Marli Siu

Marli Siu is a Scottish actress. Her films include Anna and the Apocalypse (2017), Our Ladies (2019), and Run (2019), the latter of which won her a Scottish BAFTA. On television, Siu has appeared in the spy thriller Alex Rider (2020–2024) and the BBC drama Everything I Know About Love (2022).

Marli Siu
Siu circa 2017
Born	(1993-03-11) 11 March 1993 (age 32) British Hong Kong
Alma mater	Edinburgh Napier University
Occupation	Actress
Years active	2015–present

Early life and education

Siu was born on 11 March 1993 and lived in Lamma Island, Hong Kong until she was four years old, before moving to and growing up in Forres in Moray, north-east Scotland. She attended Forres Academy. Her mother is Scottish from Edinburgh and her father was Chinese. She has four sisters.^[1][2]

Siu attended a youth theatre group in Elgin and joined the National Youth Theatre,^[3] and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting and English Literature from Edinburgh Napier University.^[4][5]

Career

In 2015, Siu appeared in the short film Scoring, by Screen Academy Scotland, for which she was nominated for the ‘Under 25: Fresh Blood Award’ at the Underwire Film Festival.^[4][6] Her theatre credits include Dead Letter Office, Some Company, (co-writer); Much Ado About Nothing, Dundee Repertory Theatre (Ian Charleson Awards commendation) and The Ocean at the End of the Lane, The Royal National Theatre.^[4]

Siu moved to London in 2017, where she played Echo for 38 episodes of the CBBC web series Dixi.^[7] Her first major movie role came in 2017, when she played Lisa in John McPhail's zombie musical Anna and the Apocalypse, performing the song It's That Time of Year.^[8] The film premiered at the Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, and was released in the UK for Christmas 2018. Siu was named as one of the 15th Screen International's Stars of Tomorrow 2018 an annual talent showcase that spotlights up-and-coming British and Irish actors, writers, directors and producers from the UK and Ireland.^[9][10]

In 2019, Siu starred in the film Run,^[11] which premiered at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival on 26 April in New York City.^[9][4][12] Later that year Siu starred in two films selected to be screened at the 2019 London Film Festival, Run and Our Ladies both due for an upcoming cinema release.^[11]

In 2020, Siu starred as Kyra, a student from Point Blanc, in the IMDb television teen spy series Alex Rider. Kyra teams up with Alex (Otto Farrant) and plays an important role in all three series.^[13]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2014	Run (Short Film)	Lily	[14]
2015	Scoring	Katja	Short film [6]
2017	Anna and the Apocalypse	Lisa
2019	Run [11]	Kelly	Note: feature length film
2019	Our Ladies[15]	Kylah
2024	Apartment 7A	Annie Leung

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016	Still Game	Sally	1 episode
2017	Dixi	Echo	Web, 38 episodes
2019	Grantchester	Karla Read	1 episode
2020–2024	Alex Rider	Kyra Vashenko-Chao	18 episodes
2021	The Irregulars	Susan Shipley	Episode: "Chapter One: An Unkindness in London"
2022	Everything I Know About Love	Nell	7 Episodes

Stage

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2017	Misalliance	Hytapia	Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond
2016	Much Ado About Nothing	Hero	Dundee Repertory Theatre, Dundee
2019–2020	The Ocean at the End of the Lane	Lettie Hempstock	Royal National Theatre, London

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.
2014	Southampton International Film Festival	Best Supporting Actress in a Short Film	Run (Short film)	Nominated	[14]
2015	Underwire Film Festival	Best Under 25 Award	Scoring	Nominated	[6]
2016	Ian Charleson Awards		Much Ado About Nothing	Nominated	[16]
2018	Screen International	Stars of Tomorrow 2018		Won	[10][9]
	Toronto After Dark Film Festival	Best Ensemble Cast (shared)	Anna and the Apocalypse	Won	[14][17]
2019	CinEuphoria Awards (shared)	Best Ensemble - International Competition		Nominated	[14]
	Fangoria Chainsaw Awards	Best Supporting Actress		Nominated	[14]
2021	British Academy Scotland Awards 2021	Scottish BAFTA - Best Actress – Film	Run	Won	[18]
2022	British Academy Scotland Awards 2022	Scottish BAFTA - Best Actress – Film	Our Ladies	Nominated	[19]