Talulah Riley

Biography

Talulah Riley is an English actress, writer, and director. She is known for playing Mary Bennet in Pride & Prejudice(2005), Angela in Westworld(2016-2018), Blonde in Inception(2010), and Marianne in The Boat That Rocked (2009) among others.

Her recent projects include- Father Christmas Is Back(2021) where she played Vicky Christmas, and "Pistol" where she played Vivienne Westwood.

She has also been the focus of the paparazzi for her connection to multi-Billionaire Elon Musk. She has married and divorced Elon Musk twice.

Chidhood- Family

Talulah Jane Riley-Milburn was born on 26th September 1985 in Hertford, Hertfordshire, England to Una Riley (mother) and Doug Milburn(father). Talulah is the only child of her parents. She grew up in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire.

Her mother Una Riley has founded a security systems company and a public relations company.

Her father Doug Milburn used to be the head of the National Crime Squad (NCA), a British police organization dealing with national and international major crimes. Since 2004, Doug has been involved in writing stories for the crime mystery TV Series. He has written stories in- two episodes (The Hardest Word: Part 1 & part 2) of the "Waking the Dead" [3], four episodes ("Cargo: Part 1 & 2, Choices: Part 1 & 2") of "Silent Witness", three episodes("End of the Affair", "Back from the Dead", "Going Under") of "The Bill" among others.

Doug and Talulah co-wrote the story for her comedy movie Scottish Mussel(2015), Talulah directed and acted in it as well. Doug shared the "Writers' Guild of Great Britain Award"(2008) with the writing staff of the crime series "The Bill" for his writing contribution.

Education

• Haberdashers' Aske's School for Girls: She has studied at 'Habs', a girls-only school located at Aldenham Road Elstree, Hertfordshire. 
• Berkhamsted School: She has studied at Berkhamsted School, a public school located in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire
• Cheltenham Ladies' College: She attended Cheltenham Ladies' College, an independent school in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
• Open University: Talulah took a graduation course in Natural sciences at the Open University, while acting in London.

On her education, she has said "I was a real daydreamer at school, gazing out of the window and losing myself in imaginary worlds." [4]

Thomas Brodie-Sangster

Career

Talulah's early acting roles involve playing Young Angela in an episode of Poirot(2003), playing Megan Hunter in Marple(2006)

Pride and Prejudice (2005)

[Talulah Riley in Pride and Prejudice]

Talulah's acting career in films started with a bang with the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice. Talulah played Mary Bennet, one of the Bennet daughters.

In 2008, she played the role of Lady Elenor Rigsby in Phoo Action. But, the episode was canceled before broadcast. Talulah has worked with Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2010 film Inception.

She featured on the March 2010 cover of Esquire (an American Men's magazine).

[Talulah Riley- Esquire Photoshoot]

Scottish Mussel (2015)

[The cast of Scottish Mussel (2015)]

Talulah's father Doug suggested a story whose original theme was about a city gangster, Talulah and Doug developed a story together from 2009 to 2015, and it eventually became a romantic comedy.

 They tried to hire a director to direct the movie based on the story. She eventually ended up directing the movie herself. It took her four years to make the film. She produced it herself. The film premiered in Edinburgh.

The story revolves around the character Beth (played by Talulah herself), a conservationist who is protecting the freshwater pearl mussel from poachers who kill it for the pearl inside them.

The movie has a decent rating of 5.4/10 on IMDB. Martin Compston played Ritchie, Talulah Riley herself appeared as Beth, Morgan Watkins as Ethan, Joe Thomas as Danny, and Paul Brannigan as Fraser.

Pistol

The British biographical drama Pistol is based on the lives of the band members of Sex Pistols (focusing mainly on Steve Jones). ThomasBrodie-Sangste and Talulah played the real-life couple Malcolm McLaren and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood, respectively in the series.

Writing

Acts of Love

[Acts of Love- Talulah Riley]

Her first novel Acts of love came out in September 2016. Speaking of the book, she has said " It's about a woman called Bernadette who is a journalist and has made her career out of profiling successful men and then divulging their secrets and she lures them into a false sense of security. But at some point, she meets Bradley Blake who she is sent to interview and he challenges all of the assumptions that she's had about the male gender."

It was published by Hodder & Stoughton.

The Quickening

[The Quickening- Talulah Riley]

In November 2019, Talulah published her second book through Hodder & Stoughton - Hachette Book Group.

The story is set in the near future in Britain, during times of deep political unrest. The core of the book is about gender, power, and betrayal. 

Filmography

Movies

TV 

Stage

Facts and Trivia

• She loves boats.
• She Liked Story Books as a child. [3]
• She rode horses as a kid, she loved her ponies. She liked that it made her fearless [4].
• For a certain period of time it was illegal in England to broadcast a kind of music which Riley was working on.
• She is quite aware of the impact of the beef industry and its impact on the environment. She makes it her prerogative to spread awareness on the same.
• Voiced against US move to withdraw from Paris climate summit. She is very ecofriendly.
• She is against the centralization of wealth as a result of capitalism.
• She was on a jury at the Edinburgh Film Festival.
• She feels that the lower beings in the ecosystem get ignored because they can’t be petted but are instead very vital to the ecosystem.
• Talulah supports equal rights for women, but can’t tolerate the way Emma Watson’s HeForShe appears to seek to destroy differences between the sexes.
• She Likes Yoga [4]
• She is close friends with Tamsin Egerton. They had lived as roommates before.
• She was featured on the March 2010 cover of Esquire.
• In 2011, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts named Riley a "Brit to Watch".

Awards

Quotes

• Like communism, neoliberalism is the God that failed.
• Two-thirds of the world's seeds & pesticides are in the hands of three firms!? Insane.
• She liked the quote - As I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death, I remind myself that you can't always trust Google Maps.
• [Riley’s novel writing tips]
  • Protect your writing time fiercely
  • Find your inspiration
  • Don’t be afraid of writing
  • Get feedback on your writing
  • Just finish whatever you're doing  

• I'm very green in all aspects of my life but I particularly wanted to the thing that was so appealing to me about this(Scottish Mussel, her movie) story is that the plight of the freshwater mussels is true.
• [On her loss of interest in Philosophy] Initially, I studied philosophy, because it claimed to give you answers to the meaning of existence, but it didn't: It was basically a semantics game. [7]
• [On her fascination with sci-fi] I got into physics through pop science and quantum science and ended up being such a quantum groupie. [7]
• [On Men] Men are visual creatures. [7]
• There's a real power in heels and a good dress. [7]
• [On Acting] Acting is an odd lifestyle. You make deep bonds quickly and, though you move on, you go around on a loop and see people again.
• [On her acting] I'm not some sort of tormented soul looking for an identity in the roles I take. I became an actress because I just love dressing up and playing. [7]
• The things I wanted to do from a very early age - ie. get married and have children [7]
• Along with issues like global warming, I think a problem with the world today is population decline. [7]
• I'm terrified I'm about to die, or that all the people I love are about to die, every second of every day. [7]

Sources

1. Talulah Riley on Wikipedia
2. Talulah Riley  on IMDB
3. Doug Milburn on IMDB
4. IMDB Bio
5. Talulah and Thomas engagement announcement
6. Talulah and Thomas engagement announcement
7. Imdb Bio of Talulah Riley
8.