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Francesca Hayward

Acting · Born July 4, 1992 · Nairobi, Kenya

Francesca Hayward is a Kenyan-born English ballet dancer and actress, the daughter of an English father and a Kenyan mother. She is a principal dancer in the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden in London. At the age of two, she moved to the Goring-by-Sea suburb of Worthing in West Sussex to live with her grandparents. She started ballet at age 3, after her grandparents bought her a video of The Nutcracker. When she was young, she danced at Le Serve School of Ballet and Theatre Dance in Worthing until her teacher encouraged her to audition to White Lodge, the junior section of the Royal Ballet School. After being a Junior Associate from the age of nine, she entered the School at the age of 11 in 2003, and progressed to the Royal Ballet Upper School in 2008. According to Hayward, due to an injury, she did not officially graduate, but received a certificate of attendance.

Movies with Francesca Hayward

• Cats (2019) — Victoria
• Audrey (2020) — Audrey Hepburn
• Like Water for Chocolate (2023) — Tita
• Concerto / Enigma Variations / Raymonda Act III (Royal Ballet) (2019) — Dora Penny (Dorabella)
• Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake (2018) — Prince Siegfried's younger sister
• Royal Ballet & Opera 2024/25: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2024) — Alice
• The Cellist / Dances at a Gathering (The Royal Ballet) (2020) — Dancer
• Romeo and Juliet: Beyond Words (2019) — Juliet
• The Royal Ballet: Within the Golden Hour / Medusa / Flight Pattern (2019) — Principal Dancer (Golden Hour)
• Woolf Works (2017) — I Now, I Then / Becomings
• La Fille Mal Gardée (The Royal Ballet) (2015) — Hen
• The Royal Ballet: Mayerling (2022) — Princess Stephanie