British Actresses You Should Know: Oona Chaplin

While we rate all the talented subjects of our Actors/Actresses You Should Know profiles as worthy of your notice, most don’t have the same showbiz pedigree as that of Oona Chaplin. Her grandfather was legendary silent film actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin. Her great-grandfather was the celebrated American playwright, Eugene O’Neill. Oona was named after her grandmother, Oona (O’Neill) Chaplin.

Ms. Chaplin was born in Madrid. With her parents’ (actress Geraldine Chaplin and Chilean cinematographer, Patricio Castilla) busy careers, she spent much of her youth on sets and visiting family in Spain, Switzerland, Cuba, Chile, and the UK. Due to her globe-trotting childhood, Oona can speak fluent Spanish, French, and English.

At 15, she earned a drama scholarship at an independent boarding school in Scotland. Afterwards, Chaplin was accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) program in London and completed her course in 2007.

The first few years of Oona’s career included some small TV and film roles including her blink-and-you’ll-miss-her cameo in the 2008 Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. She also appeared in several on-screen projects with her mother at this time.

¿Para Qué Sirve Un Oso? (What Is A Bear For?)

Oona appeared with her mother Geraldine in ¿Para Qué Sirve Un Oso?, a 2011 Spanish comedy about two wildlife-loving brothers. One is a biologist jaded about his Artic conservation efforts; the other is a photographer obsessed with proving that bears have returned to the Asturian mountains in Spain. Oona plays Rosa, a schoolteacher who gets romantically involved with the photographer’s American assistant. (Or at least that’s what I understood from the translated synopses I read!)