Rosamund Mary Ellen Pike (born 1979) is an English actress and producer. Known for her portrayals of complex and morally ambiguous women in psychological thrillers, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as nominations for an Academy Award and two BAFTA Awards.
Pike studied at Wadham College, Oxford, and appeared in stage productions, including Romeo and Juliet at the National Youth Theatre, before beginning her acting career. She had her breakthrough film debut as Bond girl Miranda Frost in Die Another Day (2002), and had supporting roles in the period dramas Pride & Prejudice (2005), An Education (2009) and Made in Dagenham (2010).
Pike had mainstream film appearances in Johnny English Reborn (2011), Wrath of the Titans (2012), Jack Reacher (2012) and The World's End (2013). She received acclaim for her starring role as Amy Dunne in the psychological thriller Gone Girl (2014), which earned her nominations for the Golden Globe Award, British Academy Film Award, and Academy Award for Best Actress. Pike portrayed Ruth Williams Khama in the biopic A United Kingdom (2016) and Marie Colvin in the war film A Private War (2018), for which she received her second Golden Globe Award nomination. She won her first Golden Globe Award for her leading performance in the dark comedy film I Care a Lot (2020), while her supporting role in the black comedy Saltburn (2023) earned her additional nominations from the Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards.
On television, Pike won a Primetime Emmy Award for her role in the comedy miniseries State of the Union (2019). In 2021, she began starring as Moiraine Damodred in the Amazon Prime Video fantasy series The Wheel of Time, and in 2024, she was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series as an executive producer of the science fiction series 3 Body Problem.
In 2010, she appeared in the British film Made in Dagenham and in the Canadian film Barney's Version in which she plays Miriam. That same year, she starred in a production of Hedda Gabler on a UK tour. Pike recorded voicework for a lead role in the film Jackboots on Whitehall (2010) and lent her voice to a series of James Bond audio books, narrating The Spy Who Loved Me. Also in 2010, Pike voiced the character Pussy Galore in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Fleming's Goldfinger. In 2011, she played the character Kate Sumner in the Bond spoof film Johnny English Reborn, playing a psychologist and English's love interest. The film is a sequel to the 2003 film Johnny English.
In 2012, she played the role of Queen Andromeda in the fantasy epic Wrath of the Titans. She replaced Alexa Davalos, who had played the role in Clash of the Titans and had dropped out due to a scheduling conflict. Taking the role in Wrath of the Titans meant she had to drop out of consideration for a role in Man of Steel. Although the film was not well received by critics, it grossed over $300 million and critics considered her performance to be one of the film's highlights. She starred as Helen Rodin, the female lead alongside Tom Cruise in the thriller Jack Reacher, an adaptation of the novel One Shot by Lee Child. The film opened to positive critical reception and grossed over $218 million. The following year she had a supporting role in The World's End (2013).
Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair wrote that the film is "Smartly shot, detailed ... and performed" and called Pike's portrayal "a star-makingly good performance, spellbinding in its operatic mix of tones and temperatures." Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter said that she "is powerful and commanding ... Physically and emotionally, Pike looks to have immersed herself in this profoundly calculating character, and the results are impressive." For her performance, she received numerous nominations including the Academy Award for Best Actress, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Actress in a Leading Role.
From 2015, she voiced Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward in the remake of Thunderbirds Are Go produced by ITV Studios in conjunction with Weta Workshop. In February 2016, she starred in the music video for "Voodoo in My Blood" by Massive Attack, directly inspired by the subway scene with Isabelle Adjani in the film Possession (1981) directed by Andrzej Żuławski. In 2017, she took the role of The Woman in the short film The Human Voice, written and directed by Patrick Kennedy and based on the play La voix humaine by Jean Cocteau, for which she won Best Actress at the Oxford International Film Festival.
In 2018, Pike was cast as war correspondent Marie Colvin in A Private War, directed by Matthew Heineman and based on "Marie Colvin's Private War", a Vanity Fair article by Marie Brenner. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award and Satellite Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. In 2019, she was cast in the role of Moiraine in Amazon Prime Video's adaptation of Robert Jordan's fantasy epic The Wheel of Time, which was released in November 2021. Her other films include the thriller The Informer and the biopic Radioactive; in the latter, she played Marie Curie.
In 2021, Pike starred as con artist Marla Grayson in the crime thriller I Care a Lot, directed by J Blakeson and co-starring Peter Dinklage, Eiza González and Dianne Wiest. Her performance received universal acclaim; David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter said "Pike brings crisp efficiency and dead-eyed amorality to a legal conservator", and ABC News journalist Peter Travers wrote that "Pike makes a feast of the role". At the 78th Golden Globe Awards, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical.
In 2021, Pike starred in and executive produced the eight episode historical fiction podcast Edith!. The scripted podcast dramatises a period during the Woodrow Wilson presidency when Wilson was incapacitated by a stroke and First Lady Edith Wilson took the reins of power while he recovered. Clark Gregg plays the role of President Wilson and Esther Povitsky portrays Trudy Grayson, the First Lady's best friend. In 2021, Pike narrated the audiobook of Paula Hawkins' novel, A Slow Fire Burning. She also voiced an audiobook of The Eye of the World, the first book in the Wheel of Time series. In July 2022 it was announced that she would also voice audiobook versions of The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn. In 2022, it was announced that Pike would star in Emerald Fennell's second feature film, Saltburn.
