motherhood in equal measure. It does so by allowing Emanuel to immerse herself in delusions that help the audience to fully understand the extent of her grief in some beautifully shot sequences.

The movie won Best Ensemble at the Ashland Independent Film Festival.

3 Moon (2009)

As Eve Bell

For a movie so early in her career, it’s some great work.

Though Scodelario had appeared on television before this, Moon is her first film. She made her movie debut just two years after landing the role of Effy in Skins. It’s not a large role, but it is an impactful one.

Moon focuses on the astronaut Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell). His job means he is spending years living and working on the moon, sending resources back to the planet to help with dwindling resources on Earth. His world is one of isolation and loneliness in which he is separated from everyone he cares about.

Scodelario plays the astronaut’s daughter, Eve. Her scenes often involve her own isolation as she sends him messages. Most of her scenes are filmed completely alone, which is part of what makes her work in the movie so impressive. She’s often simply speaking to the camera instead of having the chance to play off another actor. For a movie so early in her career, it’s some great work.

2 Skins (2007-2013)

As Effy Stonem

Skins might be the role Scodelario is best known for still, even though it has been over a decade since she played Effy. It was her very first professional acting role, one she auditioned for when she was just 14.

Skins follows a group of British teenagers while in secondary school. Every two seasons of the show follows a new group of characters as they prepare to graduate and head to university. Effy, however, makes her debut in the second season as the younger (and mostly nonverbal) younger sister of one of the original main characters. She is then one of the main cast for seasons three and four, returning for the special two-part stories of season seven to close out her story.

Effy is easily one of the most compelling characters of the series. She is something of a wild child, sneaking out and heading to raves even before she ever utters a line in the series. Her love stories dominate her seasons, and most of the characters in seasons three and four are connected because of their connections to her. Her season seven episodes track her as an adult, revealing how much she has changed as a receptionist in a hedge fund firm who is willing to take the legal fall, so other people don’t have to go to jail.

Considering this role, with no acting experience at all, is Scodelario’s first, she makes an exceptional turn in front of the camera. Skins makes it clear that Scodelario is a born storyteller, saying everything Effy is thinking and feeling with just a look. Even though it was her first role, it is one of her very best.

Scodelario was nominated for two Golden Nymphs at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival while on Skins.

1 The Gentlemen (2024)

As Susie Glass

Though Skins is her first TV series role, The Gentlemen is one of Scodelario’s most recent. It is the only project in her career so far to top Skins.

The Gentlemen is a comedy-crime series. It is inspired by the movie of the same name from Guy Ritchie, and Ritchie returns to helm the series as well. It follows Eddie (Theo James) as he inherits an estate from his father, which he soon discovers also doubles as the home of an illegal weed empire because his father made a deal with the Glass family to use his property. Susie Glass (Scodelario) is the head of the family while her father is incarcerated and is determined to keep the operation going, even willing to negotiate new terms with Eddie.

The Gentlemen is slick and stylish in the way all of Ritchie’s best projects are. It also contains the perfect balance of humor and intrigue as it seems that everything that can go wrong in the new line of work Eddie finds himself in will. Susie is constantly the one having to bail them out of trouble as she has much more experience with the criminal underworld than he does.

Scodelario was nominated for Outstanding Performance in a Comedy Series at the 2024 Gotham Awards.

Susie is independent and accomplished, perfectly capable of handling every challenge thrown her way and taking over her father’s position. She is a badass, and Scodelario plays her fiercely. While she is drastically different from Effy Stonem, where Kaya Scodelario started her acting career, she is one of the most layered and interesting characters she has played to date.

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