Maisie Williams

Margaret Constance Williams was born in Bristol on 15 April 1997 to Gary Williams and Hilary Frances (née Pitt), a university course administrator who later gave up her job to support her daughter's acting career. Williams' parents divorced when she was four months old. The youngest of four siblings—James, Beth and Ted—Williams was raised by her mother and stepfather in a three-bedroom council house in the village of Clutton, Somerset. Williams has been known as "Maisie" from an early age, nicknamed because of her perceived likeness to the cartoon character from the UK newspaper comic strip The Perishers.

Williams went to Clutton Primary School and Norton Hill School in Midsomer Norton. She later transferred to Bath Dance College to study performing arts, where she trained in musical theatre, ballet, pointe, tap, street, freestyle, gymnastics and trampolining, with the ambition of becoming a professional dancer. She left school at 14 years old partly due to the successful start of her acting career. She was then home educated, but did not take any GCSEs.