From the Stage to Sorcery: Anya Chalotra’s Path to ‘The Witcher’ (2024)

Anya Chalotra has been a professional actor for just five years, yet she managed to land one of the biggest roles in Witcher history.

The British actor kicked off her career with stage plays, bringing her talent to the legendary Globe Theatre in a 2017 production of Much Ado About Nothing, then following up with stints at the Theatre Royal Stratford East and Royal Theatre for productions of The Village and Peter Gynt. Only in her early 20s at the time, Chalotra managed to juggle these roles with school, but the stage work would lend valuable experience that would ready her for the major leaps she would take in her career later on.

In 2018, Chalotra earned her first TV role in Wanderlust, where she played Jennifer Ashman, a student who attends school with Tom (Joe Hurst), the son of Toni Collette's character, Joy. Though it was a small role, it was an important one, as it landed her among established stars like Collette despite being fresh out of the London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama.

The same year, Chalotra snagged another important role in the miniseries The ABC Murders, starring John Malkovich as Hercule Poirot from the Agatha Christie novels. This time, she played Lily Marbury, the daughter of landlady Mrs. Marbury, whose property suspect Alexander Bonaparte Cust (Eamon Farren) lives in. This brought Chalotra even closer to film acting giants, with Malkovich in the lead role and Harry Potter’s Rupert Grint alongside him as Inspector Crome.

All of this experience in such a short time ended up being integral to what would cap off Chalotra's budding career: landing the role of Yennefer of Vengerberg in The Witcher. Yennefer is the major love interest of Henry Cavill's Geralt of Rivia. She's a powerful sorceress, a close friend of Anna Shaffer's Triss Merigold and mother figure to Freya Allan's Ciri.

We've already had a taste of what Chalotra is capable of as Yennefer. With the advent of The Witcher Season 2, there's a lot more to come, with plenty of opportunities for Chalotra to make this legendary Witcher role her own.

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