Biography
Who is Rebecca Ferguson?
Early life and education
Rebecca Louisa Ferguson Sundström was born on October 19, 1983, in Stockholm, and grew up in the Vasastan district. Her mother, Rosemary Ferguson, is English, while her father, Olov Sundström, is a Swedish businessman. Her maternal grandmother is Northern Irish and her grandfather is Scottish. Her parents never married and separated when she was three years old, leading her to take her mother's surname for her stage name.
She attended an English-medium school in Sweden and grew up speaking both Swedish and English. She studied at the Adolf Fredrik's Music School in Stockholm, graduating in 1999. In her youth, a modeling agency briefly signed her, placing her in a portfolio for normal people because she did not fit standard height and slimness requirements. This portfolio helped casting agents find her for television work.
Career beginnings
Rebecca Ferguson began her television career at age 15 in the Swedish soap opera Nya tider, playing Anna Gripenhielm from 1999 to 2000. She later appeared as Chrissy Eriksson in the soap Ocean Ave. In 2002. In 2004, she made her feature film debut in the horror film Drowning Ghost. Before achieving widespread fame, she worked various casual jobs, including at a nursery, as a nanny, in retail, at a Korean restaurant, and as a hotel cleaner.
She continued dancing from an early age and taught Argentine tango at a dance company in Lund for several years while working on short art film projects. Director Richard Hobert spotted her at a town market in 2011, casting her in A One-way Trip to Antibes, which earned her a Rising Star award nomination at the Stockholm International Film Festival.
Major film roles
Rebecca gained international prominence starring as Elizabeth Woodville in the British historical drama series The White Queen in 2013, earning a Golden Globe Award nomination. In 2015, she achieved global recognition portraying MI6 agent Ilsa Faust in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation opposite Tom Cruise. She reprised this role in Mission: Impossible - Fallout in 2018 and Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning in 2023.
Her extensive film credits include The Girl on the Train in 2016, The Greatest Showman in 2017, and Doctor Sleep in 2019. She also portrayed Lady Jessica in the science fiction films Dune in 2021 and Dune: Part Two in 2024, winning a Saturn Award. In 2023, she began starring in and executive producing the Apple TV+ science fiction series Silo.
Family and relationships
In 2007, Rebecca gave birth to her first child, a son, with her then-partner Ludwig Hallberg. Following her television success, they moved to Simrishamn on the Swedish coast, where they taught tango together before separating in April 2015. She maintains a close relationship with her son, who lives with his father in a Swedish fishing village.
In 2016, she began a relationship with businessman Rory St. Clair Gainer. They welcomed a daughter in May 2018 and married in December of that year. The family maintains a home in Richmond, southwest London, due to its proximity to local film studios, while Rebecca splits her time between London and Sweden.
Birthday and age
Rebecca Ferguson was born on October 19, 1983, which makes Rebecca 43 years old today. That birthday falls under the Libra sign. Rebecca shares the date with 19 other famous people.
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