Katherine Langford (born 29 April 1996)^[1] is an Australian actress. After appearing in several independent films, she had her breakthrough starring asHannah Baker in theNetflix television series13 Reasons Why (2017–2018), which earned her aGolden Globe Award nomination.^[2] She then appeared in the filmsLove, Simon (2018) andKnives Out (2019), and headlined the dark comedySpontaneous (2020) and the Netflix seriesCursed (2020).

Katherine Langford
Langford in 2018
Born	(1996-04-29)29 April 1996 (age 28) Perth, Australia
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2015–present
Relatives	Josephine Langford (sister)

Langford was born inPerth, Western Australia,^[1] and raised inApplecross, a riverside suburb of Perth.^[3] She is the eldest daughter of Elizabeth Langford (née Green), a paediatrician, and Stephen Langford, a flying doctor and director of medical services at theRoyal Flying Doctor Service Western Operations.^[3][4][5][6] Her younger sister,Josephine Langford, is also an actress.

Langford began voice lessons with Heidi Lake in 2005, and receivedclassical,jazz, andcontemporary vocal training. She was offered a place atPerth Modern School^[7][8] for her senior high school years, where she studied music and drama, and was sports captain and a nationally ranked swimmer.^[9][10]

Initially during her time at high school, Langford was interested in medicine and politics in addition to musical theatre. In 2012 as a teenager, Langford attended aLady Gaga concert, theBorn This Way Ball, which inspired her to learn to play piano.^[11] She shared videos of herself singing three original songs she wrote: "I've Got a Crush on Zoe Bosch," "Young and Stupid," and "3 Words."^[12][13] "Young and Stupid" is an anti-suicide song she wrote in 2013 after three Perth teens took their lives.^[14] For her final year at Perth Modern, Langford stopped swimming and switched her focus to music and performance.^[15] She was successful in a number of musicaleisteddfods and drama competitions. Langford appeared in the school's production ofHotel Sorrento in 2013^[16][17] and graduated that same year.^[18]

From 2014 to 2015, Langford studied at the Principal Academy of Dance & Theatre Arts, majoring in Music Theatre, and appeared in a production ofGodspell. She was then one of five students selected to participate in theNational Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) Advanced Actors Residency in 2015. Additionally, Langford was provided a spot in Western Australian Academy of Programming.^[16][19] In the same year, she trained at Nicholson's Academy of Screen Acting and portrayed the role ofJuan Perón's mistress in its 2015 production ofEvita.^[16] Langford was offered a position in the Bachelor of Arts program in acting at theWestern Australian Academy of Performing Arts and intended to begin studies in 2016.^[10][19] However, she never enrolled and instead pursued professional roles.^[10]

Langford first appeared in several small independent films, includingStory of Miss Oxygen (2015),Imperfect Quadrant (2016), andDaughter (2016).^[16][19] She portrayed the lead character inDaughter, which debuted at the2016 Cannes Film Festival.^[19][20] In 2016, after declining the offer from Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts, Langford auditioned forWill, a television series centred on the early life ofWilliam Shakespeare. She did not get the role.^[10]

Langford was then cast asHannah Baker in the mystery teen drama TV series13 Reasons Why, playing Baker for the series' first two seasons.^[21] When she landed the role, she had only 10 days to get anO-1 visa as she had not worked in the United States before.^[22] She researched the role, speaking with a representative of the sexual assault awareness campaign "It's On Us" and a psychiatrist who specializes in adolescent development.^[23] Several critics lauded her performance as Baker;The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "Langford's heartbreaking openness makes you root for a fate you know isn't possible. The actress' performance is full of dynamic range, setting it against Minnette's often more complicated task in differentiating between moods that mostly go from uncomfortable to gloomy to red-eyed, hygiene-starved despair."^[24] She earned various awards and nominations for the role, including a nomination for theGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama.^[25][26] On 25 May 2018, Langford confirmed that she would not return as Hannah Baker in the third season of the series.^[27]

In December 2016, she signed with theWilliam Morris Endeavor agency.^[28] She then appeared in her first feature film,The Misguided, an independent comedy-drama by Shannon Alexander, which premiered in January 2018.^[29] She also starred as Leah in the 2018 filmLove, Simon.^[30][31] In October 2018, she was cast inAvengers: Endgame. However, her scenes were cut from the final film when audiences at test screenings found her scene confusing.^[32][33]

In 2019, Langford co-starred inKnives Out, amurder mystery film.^[34] The ensemble cast received critical acclaim, and she was part of various awards and nominations for the role, which included aCritics' Choice Award nomination for Best Cast.^[35]

In 2020, she starred in the filmSpontaneous, a well-reviewed, dark comedy for which she received aCritics' Choice Super Awards nomination for Best Actress in a Science Fiction/Fantasy Movie.^[36] On 12 September 2018, it was announced that Langford had been cast in the web television seriesCursed. Set in a re-imaginedArthurian world, Langford portrays Nimue, a teenage girl destined to become theLady of the Lake. It premiered onNetflix in July 2020.^[37]

In October 2022, it was announced that Langford would star in theStarz television seriesThe Venery of Samantha Bird.^[38] The series began production in the January 2023, however, due to the2023 Writers Guild of America strike, production was halted in May 2023.^[39] In September 2023, the network announced that they would not be resuming production on the series and the release would ultimately be scrapped, despite completing six of the eight ordered episodes.^[40]

On 23 September 2024, Langford made her stage debut, taking over asSally Bowles in theWest End musicalCabaret at the Kit Kat Club, playing at the Playhouse Theatre for 18 weeks.^[41]

• Katherine Langford atIMDb