Short answer: No. Daisy Ridley's documented family background is English, and no reputable source records Jewish parentage, a Jewish upbringing, or a conversion. She has never described herself as Jewish, and the closest she has come to discussing belief is calling herself spiritual.
What the record actually shows
- Daisy Jazz Isobel Ridley was born 10 April 1992 in Westminster, London, and grew up in Maida Vale, the youngest of three daughters born to Christopher Ridley and Louise Fawkner-Corbett. She has two sisters, Kika Rose and Poppy Sophia, plus two older half-sisters (Wikipedia).
- Her mother's family, the Fawkner-Corbetts, are described as landed gentry with a military and medical background. Nothing Jewish is documented on that maternal line (Wikipedia).
- Her paternal line is documented English several generations back. Her grandfather, John Ridley OBE, was head of engineering at the BBC from 1950 to 1965, and his brother was the playwright and actor Arnold Ridley of Dad's Army, making Arnold her great-uncle (The Irish Times, Wikipedia).
- Her education carries no religious affiliation either. She attended Tring Park School for the Performing Arts in Hertfordshire from ages nine to eighteen on a scholarship, then studied classical civilisation at Birkbeck, University of London, before leaving to act, and from 2016 studied for a BA in social science with the Open University (Wikipedia).
- In a December 2019 interview with Stylist during the press run for The Rise of Skywalker, she described her beliefs without naming any religion: "I am quite spiritual, I believe in the universe." She added that things "happen for a reason, for the most part," and "I'm a big believer in putting things out there. You've got to push what you want out into the universe" (Stylist).
- She has no public record on antisemitism. No statement by her on the subject, and no controversy involving her, appears in mainstream or Jewish press coverage. This is an absence in the record rather than a finding.
Why people ask
Several things plausibly feed the question. One is a role she was once attached to but never played. On 26 April 2016 it was announced that Ridley would lead The Lost Wife, adapted from Alyson Richman's 2011 novel about Lenka, an art student in pre-war Prague separated from her husband by the Nazi invasion and reunited with him decades later in America. Marc Klein wrote the screenplay and Robbie Brenner was attached to produce, per Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, which also covered the casting (Empire). The film was never made, but the association of Ridley with a Holocaust-era story has outlived the project itself.
Two other things feed the search. Playing Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy from 2015 to 2019 put her at the centre of a global franchise, and "is [actor] Jewish" is a standing question people bring to franchise leads. Her surname also collides with Ridley Road, the BBC and PBS drama about a Jewish woman infiltrating a group of British neo-Nazis (JTA). She has no connection to that series. The shared name is a coincidence.
Daisy Ridley and Israel
Ridley has one clearly documented public action on the region. On 15 September 2025 she announced on her Instagram account that she would take part in a live table read of Pride & Prejudice at the Troxy in east London on Sunday 12 October 2025, writing that it was "in aid of @medicalaidforpal" and calling it "this charitable night of comedy, Austen and Palestinian solidarity" (Instagram). The event was organised by Cinema for Gaza, hosted by Nish Kumar and directed by Nida Manzoor, with Medical Aid for Palestinians as beneficiary, and other announced participants including Ambika Mod, Morfydd Clark, Jameela Jamil and Susan Wokoma (Arab News, Variety via Yahoo, with Deadline also reporting it). Full details in our companion piece Does Daisy Ridley Support Israel?.
The bottom line
Daisy Ridley is not Jewish. Her documented family, on both sides, is English going back several generations, and she has never claimed Jewish heritage or identity in any interview or post on record. The question follows her because of a Holocaust-era film that was announced and then abandoned, because of the sheer volume of searches that Star Wars fame attracts, and because her surname happens to match an unrelated Jewish-themed television drama.
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Last updated August 2026. We update these profiles as the record changes.
