8 Best Ella Purnell Movies & TV Shows, Ranked

Ella Purnell is one of the most confounding performers working right now. With large, Disney-like eyes and a bright, charismatic personality evident in various interviews online, one might expect to see the English actor leading coming-of-age comedies or sweeping period dramas. Instead, she's made her mark in stories that thrive on grim humor, brutal violence, and the darkest corners of the human psyche.

It certainly seems to us that her unique and unexpected resume was born of a desire to consistently challenge herself artistically, fortunately drawing her toward strikingly complex characters in arresting stories. Among these, we've selected those which best represent her talent, potential, and impact on film and television. These are the best Ella Purnell movies & TV shows, ranked.

When Ella Purnell was added to the cast of Zack Snyder's Netflix zombie action film "Army of the Dead," most people had no idea who she was. As both a blockbuster feature film on arguably the most prominent streaming service ever and Snyder's first project after his ousting from the divisive DC Extended Universe he helped create, "Army of the Dead" was set to turn more eyes than ever toward Purnell. This was especially true given that her character, Kate Ward (the daughter of Dave Bautista's Scott Ward) was conceived as a point-of-view character for the audience, helping them learn the rules and lore of this world otherwise inhabited by zombies and mercenaries.

Ironically, considering the trajectory this film seemingly set her career on, not to mention her later projects which catapulted her to global stardom, Purnell was initially resistant to getting involved with "Army of the Dead" because she personally doesn't enjoy gore or horror movies. However, after reading the script, she found herself invested in the relationship between Kate and Scott (the two having been estranged following the death of Kate's mother) and the political subtext of the narrative. At that point, all it took was a little Snyder magic to get her on board. She closely collaborated with the director to vividly render Kate as more than a necessary POV character. 

Through Purnell's performance — razor focused on her journey toward overcoming a moment of betrayal that defined her life in order to survive — Kate becomes the story's sole beating heart. As Bautista and others grunt and grumble around her between zombie shootouts, she often feels like she's defiantly trying to pull the film toward something real. Even if the "Army of the Dead's" bloated undead corpse of a script is too much for her to carry on her own (especially with how it ultimately uses her), this herculean effort is worth praise. 

If not quite as transportive as the atmospheric Ransom Riggs novel on which it's based (nor as energized or vivid as the "X-Men" films it clearly wants to be cousin to), "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" is undeniably a noteworthy part of Ella Purnell's acting career. The 2016 film follows a group of young "peculiar" children who live together in a boarding house, due to the fact that they each possess various supernatural and often socially alienating abilities. Purnell plays Emma Bloom, a child with special air-related powers who is constantly in danger of drifting into the sky.

Emma's powerset includes the ability to breathe underwater, which required Purnell to work for the first time in vast swimming tanks built so that director Tim Burton could capture these sequences with a mixture of practical and post-production special effects. As impressive as this is for an actor as early in her career as she was to undergo, it was ultimately exciting for Purnell, as it was in the service of creating these unreal moments that she loves about the fantasy genre.

In addition to acting under such unusual circumstances, Purnell takes advantage of the slightly meatier (if a bit odd) role she's been given to make Emma a perfect young-adult protagonist that children of all ages could identify with without feeling patronized or turned into a caricature. Adults may find the film tedious in comparison to the rest of Purnell's work, but fans of her's and Burton's should be suitably entertained by their efforts. 

Ella Purnell has joined several intimidating fictional universes throughout her career, but few could be as imposing as that of the decades-old culture of the genre-defining "Star Trek" franchise. In 2021, she was cast in the Nickelodeon animated series "Star Trek: Prodigy," a very loose, spiritual sequel to "Star Trek: Voyager" that follows a group of young spacefarers charting the stars in the commandeered ship Protostar. 

Purnell, who voices the Vau N'Akat Gwyndala, spoke with /Film in 2022 about what it was like to join "Star Trek" during such an expansive — and divisive — period in the franchise. "['Prodigy'] is my introduction into the universe and it's definitely very intimidating because obviously there's so many years of history and so many people and the fans are very, very passionate, so you want to do right by them — you want to do it justice," she told us.

