Draft:Missy Malek

Mithra Marie-Anne Malek (born 1993), known professionally as Missy Malek, is an English actress and filmmaker. She was named one of YOU magazine's new screen stars of 2022.

Early life
Malek was born in central London to parents Ali and Francesca and grew up in South Kensington. Her mother is Lebanese Jamaican, and her father is half Iranian. She has an older sister Rokhsan "Roxy". Malek attended Queen's Gate School. She joined the National Youth Theatre when she was fourteen. She enrolled in the summer Shakespeare programme at RADA as well as taking acting classes at LAMDA. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from the Keble College, Oxford in 2016.

Career
Malek was involved in local theatre during her time at Oxford. Her early work also includes a number of local stage productions in London, such as Much Ado About Nothing, Macbeth, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle at Chelsea Theatre. She had minor roles in the films Anti-Social and Now You See Me 2.

Malek's wrote and directed her first short film during her final year at Oxford, working with cinematographer David Raedeker. Starring herself, Tom Hanson, and Leo Suter, Laughing Branches screened at international film festivals in 2017 and 2018 where both she and the film itself picked up a number of acting and best film accolades. Her second short film Tala, (stylised with a comma) premiered at the 2019 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Malek directed and wrote her third short We're Too Good For This based on a true story, starring an ensemble of deaf and disabled actors as well as Adam Deacon in a supporting role. The short film opened at the 2021 BFI London Film Festival to critical acclaim.

Over the course of 2020 and 2021, Malek starred in three Theatre Royal Windsor productions: Love from a Stranger as Mavis Wilson alongside Iain Glen, Hamlet as Osric, and, The Cherry Tree as Anya, the latter two alongside Sir Ian McKellan. In 2022, Malek appeared in the Netflix legal drama Anatomy of a Scandal. She has an upcoming role in the film Party People with Matthew Daddario.