Remember Lucy Pevensie stepping into a wardrobe and discovering the Narnia world for the first time? That character of a shy little girl who won millions of hearts was played by none other than today’s celebrity to cover, “Georgie Henley.”
In The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), she became the emotional heart of a huge fantasy series that earned hundreds of millions at the box office and introduced a whole generation to C.S. Lewis’s world.
But Georgie Henley’s story did not end when the Narnia movies ended. Behind all that childhood fame is someone thoughtful and stubbornly determined. She slowly made her own path in film, TV, theatre, and even writing. Along the way, she has faced a terrifying illness, grown through it, and become braver about showing the world who she really is.
Growing up in West Yorkshire and finding Narnia
Georgina Helen Henley was born in 1995 in Ilkley, West Yorkshire, England. When she was just nine years old she tried her luck, like thousands of other hopeful kids, at her local area open auditions for a new fantasy film. Unlike most of them, she got the lead child role.
In 2005, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe made her famous overnight. As Lucy, Georgie Henley played a curious, kind girl whose belief in magic never ends. She brought warmth and honesty to the role, which she repeated in Prince Caspian (2008) and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010).
You may think all while working in films, she must have skipped school. Right? Well, when all this was happening, she was still going to school in Yorkshire and taking part in local youth theatre productions, including Babes in the Wood.
Balancing School, Fame, And The Next Steps
Unlike some child stars, she kept her education front and centre. Georgie studied at Bradford Grammar School, finishing sixth form there in 2012, before heading to the University of Cambridge in 2013 to read English.
Many articles that cover “where are they now?” pieces focus on her net worth or how she looks compared to her Narnia days. Well, the more interesting story is how seriously she took her craft.
During her school, she played the rock-musical role of Scaramouche in We Will Rock You, and at university she continued to act and direct in student theatre.
Those years also helped Georgie Henley step away from being seen only as Lucy. She started to seek out darker, more complex characters and projects that would stretch her.
Beyond Narnia: Darker Films and TV Royalty
After Narnia, Georgie Henley moved into indie and crime drama. She did characters like young Jane in the 2006 BBC adaptation of Jane Eyre, then as Beth in Perfect Sisters (2014), which told the chilling true story of two Canadian teens who killed their mother.
She also starred in The Sisterhood of Night, a mystery about teenage girls, gossip, and moral panic, and Access All Areas, a film set at a music festival.
On TV, she took on the role of Margaret Tudor in the Starz historical drama The Spanish Princess (2019), playing the sister of Henry VIII and bringing a fiery mix of vulnerability and royal steel to the part.
These choices show how Georgie Henley has tried to avoid being boxed in. Rather than chasing only big fantasy franchises, she has gravitated toward stories about young women under pressure, navigating loyalty, trauma, and power.
A Love of Theatre and New Writing
The stage has become an important home for Georgie Henley. She starred in The Girl Who Fell, a play at London’s Trafalgar Studios about grief, social media, and how we talk about suicide.
More recently, she has appeared in The Ministry of Lesbian Affairs at the Kiln Theatre, a show about queer community, choir rehearsals, and the messy, joyful politics of belonging.
While interviewing about this work, she has spoken about the thrill of sharing queer stories and the responsibility of doing justice to characters whose experiences echo her own and those of people she loves.
Theatre gives Georgie Henley a chance to be close to her audience again, something fans of Narnia may feel when they see her live on stage.
Georgie Henley: The Writer and Director
Yes, you read it right, acting is not her only creative outlet. In 2015, Georgie Henley wrote and directed a short film called TIDE, which follows a young lesbian couple over one night.
It is a small, intimate story, but it hints at her interest in queer love, identity, and the tension between safety and risk.
In 2022, she added “published poet” to her CV with Amphibian, a pamphlet of poems that explore themes of transformation, bodies, and memory. It is a long way from the snowy forests of Narnia, but it fits with the way Georgie Henley has grown: less blockbuster spectacle, more interior life.
Surviving A Flesh-Eating Infection—And Choosing Visibility
One of the most powerful chapters yet the hardest one in her story is surviving her illness. As a teenager, Georgie Henley developed necrotizing fasciitis, a rare and very serious bacterial infection sometimes called a “flesh-eating disease.” She nearly lost her arm and spent months in the hospital, undergoing multiple surgeries and skin grafts.
For almost a decade, she kept this trauma private, hiding the scars on her arm in public and on camera. In 2022, she revealed the full story in a long Instagram post, explaining why she had finally decided to stop concealing the injury and embrace it instead. News outlets around the world talked about her honesty and resilience.
Her openness around disability, body image, and survival has added a new layer to how people see Georgie Henley—not only as a former child star, but as a woman who has come close to death and chosen to live more truthfully.
Life Online And Speaking Up
Presently, Georgie Henley uses social media carefully yet meaningfully. Hundreds of thousands of followers are following her on Instagram. She mixes selfies and behind-the-scenes shots with posts about books, theatre, queer joy, and political causes she supports.
She is also clear that she does not have to share her whole life on the internet. Meanwhile, some “competitor” articles focus on cashing on click-friendly facts like her height, net worth, or dating history. Her own posts show someone trying to set healthier boundaries.
Why does Georgie Henley’s story still matter?
She is still the girl who found a magical world at the back of a wardrobe, but she is also a survivor of a terrifying illness, a queer storyteller, a poet, and a theatre actor who takes risks on new writing. She has moved from fantasy princess to someone interested in messy modern realities such as mental health, online life, sexuality, and the stories we carry in our bodies.
For anyone who grew up with Narnia, following Georgie Henley’s journey is a reminder that child stars do not have to crash and burn. They can go to university, change direction, try smaller roles, write their own work, and come back to the spotlight on their own terms. And that, in its own quiet way, is a kind of magic too.