Pike is an executive producer on the Netflix series 3 Body Problem based on the novel The Three-Body Problem. In November 2023 Pike began filming on Hallow Road by Babak Anvari. In April 2024 it was revealed Pike had joined the cast of In the Grey by Guy Ritchie. In May 2024 it was announced Pike had joined the cast of . In September 2024 it was announced Pike would star as the lead in the Netflix series Thumblite, centred on Silicon Valley. In October Pike was cast alongside Sacha Baron Cohen in the Netflix film Ladies First by Thea Sharrock. Pike will make her National Theatre debut in summer 2025 in the play Inter Alia by Suzie Miller.
Since December 2009, Pike has been in a relationship with businessman Robie Uniacke. The couple has two sons, who are both fluent in Standard Chinese.In a webcast from Prague, on the Graham Norton Show (BBC1), first broadcast on 19 February 2021, Pike noted that her sons both speak Mandarin fluently. They live in Prague. In 2015, when they visited China to promote Gone Girl, Pike mentioned that Uniacke had given her a Chinese name 裴淳华 (traditional Chinese: 裴淳華, p=Péi Chúnhuá, IPA: ), and, that, being admirers of Chinese culture, they would like the media to use this as her Chinese name rather than using the transliteration of her English name.
In 2021, Pike invested in and served as creative director for the psychedelic-inspired meditation app Lumenate, which purports to guide the user into an altered state of consciousness with flashing lights.
Also in 2021, Pike became the first ambassador for Mines Advisory Group, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning NGO that assists people affected by , unexploded ordnance and small arms and light weapons.
In a 2023 interview with The Guardian, Pike expressed a belief that "we're all being conned by the wellness industry" and "this idea that it's no longer enough to be healthy and we have to be 'well' is something that needs to be interrogated". She said "it's so seductive because it's in pursuit of things that people are ashamed to want" and called it "really dangerous".
2002 | Die Another Day | Miranda Frost | |
2004 | Promised Land | Rose | |
The Libertine | Elizabeth Malet | ||
2005 | Pride & Prejudice | Jane Bennet | |
Doom | Dr. Samantha Grimm | ||
2007 | Fracture | Nikki Gardner | |
Fugitive Pieces | Alex | ||
2009 | Helen | ||
Surrogates | Maggie Greer | ||
Yesterday We Were in America | Narrator | Documentary | |
2010 | Burning Palms | Dedra Davenport | |
Jackboots on Whitehall | Daisy (voice) | ||
Barney's Version | Miriam Grant-Panofsky | ||
Made in Dagenham | Lisa Hopkins | ||
2011 | The Organ Grinder's Monkey | Rochelle | Short film |
Johnny English Reborn | Kate Sumner | ||
The Big Year | Jessica | ||
2012 | Wrath of the Titans | Queen Andromeda | |
Jack Reacher | Helen Rodin | ||
2013 | The Devil You Know | Zoe Hughes | |
The World's End | Sam Chamberlain | ||
2014 | A Long Way Down | Penny | |
Hector and the Search for Happiness | Clara | ||
What We Did on Our Holiday | Abi McLeod | ||
Gone Girl | Amy Elliott Dunne | ||
2015 | Return to Sender | Miranda Wells | |
2016 | A United Kingdom | Ruth Williams Khama | |
2017 | The Man with the Iron Heart | Lina Heydrich | |
Hostiles | Rosalee Quaid | ||
2018 | Beirut | Sandy Crowder | |
Entebbe | Brigitte Kuhlmann | ||
The Human Voice | Woman | Short film | |
A Private War | Marie Colvin | ||
2019 | The Informer | Erica Wilcox | |
Radioactive | Marie Curie | ||
2020 | I Care a Lot | Marla Grayson | |
2021 | Evidence of it All | Narrator (voice) | Short film |
2023 | Saltburn | Elspeth Catton | |
2025 | Hallow Road | Mother | |
Veronika Vanderberg | Post-production | ||
rowspan="3" | rowspan="3" | Post-production | |
Filming | |||
Filming |
2002 | Hitchcock Blonde | The Blonde |
2006 | Summer and Smoke | Alma Winemiller |
2007 | Gas Light | Bella Manningham |
2009 | Madame de Sade | Madame de Sade |
2010 | Hedda Gabler | Hedda Gabler |
2025 | Inter Alia | Jessica Parks |
+ ! Year ! Artist ! Title | ||
2016 | Massive Attack feat. Young Fathers | Voodoo in My Blood |
2021 | Edith! | All Episodes | First Lady Edith Wilson | Main role; also executive producer |
2023 | People Who Knew Me | All Episodes | Connie Prynne/Emily Morris | |
Mother, Neighbor, Russian Spy | All Episodes | Narrator |
+ !Year !Title !Role !Notes | |||
2022 | Evidence 111 | Mrs. Keswille (voice) | English version of a Czech video game |
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