Aled Jones’ daughter is Hollywood’s next big thing! Emilia Jones, 19, wows in new indie hit film – after starting her career aged 8 in a Shrek stage show and starring in a racy Netflix drama (and she can sing too)
- Emilia Jones, 19, is the latest British star to wow Hollywood with performances
- Teenager is the daughter of Songs of Praise presenter Aled Jones and his wife
- Made stage debut in Shrek and even performed a song on This Morning
- Had small roles in Pirates of the Caribbean and One Day before landing big break
- She is currently best known for her role in Netflix fantasy series Locke And Key
The daughter of Songs of Praise presenter Aled Jones and his trapeze artist wife has been named the next big thing in Hollywood by US Vogue.
London-born Emilia Jones, 19, made her professional stage debut in the musical Shrek at the age of eight, with the show’s star Amanda Holden watching over her like a benevolent fairy godmother.
A decade on, she’s generating a buzz with her critically-acclaimed performance in Indie hit CODA, nomintated for Best Film at the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards, with Jones winning breakthrough performer at the Gotham Awards.
Not only did the teenager have to master American Sign Language (ASL) and an American accent for the role, she also had to skipper a fishing boat — and take singing lessons. Her efforts paid off, after she recently won the Verified Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Onscreen performance.
Vogue has hailed the actress as ‘2022’s Breakout Star to Watch’. However her incredible talents run in the family; her father happens to be Aled Jones, who found fame as a gifted boy soprano and later as a TV presenter, recording artist and concert performer.
London-born Emilia Jones, 19, who made her professional stage debut in the musical Shrek, has been named the next big thing in Hollywood by American Vogue
The teenager’s incredible talents run in the family; her father happens to be Aled Jones, who found fame as a gifted boy soprano and later as a TV presenter, recording artist and concert performer
Aled, from Llandegfan, Anglesey, was 16 when he ended his four-year career as a boy soprano, during which he sold six million records, gave a private performance for Charles and Diana and sang at the Vatican.
A stint at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School followed and by the age of 25, he was back on stage as the lead in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Despite standing ovations every night he could not escape the feeling that something was missing.
It was then he met his wife Claire, and the two married in 2001, welcoming two children: Emilia and Lucas.
His daughter’s acting career began when she was just eight-years-old when she won small parts in the film One Day and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
In 2011, Emilia made her theatrical debut after playing the princess Young Fiona in the original cast of Shrek the Musical in London (pictured, while performing on This Morning)
A decade on, the teenager won a breakout role in Netflix fantasy series Locke and Key, where she often stars in racy-scenes with her co-stars
She was later praised for her small performance in an episode of Doctor Who.
The Boston Standard lauded Jones for ‘carr[ying] off her scenes with aplomb’ and for ‘really sell[ing] Merry’s mixture of naivety, knowledge and childlike fear,’ while the website Zap2It praised Jones’ performance for being ‘spot on.’
Emilia never considered a career in singing like her dad, previously telling the DailyMail’s Baz Bamigmoye: ‘My heart was always in acting.’
She explained: ‘My mum is quite shy but I don’t think she would ever give up on anything. She was in the circus when she was younger. She did the trapeze — she had to be strong to do that.
She is now the star of a Hollywood film Coda, giving a performance that will put her into the thick of the upcoming awards season competition
The teenager said she always dreamed of following her father into showbusiness (pictured as a toddler)
‘And my dad worked from an early age. We have that in common.’
The same year she made her theatrical debut after playing the princess Young Fiona in the original cast of Shrek the Musical in London.
At the time her father was blown away by her performance, saying: ‘She’s a little rocket. She’s not scared of anything.
‘‘It’s what she wants to do, who am I to stop her? I just worry because I don’t want her to get a job – or not get a job – because of me.’
She would later appear in Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s stage adaptation of Henry James’s The Turn of the Screw.
In December 2018, she landed her big break when it was announced that she was cast as Kinsey Locke, one of the main characters in the Netflix fantasy drama series Locke & Key.
She was attracted to the role of Kinsey because of the prospect of being able to play two versions of the same character: Kinsey before she removes her fear, and Kinsey after she removes her fear.
