Cressida Bonas Biography

Cressida Curzon Bonas (born 18 February 1989) is an English actress, dancer and model. She is the youngest daughter of Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon and entrepreneur Jeffrey Bonas and a granddaughter of Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe.

Background

Family

Bonas is the youngest daughter of 1960s 'It' girl, Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon, and entrepreneur Jeffrey Bonas, and granddaughter of Edward Curzon, 6th Earl Howe. She has seven siblings: George, Charles, Henry, Pandora Cooper-Key and Georgina, Jacobi, and Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe. The Bonas family owned textile mills in Castle Gresley and Burton-on-Trent under the company name, "Bonas Brothers"; it closed operations in the 1980s, having produced, as its final line, elastic for women's tights.

Education

Before graduating from Stowe School, Bonas had a sports scholarship at Prior Park College in the city of Bath, in Somerset. She then went on to study Dance at Leeds University graduating with a 2:1. Bonas continued her training at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire in Greenwich.

Bonas has played cockney housekeeper Mrs. Swabb in Alan Bennett's Habeas Corpus, Miss Julie in the eponymous play, and Laura in Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie at school.

Career

Bonas made her first screen appearance in 2009 with a small role in the TV series Trinity. Her theatrical debut came in 2014 at Hay Festival in the play There's a Monster in the Lake. The play was also staged at the Vault Festival in January 2015. In May and June 2015 Bonas appeared as Laura in the one-woman play, An Evening With Lucian Freud, by Laura-Jane Foley, at the Leicester Square Theatre. Jane Shilling in The Daily Telegraph praised the "charm and energy of Bonas's performance". In June 2014 Bonas was rumoured to be going to appear in the film Tulip Fever (2015) as Mrs. Steen.

In January 2015, after modelling for British brand Burberry, Bonas was announced to front the 2015 campaign of fashion company Mulberry. Her work for the brand includes a two-minute-long advertisement released in March that co-stars actor Freddie Fox and is directed by Ivana Bobic.

Personal life

Bonas was introduced to Prince Harry by Princess Eugenie in May 2012. She accompanied Harry to an official royal engagement for the first time in March 2014. On 30 April 2014, it was announced that the couple had parted amicably.

In the media

Bonas was photographed by Mario Testino for Vanity Fair after being included in the magazine's annual "International Best-Dressed List" in 2014. Bonas has been called an "It girl".

Selected credits

Theatre

Year	Play	Role	Venue	Notes
2014	There's a Monster in the Lake	Wolf	Hay Festival
2015	There's a Monster in the Lake	Wolf	Vault Festival
2015	The Importance of Being Earnest
2015	An Evening with Lucian Freud	Laura	Leicester Square Theatre

Film and television

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2009	Trinity	Cheerleader
2015	Tulip Fever	Mrs. Steen
2016	Doctor Thorne	Patience Oriel
2016	The Bye Bye Man	Sasha	Scheduled release: 9 December 2016.