Ella Purnell is a survivor. Or, at least, she’s kicking butt and taking names in many of the roles she’s known for: She’s battled zombies in Army of the Dead and voiced an iconic League of Legends fighter in Arcane — both of which you can learn more about below. And starting this week, she’ll continue braving a retrofuturistic nuclear apocalypse as Lucy MacLean in Fallout Season 2.
But before she was forging alliances with a gun-slinging ghoul played by Walton Goggins, Purnell got her start as a child actor in a 2009 West End production of Oliver! Over the next decade, she was cast in increasingly starring roles in movies like Never Let Me Go, Maleficent, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, Churchill, and UFO. On the small screen, she starred in the two-season drama Sweetbitter before gaining more mainstream success for her part in Yellowjackets (more below) and leading and executive producing Sweetpea. The English actor has also done voice work outside Arcane, including in Star Trek: Prodigy and Invincible. Keep reading for more details on the series and movies Purnell stars in on Netflix.
Director Zack Snyder (the Rebel Moon series) delivers a genre mash-up with this post-apocalyptic zombie heist flick he co-wrote with Shay Hatten (Day Shift) and Joby Harold (Transformers: Rise of the Beasts). Purnell co-stars with a veritable army of an ensemble cast — including Dave Bautista (Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery), Omari Hardwick (The Mother), Ana de la Reguera (Nothing to See Here), and Theo Rossi (True Story) — in this movie about a ragtag group of mercenaries who conduct a casino heist in Las Vegas. The catch? The city has been on military lockdown for six years after a zombie outbreak. Purnell plays Kate Ward, whose father, Scott (Bautista), is tasked with leading the crew.
This animated action series created by Christian Linke and Alex Yee takes place in the League of Legends universe and follows two sisters, Hailee Steinfeld’s Violet and Purnell’s Powder (aka Jinx), as they become embroiled in a brewing conflict between two cities: corrupt Zaun, and the seemingly utopian Piltover. Tragic circumstances separate them, but they’re reunited years later — on opposite sides of the war. Can these iconic fighters recapture the familial love they once shared, or will their scars prove too deep? Katie Leung (Annika), Reed Shannon (Canal Street), Kevin Alejandro (Lucifer), Harry Lloyd (The Lost King), Mick Wingert (Mass Effect 2), and more co-star.
When their plane crash-lands in the Canadian wilderness, the members of a high school soccer team are forced to partake in increasingly drastic survival tactics. Years later, the rescued survivors struggle to cope with what they did — and fear that the world will discover their dark secrets. This thriller drama series, created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson (Narcos), plays out across two timelines that follow the teen and adult versions of the characters as they grapple with their choices, memories, and with each other. Purnell plays Jackie Taylor, the team’s captain. Melanie Lynskey (Castle Rock), Sophie Nélisse (Close), Tawny Cypress (Unforgettable), Jasmin Savoy Brown (Scream), Juliette Lewis (Cape Fear), Sophie Thatcher (Heretic), Christina Ricci (Wednesday), and Samantha Hanratty (Mom’s Night Out) also star.