Gwyndala is the linguist of the crew, which put particular pressure on Purnell to nail the universe's infamously well-defined languages. Purnell was surely aware of how, shall we say, scrutinizing the fanbase could be (to put it lightly) and worked with "Trekkie" experts to perform languages like Klingon with the utmost accuracy. Its an early example of the reverence and dedication Purnell shows for any fictional world she's invited to inhabit, a practice which would serve her extremely well as her career continued.

Having portrayed a range of complicated and traumatized people thrown into situations that would be unimaginable to most people, Ella Purnell's career seems to have been full of challenges. This trend began very early for the actor, as a 15-year-old Purnell took on a leading role opposite Bruce Greenwood in the independent psychological drama "Wildlike." She played 14-year-old Mackenzie, a young girl who survives the death of her father, a mother struggling with an addiction disorder, and a predatory uncle ("1923's" Brian Geraghty) by fleeing to the Alaskan wilderness. She soon encounters wandering backpacker Rene Bartlett (Greenwood), and the pair form an unlikely friendship as they brave the elements — and a wild bear.

"Wildlike" was shot in just 30 days, with the miniscule cast and crew camping out together in Alaska throughout the shoot. The story asked a lot of Purnell, especially given how young she was at the time. Upon receiving a draft of the screenplay, she was understandably apprehensive about the subject matter and the scenes of intimacy that were written into the plot, though writer, director, and producer Frank Hall Green reassured her that everything described would only be hinted at. 

As Purnell described to Selig Film News, she was able find the emotional truth of what going through something so horrible would be like for her character. "There are two scenes that were quite difficult to do, but I had at the forefront of my mind that she can't help what she's doing and she's doing it out of desperation and that it's not something she's conscious of being wrong," she said. This level of character work is why Purnell immediately seemed a cut above other young actors, tackling daunting material with clear focus on storytelling and ultimately creating a character that feels real to the audience. 

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Our readers in the U.S. may not be aware of one of Ella Purnell's best and seemingly most personal projects to date: the Sky Atlantic series "Sweetpea." In the psychological thriller, Purnell stars as Rhiannon "Sweetpea" Lewis, a lifelong social outcast who has waded into a nearly invisible life complete with a thankless job as an assistant at a small newspaper. On the outside, she's nice and agreeable enough that people won't take too much notice of her — on the inside, she's constantly creating a mental list of people she'd like to kill. As one might expect, it's only a matter of time before these internal feelings of rage begin to externalize themselves in irreparable ways.

Purnell was approached by executive producer Patrick Walters ("Heartstopper") about working on a range of projects under his purview, with the actor being drawn to "Sweetpea" due to its unique tone, mash-up of genres, and influences. To her, it read like a cross between Showtime's serial killer comedy "Dexter" and the acclaimed British relationship dramedy "Fleabag," with additional shades of the cult classic horror comedy "Jennifer's Body" (particularly in how "Sweetpea" tracks its title character's arc toward self-confidence). Also exciting to Purnell was the prospect of becoming an executive producer — Walters and his collaborators were keen to sign their lead actor as an EP so that she could be responsible for shepherding the narratively intimate journey of Rhiannon Lewis. 

"Being an EP is something that I've always wanted to do," she told Vogue in 2024. "I was waiting for the right project, something that I felt like I really could contribute [to]. It's like a weird cosmic feeling. I really felt like I knew this character; I was excited to collaborate and contribute those ideas."

This new job not only saw Purnell closely involved with developing the character and filling out the series' cast (she attended auditions to read with potential actors and was involved with rewrites that took place after roles were filled), but with technical elements such as minor scenic and prop design to ensure that every element of production reflected her character's journey. On top of all that, she still had to lead the series as a performer as well. As she told Vogue, "This was definitely the most challenging role I've ever done."

