Erin Kellyman

London's Underground and the Jump to Hyperspace

Erin Kellyman had no idea her life was about to change at a routine audition. She was eighteen and had barely any experience when Disney chose her to lead the Cloud-Riders. In 2018, she played Enfys Nest in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and her anonymity vanished overnight.

But the process was tough.

She spent months training in martial arts for a role that hid her face behind a mask for nearly the entire runtime. Critics praised her physical presence and the icy stare that contrasted with her youth. Her initial contract included confidentiality clauses that kept her from telling her own family what she was working on for nearly a year.

The Nottingham Workshop and Public Television

Before reaching the galaxy far, far away, she trained at the Nottingham Television Workshop. It's a legendary talent pool in the UK that has produced names like Vicky McClure and Jack O'Connell. In 2018, she landed the role of Éponine in the BBC miniseries Les Misérables.

And there she proved she didn't need special effects.

It was a raw version of Victor Hugo's work. Kellyman brought a street-level vulnerability that moved away from the classic romanticism of the Broadway musical. Her training had always been rooted in the purest British realism, which allowed her to give humanity to a character who often falls into the cliché of self-sacrifice.

The Weight of Big Franchises

In 2021 she played Karli Morgenthau in Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Her character led the Flag Smashers and raised a complex moral dilemma about borders and social justice. Filming in the middle of the pandemic in Prague greatly complicated the logistics of the action scenes and the training with stunt performers.

Kellyman prefers to do her own stunts whenever insurance allows it.

That physical intensity led her to Willow in 2022. In the Disney+ series, she played Jade and explored a romantic relationship that was celebrated by the LGBTQIA+ community (she has always spoken openly about her own identity). But the series was canceled after just one season and disappeared from the platform's catalog due to a cost-cutting strategy by the company.

Toward Auteur Cinema and the Return of Horror

She sought out more intimate projects to balance her presence in big productions. In 2021 she worked under David Lowery's direction in The Green Knight. She played Saint Winifred in a dreamlike sequence that broke the film's rhythm with the atmosphere of a Gothic fairy tale.

Steve McQueen cast her in Blitz in 2024.

The shoot in London recreated the bombings of World War II with suffocating realism. Kellyman shares the screen with Saoirse Ronan in a production that cost more than $80 million. Her move into prestige cinema was confirmed through collaborations with Oscar-winning directors.

In 2025, she joined the cast of 28 Years Later under the direction of Danny Boyle. The script for Alex Garland demanded impeccable physical condition for the chase scenes in rural exteriors. The production used high-resolution digital cameras to preserve the grainy look of the original 2002 film.