- Kaya Scodelario is the star of Netflix's Spinning Out, a 10-episode show about a figure skater struggling with bipolar disorder.
- The 27-year-old actress got her start on the British show Skins.
- Spinning Out, also starring January Jones, dropped on Netflix on January 1.
The next Winter Olympics aren't until February 2022. Luckily, Netflix's Spinning Out has enough jaw-dropping figure skating routines to hold us over until then. Set in a snowy town in Idaho, the 10-episode show follows a group of young people with dreams of skating stardom.
Kat Baker (Kaya Scodelario), our fierce protagonist, thinks those dreams are over after suffering a devastating ankle injury. Though she can no longer skate solo, Kat is given a chance to partner with Justin Davis (Evan Roderick), the wealthy son of the town's ski resort owner.
Skating is one challenge for Kat—but her home life is another. Kat's mom, Carol (a fantastic January Jones), is still resentful that she had to give up her own figure skating career after she got pregnant with Kat. Kat's younger sister, Serena (Willow Shields), is so distracted by Carol and Kat's constant fighting that she can't focus on her own budding career.
Further, Carol and Kat both struggle with bipolar disorder. The show's nuanced take on mental illness is part of what drew Scodelario toward the role of Kat. “Mental health has been a very important part of my personal life for a long time. I have a close family member who I’ve cared for a long time and seen in manic states. I wanted to be a part of something that shone a light on mental health in a realistic way, especially for young people,” Scodelario told The Hollywood Reporter.
For the TV-obsessed among us, Spinning Out may be even more compelling than the Olympics. Instead of commercial breaks, the figure skating routines are buffeted by compelling drama: Sibling rivalry, love triangles, and strained mother-daughter relationships are among the many strands that play out within the small town. While the figure skating is certainly entertaining, it's the show's human element that will have you racing through the episodes
Kat–and all of her contradictions—are the undeniable centerpiece of the show. You'll spend all 10 episodes trying to figure Kat out. Given her masterful performance, you'll likely want to know everything about Scodelario, too.
Here's everything you need to know about Kaya Scodelario, Spinning Out's magnetic 27-year-old star.
She rose to fame on Skins, a daring teen TV show.
With her mischievous smile, black-rimmed eyes, and uncomfortably long silences, Effy Stonem (Scodelario) of Skins was one of TV’s most mystifying teenage rebels—and Skins, one of TV’s most rebellious shows.
Running from 2007 to 2013 on the U.K.’s Channel 4, Skins was lauded for its provocative yet realistic depiction of adolescence. The show launched the careers of a new generation of A-listers, including Nicholas Hoult, Dev Patel, Hannah Murray, Daniel Kaluuya, and Scodelario.
In the first season of Skins, Effy hovered in the background as the perpetually silent younger sister of the main character, Tony Stonem (Hoult). Come season 3, Effy rose to a main character herself. She was part of the show’s entire run.
Scodelario then went on to headline major movie franchises.
After Skins ended in 2013, Scodelario made transition into full-blown movie star. Her first major role was Teresa in the Maze Runner movies, which were adapted from a popular YA dystopia series. Scodelario continued Teresa’s high-octane story in Maze Runner: The Death Cure (2018).
In 2017, Scodelario helped reboot the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise withPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the fifth movie in the series. Her character, Carina Smyth, is an astronomer who can easily stand up to Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp).
Scodelario first watched Pirates of the Caribbean as a teenager and was inspired by Elizabeth Swann's (Keira Knightley's character) progression from "princess" to "boss," as she says in a Den of Geek interview. "To get to be a part of that legacy is really cool," she continued.
She had a very busy 2019—and shows no signs of slowing down.
Scodelario’s career is gaining traction. In the past year, she has played Ted Bundy’s wife (Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile), a woman fending off alligators during a Category 5 hurricane (Crawl), and an ambitious figure skater (Spinning Out).
In 2020, she’s also set to appear in BBC One’s The Pale Horse, a two-part Agatha Christie adaptation.
