Saoirse Ronan

Saoirse Ronan made her small-screen debut in the Irish medical drama The Clinic, but her breakthrough role came at 12 years old, when she played precocious teenager Briony Tallis in the movie adaptation of Ian McEwan’s Atonement. The performance earned Saoirse international acclaim, and even an Oscar nomination (she attended the 2008 ceremony with her mother). Her chosen roles since have been intelligent and unexpected, among them a ghost, a greengrocer and two different teenage assassins. When it comes to the pronunciation of her striking forename, Saoirse suggests rhyming it with “inertia”.