Dakota Blue Richards

Richards made her stage debut in English Touring Theatre’s 2015 revival of Tom Stoppard's Arcadia.

Between 2016 and 2018 she was cast in the part of WPC Shirley Trewlove in the Endeavour television series and in 2018, she was cast for the part of Margaret Osborne in the ITV drama Beecham House. which begain airing in 2019.

In April 2012, she performed a British indie feature The Fold in Bristol and Cornwall, playing Eloise, the daughter of an Anglican priest. The film is written by Poppy Cogan, winner of the Harpers/William Morris Short Script Award, and directed by John Jencks. It commercially opened in limited release in UK on 24 March 2014. The movie won best screenplay at the Women’s Independent Festival in LA, Best Picture at the Independent Film Makers Showcase and was nominated for best drama at the National Film Awards.

Richards also backs The Young Actors Group, an acting school in Brighton opened in 2014 that gives children and teenagers the training to work professionally in stage and screen.

In 2013, she appeared in French filmmaker Stéphanie Joalland’s sci-fi thriller The Quiet Hour, about a brother and sister trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic England. During the same year she filmed a short film entitled Girl Power.

Richards appeared in series 5 and 6 of the E4 teen drama Skins, which premiered on 27 January 2011. She played the character of Franky Fitzgerald with her androgynous looks, wacky dress sense, two gay dads (one played by John Sessions) and a tragic cyber-bullying backstory. Originally she auditioned for the role of Liv, and in an interview explained "only became Franky right at the very end of the audition process". As a member of the third generation of its young cast, Richards said "It's crazy to be part of this Skins phenomenon, it's as much a lifestyle choice as anything because of the attention that comes with it."

In December 2008, Richards played April Johnson in Dustbin Baby, the BBC dramatisation of the Jacqueline Wilson novel of the same name. She described April as a difficult character to play, "she is a really different person to me. On the one hand, she does go through normal things that I can relate to, such as fighting with your parents or getting presents you don't like; but on the other, she has had such a hard life."

In 2008, she attended the "Our Space" camp of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (in the Lake District), which gathered "teenagers from different backgrounds to discuss human rights and discrimination". Since 2010 she has supported Action for Children, a charity in the United Kingdom helping vulnerable young people overcome injustice and deprivation. In 2011, she fronted their advertising campaign to promote a new charity project.

After seeing the stage adaptation of His Dark Materials at the National Theatre, she says she "just wanted to be Lyra". Philip Pullman, author of the books, said, "As soon as I saw Dakota's screen test, I realised that the search was over." Chris Weitz, the director, added that Richards "made what should have been an extremely difficult decision quite easy." The Golden Compass with Richards as Lyra was released worldwide in December 2007 and grossed $372 million.

Before The Golden Compass was released, Richards had already been cast as the lead in another film, The Secret of Moonacre, her second book-to-film adaption, in which she would play Maria Merryweather from the book 'The Little White Horse'. Principal photography began in October 2007 and the film was eventually released February 2009.

Dakota Blue Richards (born 11 April 1994) is an English actress. Her film debut at the age of 13 was in The Golden Compass, as the lead character Lyra Belacqua. Other lead roles include the wayward teenager April in Dustbin Baby and Maria in the 2009 film The Secret of Moonacre. In 2011 she played Franky Fitzgerald in the third generation cast of British teen drama Skins. She has also played roles in television, film and on stage.