Mia Goth

Mia Goth is an English actress and model and one of the most distinctive performers in modern horror cinema. Born Mia Gypsy Mello da Silva Goth on 25 October 1993 in London, England, she began her career as a model before moving into acting and developing a reputation for intense, unconventional and often fearless performances. Goth spent parts of her childhood in several countries, including Brazil, Canada and the United Kingdom. As a teenager, a modelling agency discovered her, and she began working in fashion before turning her attention to acting. Her first major screen role came in Lars von Trier's controversial drama Nymphomaniac (2013), in which she played P. Although she was at the beginning of her acting career, the project placed Goth alongside established performers including Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård and Willem Dafoe. She continued building her film career with roles in the science-fiction mystery The Survivalist (2015) and the psychological horror film A Cure for Wellness (2016), directed by Gore Verbinski. Goth played Hannah, a mysterious young woman living within the unsettling environment of a remote Swiss wellness centre. In 2018, Goth appeared in Luca Guadagnino's Suspiria, a reimagining of Dario Argento's 1977 horror classic. She played Sara, one of the dancers at the mysterious Berlin academy at the centre of the story. She followed this with Claire Denis' science-fiction film High Life (2018), starring alongside Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche and André Benjamin. Goth also appeared as Harriet Smith in Autumn de Wilde's adaptation of Jane Austen's Emma (2020), showing her ability to move beyond the darker material increasingly associated with her career. However, the defining collaboration of Goth's career began when she joined director Ti West for X (2022). Set in 1979, X follows a group of young filmmakers who travel to a remote Texas farm to make an adult film, only to discover that their elderly hosts are far more dangerous than they initially appear. Goth played two characters in the film: aspiring actress Maxine Minx and the elderly Pearl. The dual performance became one of the film's most memorable elements and helped make Goth a major figure in contemporary horror. Pearl later received her own prequel, Pearl (2022), with Goth returning to explore the character's younger years in 1918. Pearl gave Goth a considerably larger dramatic showcase. Her portrayal moved between innocence, desperation, rage and violence, culminating in an extended emotional monologue that became one of the most widely discussed scenes of her career. Goth also co-wrote Pearl with Ti West, expanding her creative involvement beyond acting. The story continued with MaXXXine (2024), the third film in West's trilogy. Goth returned as Maxine Minx, now attempting to establish herself as a Hollywood actress in 1980s Los Angeles while a killer terrorises the city. Together, X, Pearl and MaXXXine established Goth as one of the defining modern "scream queens" and demonstrated her ability to carry horror films built as much around character as violence and spectacle. Away from the X trilogy, Goth has continued to pursue unusual and challenging projects. She starred alongside Alexander Skarsgård in Brandon Cronenberg's Infinity Pool (2023), playing the unpredictable Gabi in a disturbing story involving tourism, privilege, identity and violence. Throughout her career, Goth has frequently gravitated towards filmmakers with distinctive visual and storytelling styles. Her performances can shift rapidly between vulnerability, dark comedy, menace and emotional intensity, making her particularly suited to characters that refuse to fit comfortably into traditional categories. From A Cure for Wellness and Suspiria to Infinity Pool and the X trilogy, Mia Goth has developed into one of the most recognisable faces of contemporary horror. Her performances as Pearl and Maxine Minx in particular have established her as a defining genre performer of her generation, while her wider filmography continues to demonstrate a willingness to take creative risks.