Marisa Abela

Marisa Gabrielle Abela was born on 7 December 1996 in Brighton to actress Caroline Gruber and director Angelo Abela and grew up in Rottingdean with her older brother Jack.

Her father is of Maltese-Libyan descent, and her mother is of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry.

She attended Roedean School and took drama classes with the Theatre Workshop. She initially intended to study History and Law at UCL and become a human rights lawyer, but changed her mind last minute and decided to pursue acting instead. She went on to graduate from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 2019.Abela first appeared aged 11 as the character Alice in the thriller Man in a Box (2008).

After graduating from RADA, Abela made her television debut in 2020 with main roles in the Sky One political thriller COBRA as Ellie Sutherland and the BBC Two and HBO office drama Industry as Yasmin Kara-Hanani. She appeared in the 2022 films She Is Love and Rogue Agent.

In July 2022, Abela joined the cast of Greta Gerwig's Barbie (2023). She next starred as Amy Winehouse in Back to Black (2024), a biopic about the late singer by Sam Taylor-Johnson.