She said in an interview: ‘This, for me, was one of the best shoots I’ve ever done. The cast and crew are incredible and I absolutely adore them.’
Her acting career began when she was just eight-years-old as she won small parts in the film One Day and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (pictured with her parents and her brother Lucas)
Last year, she starred in the Apple TV+ comedy-drama film CODA as Ruby Rossi, the only hearing member of a deaf family who dreams of going to Berkley.
For her audition, Emilia performed Fleetwood Mac’s gentle ballad Landslide, accompanying herself on guitar.
In order to play the part, Jones spent nine months during the shooting of Locke & Key learning sign language extensively, while also learning how to operate a professional fishing trawler.
Starring alongside Oscar winner Marlee Matlin, who plays her mother — the fim has already garnered her acclaim in the US ahead of debuting here next week.
In December 2018, she landed her big break when it was announced that she was cast as Kinsey Locke, one of the main characters in the Netflix fantasy drama series Locke & Key
The character of Kinsley is often caught in romantic trysts while on the Netflix fantasy programme (pictured)
The first time Emilia bonded with her screen family — Matlin as mother Jackie; Troy Kotsur, playing father Frank and Daniel Durant as brother Leo — it was on the high seas off the Massachusetts coast.
‘The first time I met them was on a fishing boat,’ she explained.
As an animal lover, Emilia said she found the experience upsetting. ‘I’d rescue a fish and the real fishermen would turn around, shake their heads and say: ‘That’s money’.’
Last year, she starred in the Apple TV+ comedy-drama film CODA as Ruby Rossi, the only hearing member of her family who dreams of going to Berklee
It didn’t take her long to find her sea legs, though; and soon, she was grading cod like an old hand.
The crew taught her to check the lobsters, for females carrying eggs. They were thrown back into the briny, which made her happy.
Emilia was less sure about the singing side of the role. In the film, Ruby joins the school choir club as a way of getting a breather from her family.
Meanwhile the 19-year-old often shares snaps with her 500k Instagram followers while she holidays in exotic locations
And while Jones can sing — ‘I sang in Shrek,’ she said; ‘I’m singing around the house, and I was in the choir at school’, she’d never had any training. ‘Which was daunting.
‘I was 17 when I shot this movie. I was a little bit nervous, and that’s the same as Ruby. She’s not very confident when she sings — she’s confident when she signs. I related to her in that respect.’
The Sundance Film Festival awarded Coda its top prize back in January 2021, with the judges singling out the power of Emilia’s acting for praise. And it was also voted best film at Sundance Film Festival: London this week.
The Daily Mail’s critic Baz Bamigboye also highlighted Emilia’s performance in his review, saying: ‘There are many superb moments in the picture, but the one that has stuck with me is when Ruby sings Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now for a university panel, and as she performs the number, begins to sign the lyrics to her family, who have crept up to the balcony to watch.’
The actress was recently awarded for her performance in Coda with the Verified Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Onscreen performance, adding she was ‘blown away’ (pictured)
She said her dad has seen the film several times, and been moved to tears on each occasion.
But despite coming from ‘a musical household’ — during lockdown, she and her dad (once they were allowed to leave the house) went on drives ‘where we sang together’ — Emilia never considered a career in that field. ‘My heart was always in acting.’
Coda, it seems, was the first time she realised she might be able to do both. ‘I just never thought I would do a film where I would sing,’ she laughed.
Her dad did not interfere with her singing lessons. ‘He left it to the teachers. He was happy that I had the opportunity to sing — and he was happy that I was getting more confident.’
She recently began shooting the film adaptation of Kristen Roupenian’s short story, Cat Person, which went viral when it was published in The New Yorker in December 2017.
Emilia will play Margo, a 20-year-old student — ‘a very strong, confident girl…she’s pretty and she knows it’ — who becomes involved with an older man, Robert (played by Nicholas Braun — cousin Greg from Succession).
‘Cat Person touches on the grey area of consent,’ she said, adding: ‘everybody has a Cat Person story.’
‘It’s different to anything I’ve done before,’ she said. ‘I think it’s exciting because as you grow from a kid, suddenly the roles get a little bit bigger and they’re more interesting — and more challenging.’
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