If you're already a fan of Ella Purnell, there's a solid chance you first encountered her as the team captain of the ill-fated "Yellowjackets." The Showtime semi-supernatural horror drama emerged from the fog of COVID lockdowns as a sleeper hit, drawing audiences into the twisted tragedy of a high school girls soccer team trying to survive the wilderness (and each other) after their plane crash lands on a deserted island on the way to a national tournament.

Purnell's Jackie — a middle-of-the-pack player elevated to captain status by virtue of her popularity with and influence over the other girls — remains one of the show's best characters, despite the fact that she was only written to appear in the first season. It's an example of a show arguably using Purnell's contrasting persona as a means of subverting the audiences expectations. She starts off as the quintessential popular high schooler, only to have her social power slowly taken from her and divided amongst the whole to rather grim results. At the same time, she doesn't feel like a mere tool of the storytelling, as the stripping of her power comes as a natural part of her evolution in the wilderness. 

Jackie and Purnell have been away from "Yellowjackets" for a while now, and some may argue that, unrelated to their absence, the series has failed to maintain the quality of its freshman outing. Looking at the first season alone as a fairly complete story (especially with regard to Jackie's character arc), however, we feel it's one of the best showcases of Purnell's talent as a genre star, allowing her to make the most of a closed storyline that still gives viewers plenty to chew on.

One of the best video game adaptations and best fantasy TV shows of all time, the Netflix animated series "Arcane" spins a visually stunning epic out of "League of Legends." Nimbly working with the dense and almost impenetrable mythos of the popular multiplayer game, it found an emotionally and politically resonant storyline within the dual paths of Vi (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) and her sister Jinx, who is voiced by Ella Purnell.

Jinx — an electrically unpredictable (and perhaps unstable) rebel with a penchant for shooting first and asking questions never — is arguably one of, if not the most recognizable icons of "League of Legends." But that didn't stop Purnell from working with the show's creators to find her own way toward bringing this character to life for a wider audience in a story-driven medium. As she told CBR in 2021, "I wanted to lean slightly away from the sexualization of her and the pure, gory violence of her and lean more into the family relationships that she has — the trauma, the hurt, the context around her character, why she is the way that she is. She wasn't just born this super sexy psychopath."

The depth Purnell and "Arcane" imbued Jinx with was vital to making this video game adaptation accessible to newcomers, and it further yielded a richer and more emotionally impactful narrative than one might expect based on the source material. It received widespread critical acclaim, dominating the Annie Awards and breaking into the Emmy Awards (nabbing a historic Best Animated Program win in the latter) before ending its run after two seasons. More importantly for our purposes, it proved Purnell as an undeniable talent capable of moving audiences with only her voice.

Considering the broader historical trend of video game adaptations, there's absolutely no reason Amazon Prime Video's "Fallout" series should be anywhere near as good as it is. Based on one of the most famous video game franchises, it somehow manages to distill the unique energy of the games themselves while telling an original story that not only makes use of the obscene amount of lore at its fingertips, but remains emotionally and intellectually compelling enough to thrill fans old and new. It quickly became Prime Video's biggest hit ever and went on to receive several Emmy Award nominations — including one for Walton Goggins, who stood out from the show's ensemble as the enigmatic gunslinger known as "The Ghoul."

As captivating as he is, however, the weight of the series largely rests on the shoulders of Ella Purnell's Lucy MacLean, a "Vault Dweller" who ventures into the post-apocalyptic irradiated wastelands of America to rescue her father Hank (Kyle MacLachlan). Purnell was cast in "Fallout" shortly after leaving "Yellowjackets," spending the majority of her prep time getting up to speed with the games' history and coming to terms with the fact that, regardless of quality, the blockbuster show would be seen and judged more than any other project she'd been a part of. She seemingly found comfort in the show's writing. What stood out to her most was how the show threw a woman into the center of a survival thriller that also somehow balanced insightful political commentary and dark humor.

These themes resonated just as deeply with the show's audience, it seems, and "Fallout" is currently in production on a second season. As worried as Purnell may be about getting typecast as a video game hero, the dramatic range she displays in "Fallout" — and, indeed, in all her projects regardless of their origins — would justly indicate an artistic future as varied and vast as the wasteland itself.