Who Plays Renfri In Netflix's The Witcher?
In the vast, uncharted landscape that fantasy adventure television has become in a post-"Game of Thrones" world, Netflix's "The Witcher" has been standing out for two seasons now as one of the genre's most notorious and rewarding new offerings. Developed by Lauren Schmidt Hissrich from the eponymous book series by Andrzej Sapkowski, which in turn was made newly popular in the 21st century by the CD Projekt video game adaptations, "The Witcher" follows the events unfolding at various points throughout the Continent, primarily as seen through the eyes of three pivotal characters: witcher Geralt of Rivia (Henry Cavill), Crown Princess Ciri of Cintra (Freya Allan), and sorceress Yennefer of Vengerberg (Anya Chalotra). Over the course of the show's 16 episodes released so far, the fates of Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer have been intertwining with each other and with those of many other participants in the Continent's escalating political and magical turmoil.
One of those participants is Renfri, the Creyden princess who ran away and became a bandit after Stregobor (Lars Mikkelsen) attempted to have her killed. Geralt of Rivia crosses paths with Renfri in Season 1, initially appearing to dissuade her from her plan to get revenge on Stregobor — only for her to double down on her violent plans, to the point of becoming a menace to the port town of Blaviken. And, although Renfri's appearance was limited to two episodes, she still left enough of a mark on "The Witcher" that you may find yourself wondering who's the actress that played her.
The Witcher's Renfri was played by English actress Emma Appleton
The actress who plays Renfri of Creyden on two episodes of Netflix's "The Witcher" — those episodes being the series premiere "The End's Beginning," and the season finale "Much More" — is Emma Appleton. Born in Witney, Oxfordshire, England (via Oxford Mail), Appleton has been steadily raising her profile since moving from modeling to acting work in 2016-2017.
Her first major exposure came courtesy of "Clique," a BBC Three series about the shady and perilous underbelly of an elite university clique in Edinburgh, Scotland. In all six episodes of Season 1, which aired in 2017, Appleton played Fay Brookstone, an unhappy member of the Solasta Women's Initiative whose shocking death in the first episode provides much of the thrust for the season's events. Not long after, she appeared on two episodes of National Geographic's "Genius: Picasso," nabbed another big role on British television as Fiona "Feef" Symonds, the in-over-her-head protagonist of Channel 4 and Netflix's period spy drama "Traitors," and joined the regular cast of the Sex Pistols-focused FX miniseries "Pistol" as Nancy Spungen.
More recently, we've been able to see Appleton as Maggie, one-half of the dynamic duo at the center of the BBC One dramedy "Everything I Know About Love," alongside Bel Powley. The role has been arguably the most high-profile one in the English actress' career so far, even inspiring across-the-board critical acclaim, with The Telegraph's Eleanor Halls commending the "dollops of charisma" she displays in the role.