Elizabeth Lail

Elizabeth Lail graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in May 2014. A few months later, she moved to New York with just the basics and the uncertainty of someone looking for their first foothold in the industry. Things moved quickly. At her first serious audition, she landed the role of Anna in season four of Once Upon a Time.

ABC's drama was looking for a new face to play Elsa's sister. Lail fit the part physically, but above all brought a natural energy that won over the casting directors immediately. It was a ten-episode contract that gave her the visibility she needed to move on to other genre projects. In 2016, she starred in Dead of Summer as Amy Hughes.

The series did not get past its first season.

That cancellation sent her back to the Manhattan audition circuit. But American television has its own rhythms, and it wasn't long before a project came along that would radically change her career. In 2017, she filmed the pilot of a series based on a suspense novel that explored harassment in the age of social media.

The rise of digital obsession

In 2018, her life changed when she entered the world of Caroline Kepnes. She played Guinevere Beck in the first season of You. The series started quietly on Lifetime but exploded worldwide when it landed on a streaming platform months later. Lail had to manage the strange fame of playing a victim in a story where part of the audience sympathized with the attacker.

But the script required a closed ending for her character.

Lail did not return as a lead in the show's later installments. She appeared only in brief cameos in 2019 and 2023 to close the main character's emotional arc. That same year she left the central storyline, she shot Countdown, a supernatural horror film that grossed $48 million on a budget of just $6.5 million.

Because horror films have always been a safe haven for actors looking for box-office success and massive exposure. In that movie, she played a nurse harassed by a mobile app that predicted the exact moment its users would die.

Transitions and genre films

Starting in 2021, she sought out projects that would move her away from the damsel-in-distress image. She joined the cast of the new version of Gossip Girl, playing Lola Morgan, and starred in the ensemble drama Ordinary Joe between 2021 and 2022. This NBC production explored three different timelines depending on the decisions of the main character.

It was a risky bet.

In 2023, she returned to big-budget commercial film with Five Nights at Freddy’s. She played Vanessa, a police officer with a dark family past who serves as a guide in the adaptation of the famous video game. The movie surpassed $290 million at the box office and secured a sequel slated for 2025.

That same 2023, she worked under the direction of Patricia Arquette on Gonzo Girl, an adaptation of the novel by Cheryl Della Pietra. In 2024, she appeared in the series Elsbeth, playing Quinn Powers in the episode "Reality Check." Production on the animatronics sequel was scheduled to begin filming in New Orleans in the fall of 2024, with a technical budget similar to that of the first installment.