She got a major role without any acting experience.
Scodelario always wanted to be on camera but never thought it would happen. Growing up in England with an immigrant single mother, Scodelario believed she was shut out from stardom. “I didn’t think that people like me could do things like that. I knew I’d never be able to afford to go to drama school or have any coaching,” she told the Hollywood Reporter.
When Scodelario was 14, her drama teacher encouraged her to try out for Skins’s open auditions—but there was a problem. The auditions' minimum age requirement was 16. Scodelario claimed she was 16-and-a-half to get her foot in the door, then admitted she lied. "Luckily, they gave me the opportunity," she told The Hollywood Reporter.
She’s married to Benjamin Walker, a fellow actor.
When she was 22, Scodelario became engaged to Benjamin Walker, an actor 10 years her senior. Walker gained notoriety for playing two fantasy versions of U.S. presidents: a singing Andrew Jackson in the Broadway musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, and a violent Abraham Lincoln in the 2012 movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
On Instagram, Scodelario posted a photo of her engagement ring—and another, more permanent, accessory. Scodelario got her husband’s name tattooed on her ring finger.
The couple had two weddings: One in New York’s City Town Hall in March 2015, and another, a more formal affair, in Scodelario’s native England in December 2015.
They met while filming a (still unreleased) fantasy film.
This love story begins in 2014, on the set of the film The King's Daughter. Playing lovers in the film, Scodelario and Walker are intertwined on the movie poster. In fact, their first kiss was actually caught on camera.
Years later, in 2016, Scodelario joked about their meet-cute in an Instagram post. “Don't sleep with your co-workers. Unless there's a chance they might turn out to be your soul mate. Then husband. Then baby daddy. If that's the case then go for,” she wrote, next to the photo.
The movie's premise reads like a magical realist version of French history: Scodelario discovers that her father, King Louis (Pierce Brosnan), has stolen a mermaid (played by recently disappeared Chinese film star Fan Bingbing) to become immortal.
Unfortunately, there's a chance we may never get to see the movie. Filming wrapped in 2014, and the movie was set to come out in 2015. Three weeks before its release, Paramount cancelled the release date. Negotiations are still ongoing for a distributor.
Scodelario, for one, is happy the movie's not out. “It’s just ours and no one gets to critique it. I love that,” she told The Hollywood Reporter. The producers sent her and Walker behind-the-scenes footage from the movie. "It’s actually us falling in love without realizing it."
In 2016, they had their first child together.
Scodelario, then 24, and Walker, then 34, had their son in December 2016. His name is not public.
When she returned to filmmaking, Scodelario used her platform to normalize breastfeeding. "One day I...put the breast pump on and was like [to her Maze Runner co-stars Dylan O’Brien and Thomas Brodie-Sangster], 'Boys, you’re going to have to deal with this,' Scodelario told Marie Claire. She often shares posts to her 1.4 million followers related to motherhood and breastfeeding.
Actor Daniel Kaluuya is her son’s godfather.
To us, Daniel Kaluuya is the intense lead of the movies Get Out and Queen and Slim. To Scodelario, he’s an old friend. They met as part of Skins’s sprawling ensemble cast.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Scodelario opened up about their bond. “Daniel grew up two doors away from me; his mother is also a single mother and an immigrant to England, so we have that in common. We’ve always been really protective of each other,” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
She speaks Portuguese fluently.
Scodelario's mother, who is of Brazilian, Italian, and Portuguese descent, taught her daughter her native Portuguese. Now, Scodelario often gives interviews in Portuguese.
She knows what she wants to do next.
For now, Scodelario is in New York with her husband, who is performing on Broadway. But she has an idea of where her career will go. "I want to work with a female director and female producers. I want to find a project where I can tell the story and be part of the conception of that project," Scodelario told The Hollywood Reporter.
Netflix's Spinning Out, which showcases women's stories, is certainly a step in that direction.
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