As far as the next generation of actors goes, Dafne Keen is easily among the top scorers. The 19-year-old actress has already left her mark on some of the world’s biggest franchises, but there’s still one world she’d like to explore.
The rising star, who rose to fame at 11 playing the fierce Laura in 2017’s Logan and recently reprised the role in Deadpool & Wolverine, wants to be sent Spanish roles. Speaking to EFE in 2023, Keen said it irritated her that people didn’t know she was Spanish because of all the foreign work she’s done, and so never sent her script opportunities to work in her home country. We’re here to fix that.
Dafne Keen is as Spanish as she is English
That’s right. Dafne Keen was born in the Madrid neighborhood of Chamberi and raised in La Latina. Her mom is Spanish theater actor and playwright Maria Fernández Ache and her first-ever screen role came in the 2015 Spanish-British television show The Refugees where she acted alongside her dad, British actor Will Keen (best known for playing the advisor to the queen in The Crown and Father MacPhail in another project shared with his daughter, HBO/BBC’s His Dark Materials).
Keen grew up speaking both Spanish and English, calling herself a “hybrid” of the two cultures. “I don’t have a favorite language but it’s very satisfying to use them both to my advantage,” she confessed in an interview with 5Eleven Magazine. Navigating the idiosyncratic characters of each of the two languages helped the young artist develop acute social skills that have made her easily adaptable to different environments.
Madrid was Keen’s home for her entire childhood. She started acting at a young age to escape the bullying she would suffer at school but has since become one of Hollywood’s most auspicious rising stars. At 18 she moved to London and rented her first apartment.
Hopefully, the move will not separate her entirely from a creative industry in Madrid she calls “incredible” and “impressive.” We’re still waiting on that Dafne Keen Spanish film debut!