The creepiest offering from Apple TV+ is about a family who hires a full-time nanny to care for their infant Jericho...who isn’t really an infant at all. In the M. Night Shyamalan produced Servant, Jericho is a lifelike baby doll designed to help mother Dorothy (Lauren Ambrose) grieve the loss of her real child. Despite the unusual circumstances, young nanny Leanne — played by Nell Tiger Free — cares for the baby doll as though he’s the real thing, disturbing Dorothy’s husband Sean (Toby Kebbell) and making him dig into Leanne’s past. Though we don’t know much about the mysterious Leanne, the show spends a lot of time with the character. If you feel like you already know Leanne, it may be because you’ve seen actress Nell Tiger Free somewhere else.
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Free, a 20-year-old English actress, is a relative newcomer to Hollywood. Her first of a short list of roles was in 2012’s Broken with Tim Roth and the film adaptation of Mr. Stink. Since, she’s gone on to more TV high-profile projects. In season 5 and 6 of Game of Thrones, Free portrayed Myrcella Baratheon, who, despite presenting as the child of King Baratheon (Mark Addy) was really the daughter of twincest-loving Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey). Like many characters on Game of Thrones, Myrcella met a tragic end — for her, it was dying by poison in the arms of father Jaime.
“This was actually probably my favorite scene to film, because Nikolaj is just an amazing actor. I just marvel at him, I think he's fantastic. And he was so sweet, always. Always so lovely and so sweet,” Free said at MCM Comic Con in London. "I was 15 when we shot this, and it was a big task to be put on a 15-year-old girl's shoulders to die in Game of Thrones...he just walked me through it.”
In her personal life, Free was rumored to be dating co-star Dean Charles-Chapman, who portrayed Tommen Baratheon on the series, around 2015. Since, though, it seems the two have split up, having deleted any social media posts of a reported romance.
She's buds with Sebastian Croft, who portrayed young Ned Stark on Game of Thrones, as evidenced by this recent birthday message from the actor. They will both star in upcoming film Wonderwell, which features one of the final performances of Carrie Fisher as well as Rita Ora.
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Following her time on Game of Thrones, Free starred in new Amazon series Too Old to Die Young, opposite Miles Teller. The show, which premiered in June on the streamer, is about a police officer (Teller) who finds himself involved in a criminal underbelly after the death of a loved one. Free plays Janey, Teller’s character’s 17-year-old girlfriend. Currently, there are no plans to make a season 2 of the series.
When she’s not acting, Free occasionally posts song covers and original songs on Instagram — and she has a pretty killer voice. Check some of her posts out below:
On Servant, the most singing Leanne will likely to is via lullaby to baby Jericho — at least we know that Free will slay that cover of “Rockabye Baby.”