Taylor Russell
Taylor Russell
Taylor Russell McKenzie (born July 18, 1994) is a Canadian actress and filmmaker. After playing a number of minor roles, Russell received recognition for starring in the Netflix science fiction series Lost in Space) (2018–2021). She rose to prominence with her roles in the drama film Waves) (2019), and the horror film Escape Room) (2019) and its 2021 sequel. For starring in the road movie Bones and All (2022), she won the Marcello Mastroianni Award. She performed onstage in the play The Effect from 2023 to 2024. Russell co-directed the 2020 short documentary film The Heart Still Hums, with Savanah Leaf, which was the base for a movie adaptation by Leaf titled Earth Mama (2023).
Early life
Taylor Russell McKenzie was born on July 18, 1994, in the small community of Deep Cove, North Vancouver, located near Vancouver, British Columbia. Russell was raised in Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. She has an older brother and a younger brother. Russell, who was born to a white mother and a black father, an actor of Jamaican descent, grew up mostly with her mother's side of the family. Her father's parents were in the Windrush generation and moved from Jamaica to England. Her father lived in England until he was seven and then moved to Montreal. As a child she would visit her grandparents in Montreal, Quebec. She is from a large family on her father's side. She recalled that growing up she felt unaccepted by her peers due to the color of her skin. Her parents faced financial struggles, leading the family to rely on welfare, and they were frequently compelled to relocate, uprooting their lives a total of sixteen times to accommodate her father's professional pursuits. Russell also began working at the age of 13.
Early life
As a child, Russell was artistically inclined. She wanted to pursue a career in ballet, and later as a painter. At twelve, Russell learned to play the bass guitar. At eighteen, Russell took her first acting class, which led her to become interested in pursuing acting. She used her work savings to buy a car, and would drive to Los Angeles to audition. When money ran out, she would return home to work until she had enough earnings to audition again. Some of the jobs that Russell worked were at restaurants, a jewelry store, and a butcher's shop. This routine went on for four years until she landed her first major TV role. While living in Vancouver, she took a $15-an-hour job fulfilling orders at an Amazon) warehouse. The day before her first shift, she was in a traffic accident and received an $8,000 insurance settlement for her back injury, which she used to move to Los Angeles.
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