Doherty is from Crawley in West Sussex.[2][3][4] Her Irish paternal grandfather was from Carndonagh in County Donegal.[5][6] Doherty's parents divorced when she was four. She began acting in Sunday drama classes with her older sister Grace shortly afterwards.[7]
Doherty studied at Hazelwick School in Crawley.[2] A talented footballer, Doherty played in midfield for and captained the Crawley Wasps and was scouted by Chelsea Women; she reached the age where she "had to commit" to either football or acting and chose the latter.[8][9] Whilst at Hazelwick School, Romesh Ranganathan was Doherty's head of year.[10]
Whilst training, Doherty won the Stephen Sondheim Society Student Performer of the Year Award in 2015 for her rendition of the song "Broadway Baby" from the Sondheim musical Follies.[13][14]
Career
Theatre
Doherty is a frequent theatre actress. Since graduating from Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in 2015, she has appeared in a number of productions at some of London's leading theatres. Doherty's performances have consistently attracted positive reviews from leading theatre critics. Michael Billington named Doherty as 'one of the year's greatest discoveries'[15] after her performance in My Name Is Rachel Corrie, a one-woman play about the activist Rachel Corrie. Doherty starred in Jack Thorne's play Junkyard, which led What's On Stage reviewer Kris Hallett to write "Doherty is the star here, and by rights will soon be a star full-stop".[16] Her leading performance in Alan Ayckbourn's play The Divide at the Old Vic Theatre was described by Dominic Cavendish for The Daily Telegraph as having "star-wattage as bright as anything".[17]
In 2019, Doherty appeared as Princess Anne in the third season of The Crown. She knew little about the princess before being cast, and consequently spent hours studying Anne's family history and life.[21] Doherty made a point of watching footage of the princess only at the age she was portraying her, rather than interviews of Anne in later life.[22][23] Anne's voice is very different from Doherty's, being much lower in pitch; the actress spent time carefully learning and mimicking it, finding that it "was the key into her psyche".[24] Doherty reprised her role as Princess Anne in the fourth season of the series.[25]
In 2025, she played child psychologist Briony Ariston, alongside the youth Owen Cooper, in episode 3 of the Netflix miniseries Adolescence. This received media coverage due to the intense 52-minute episode having been filmed entirely in a single uncut take (as was each episode of the series).[29] Lucy Mangan of The Guardian ranked the third episode of the miniseries' as "most astounding", declaring that Doherty was "surely emerging as one of the best actors of her generation".[30]
In 2024, Doherty was one of the celebrities chosen to play football for England against the World XI in the charity event Soccer Aid for UNICEF; England won 6–3. She is a football fan and supports Tottenham Hotspur F.C.[35]
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