Taylor Russell

Taylor Russell McKenzie (born July 18, 1994) is a Canadian actress. She has starred in the Netflix science fiction series Lost in Space (2018–2021). In film, she has starred in the critically acclaimed drama Waves (2019), for which she was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female, and the horror film Escape Room (2019) and its 2021 sequel. For starring as a cannibalistic teenager in the road film Bones and All (2022), Russell won the Marcello Mastroianni Award. On stage, Russell has starred in the play The Effect by Lucy Prebble in 2023. Early life Taylor Russell McKenzie was born on July 18, 1994, in the small community of Deep Cove, North Vancouver, located in Vancouver, British Columbia. Russell was raised in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. She has an older brother and a younger brother. Russell, who was born to a white mother and a black father of Jamaican descent, grew up mostly with her mother's side of the family. She recalled that growing up she felt unaccepted by her peers due to the color of her skin. Her parents faced financial struggles, leading the family to rely on welfare, and they were frequently compelled to relocate, uprooting their lives a total of sixteen times to accommodate her father's professional pursuits. Russell also began working at the age of 13. Despite this adversity, Russell mentioned how in her younger years "there was always an opportunity for reinvention, to create something new.” As a child, Russell was artistically inclined. She strived to pursue a career in ballet, and later as a painter. At eighteen, Russell took her first acting class, which led her to become interested in pursuing acting. She used her work savings to buy a car, and would drive to Los Angeles to audition. When money ran out, she would return home to work until she had enough earnings to audition again. Some of the jobs that Russell worked were at restaurants, a jewelry store, and a butcher's shop. This routine went on for four years until she landed her first major TV role. Career Russell made her professional acting debut in 2012, with a small guest role in an episode of The CW medical drama series Emily Owens, M.D.. In 2014, she starred as Lark Voorhies in the Lifetime television film The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story, and Jennifer in the Disney XD television film Pants on Fire.