Sophie Belinda Turner (born 21 February 1996) is an English actress. She made her acting debut as Sansa Stark in the television series Game of Thrones (2011–2019), for which she received an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in 2019.
Turner appeared in the 2013 British television film The Thirteenth Tale and made her feature film debut in Another Me in 2013. She also appeared in Barely Lethal (2015) and portrayed a young Jean Grey / Phoenix in the X-Men film series (2016–2019) and Lara Croft in the Amazon Prime Video series Tomb Raider.
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Early life and education
Sophie Belinda Turner was born in Northampton, England, on 21 February 1996, the daughter of Sally, a nursery school teacher, and Andrew, managing director of an international pallet distribution company. She has two older brothers. Her twin died in utero. She moved to Chesterton, Warwickshire, when she was two years old. She grew up in a large Edwardian house near Leamington Spa.
She started acting at three years old at the Playbox Theatre Company, and after leaving in 2013, became an ambassador for the company in 2014.
Turner attended Warwick Prep School until she was 11, and later attended the independent The King's High School for Girls. She had a tutor on the set of Game of Thrones until age 16.
Career
Turner was cast as Sansa Stark, a young noblewoman, in the HBO fantasy drama series Game of Thrones in August 2009. Filming began in July 2010, when Turner was 14 years old. Sansa was Turner's first television role. Turner's drama teacher encouraged her to audition for the part, and she dyed her blonde hair auburn for the role, although in season 7 she began wearing wigs. In 2012, she was nominated for the Young Artist Award for Best Performance in a TV Series – Supporting Young Actress for her performance as Sansa, alongside her on-screen sister, Maisie Williams. Turner appeared in all eight broadcast seasons.
While playing Sansa Stark, Turner was told to lose weight, and she said she suffered from mental health problems while spending her teenage years on screen. She also had an eating disorder.
In 2013, Turner had her first movie role as the lead character in the independent thriller film Another Me, based on the novel of the same name by Catherine MacPhail. She starred as Adeline March in the 2013 television film The Thirteenth Tale. In 2013, she was cast in the comedy film Barely Lethal, alongside Hailee Steinfeld, which was released on 29 May 2015 in a limited release and through video on demand.
Turner also narrated the audiobook version of the Lev Grossman short story "The Girl in the Mirror", which was included in the short fiction anthology Dangerous Women and was edited by George R. R. Martin. In 2014, she narrated the audiobook City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare. The same year, she was the face of Karen Millen's "The Journey" campaign. Turner played mutant Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse, which was released in May 2016 to mixed critical success. During the summer 2016, she hosted the web video Powershift in partnership with the Huffington Post.
In March 2017, she announced she had become a patron of Women for Women, an organisation that supports female war survivors. In August 2017, Turner said she believed her social media following was responsible for her successful casting in an unnamed project rather than her abilities as an actress, saying, "[I]t was between me and another girl who is a far better actress than I am, far better, but I had the followers, so I got the job." In June 2017, she began a collaboration with Wella Hair, becoming its first international brand ambassador.
Personal life
Turner began dating American singer Joe Jonas in 2016. They became engaged on 15 October 2017, while visiting Sophie's parents, and were married on 1 May 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The couple lived for a time in New York City and Miami Beach. They held a second wedding ceremony in Paris on 29 June 2019. The couple have two daughters.
Turner was the inspiration behind the song "Hesitate", written as a love letter to her by Jonas, for the Jonas Brothers reunion album, Happiness Begins.
In early September 2023, Jonas filed for divorce from Turner in Miami. This was then confirmed by both Turner and Jonas via Instagram to be a mutual decision. Later that month, she sued her estranged husband to allow their daughters, who were born in the United States, to return to the UK. The lawsuit was dismissed shortly afterwards. Jonas and Turner reached a temporary custody agreement in October 2023. The divorce was finalised in September 2024.
Turner has combined type attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). She has said that she had an identity crisis at age 13, and a "mini-breakdown" during her 20s.