Kaya Rose Scodelario-Davis is a British actress. She first came to prominence co-starring on the E4 teen drama Skins, receiving two Golden Nymph nominations for her portrayal of Effy Stonem.
Background[]
Scodelario was born Kaya Rose Humphrey on 13 March 1992, in Haywards Heath, West Sussex. Her mother, Katia Scodelario, is a Brazilian national who had worked as an accountant in Itu, São Paulo, and had moved to England in 1990; Scodelario's surname comes from her mother's Italian grandfather. Her father, Roger Humphrey, was English and died in November 2010.
Her parents divorced when Scodelario was one year old, and her mother took her to London when she was four. They spent their first night on the street before finding a council flat on Holloway Road. Scodelario adopted her mother's surname and spoke Portuguese at home. She attended Bishop Douglass Catholic School and then Islington Arts and Media School. She participated in school plays and found drama an escape from bullying. Her mother took on multiple jobs to make ends meet and had clinical depression that worsened during Scodelario's teen years. Scodelario said she wanted to help, but did not know how at the time and moved out to a flat in Camden.
Career[]
In 2006, at the age of 14 and with no acting experience, Scodelario was cast in the first series of Skins as Effy Stonem. At the auditions, Scodelario became discouraged as she felt she was too young, but a producer told her to stay and she was asked to read for the part. While Scodelario's role in the first series had minimal speaking lines, her character developed considerably during the second series. She eventually became the central character in the third and fourth series after the cast had been replaced with a new generation of characters. This made Effy one of the only characters to appear from series 1 all the way through to series 4. Filming began in July and Scodelario said that 18 November 2009 was her last day of filming the series and that she would miss being on the show.