Taylor Russell has been captivating audiences from the moment she appeared on screen. The Canadian actress began with smaller roles in TV and indie films throughout the mid-2010s before gradually making her way into the bigger projects we know and love her for today.
In Bones and All, she plays a teenage cannibal burdened by abandonment. In Waves, she spends half the film nearly invisible, only to reemerge and offer the story its one real chance at healing. Like so many actors of her caliber, Russell has taken on a range of roles and brought depth to every single one. While some might know her for her film work, her performances on the small screen, like “Falling Skies,” deserve just as much credit.
“Every time I do a project, I’m like, ‘Let’s see if I can pull this thing off,’” she once told Vanity Fair. To that end, we’ve seen her play a high-achieving student navigating young love, a sci-fi heroine trapped in space and much more. While not every role gets the same level of praise, there are plenty of great performances to revisit, and presumably even more on the way. While we wait to see what she does next, here’s a look back at Russell’s best acting roles. Check them out below.
1. Maren in ‘Bones and All’
The three most exciting things about Russell in Bones and All were barely contained fear during that one sleepover scene, her chemistry with Timothée Chalamet and the way she processes her father’s taped goodbye with barely any words at all. She plays Maren, a teen cannibal abandoned after one too many incidents, including biting off a classmate’s finger. It’s a disturbing role, but Russell gives weight to a character who, in lesser hands, might've been just another horror trope.
Maren and Lee (Chalamet) fall in love in a way that never feels safe or stable, and by the end, it’s clear they were never going to get out clean. After killing Sully, a fellow cannibal who intended to murder them both, Maren is left to carry out Lee’s final request: He wants her to eat him. While the film never shows it for obvious reasons, as the title promises, she ultimately eats him, "bones and all."
2. Emily in ‘Waves’
The Trey Edward Shults-directed Waves begins as Tyler (Kelvin Harrison Jr.)’s story, but Emily (Russell) eventually becomes the lasting focus. Her brother’s arrest for killing his girlfriend sends the family into crisis, and for the first half, she’s almost completely sidelined. However, toward the latter half, the viewpoint changes. As Emily slowly opens up — largely through her relationship with Luke, Lucas Hedges’ character — she becomes the film’s center. That growing connection slowly guides the audience, and her broken family, toward a sense of healing.
Arguably, Waves doesn't work without Russell. That said, A24 put together a pretty phenomenal cast for this one: Sterling K. Brown, Alexa Demie and Renée Elise Goldsberry.
3. Judy Robinson in “Lost in Space”
Russell’s introduction to Netflix’s "Lost in Space" reboot comes in the series premiere, when Judy Robinson dives into freezing water and ends up trapped beneath the ice, watching her oxygen tick down as her family scrambles to save her. By the episode's end, she's rescued by The Robot, who melts the ice to free her. Russell's first lead role in a TV show is an exciting one, as she gives Judy layers beyond the standard sci-fi hero mold.
Judy is technically the eldest child, but she often feels like the adult in the room. Because "Lost in Space" centers so heavily on spectacle and family dynamics, Russell’s restraint gives the show something human to hold onto. “Nobody is one thing, and so, to have representation… I think it's extremely important and, hopefully, there will be girls that can see themselves in me and see a strong character and can relate to that,” she told Strong Black Lead of the role. “It means a lot.”
4. Maya in ‘Words on Bathroom Walls’
In Words on Bathroom Walls, Russell plays Maya, the valedictorian classmate who slowly draws out Adam (Charlie Plummer), a teenager navigating life with schizophrenia. She’s not written as a savior — and thankfully, Russell never plays her like one — but the Canadian actress makes Maya feel real enough to matter beyond a simple romance. Yes, the film revisits a few high school tropes, like their first kiss and prom night, but one of its strengths is how it filters young love through a mental health lens, especially with Russell and Plummer leading the way.
5. Zoey Davis in ‘Escape Room’
Much like 1997’s Cube, Escape Room throws a group of strangers into a series of deadly puzzles, with each room designed to kill them if they can’t solve it. The newer film updates the concept for a modern audience, and Russell makes the premise work in her favor. She plays a college student who, unsurprisingly to some, is one of only two people to make it out alive. Russell makes a convincing performance here, and an even better one in the movie’s sequel, Tournament of Champions.
6. Evelyn in “Falling Skies”
Playing Evelyn in “Falling Skies” was an early role for Russell. She only appeared in the show’s final season, just as the 2nd Mass moved into the series' endgame. It’s a small part, the kind many actors take on their way up, but she manages to make something of a character introduced at a point when viewers weren’t really looking to invest in new characters. At the very least, she made it through the season.
7. Sophie in ‘Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets’
In her first big role after “Lost in Space,” Russell took on anxiety and teenage depression — which is far more complex than anything she'd faced in outer space — in Dr. Bird’s Advice for Sad Poets. Based on Evan Roskos' novel of the same name, the film sees Russell play Sophie, the popular girl in school and love interest of main character James Whitman (Lucas Jade Zumann). The movie places them in a series of fantasy sequences, which makes for an entertaining dynamic, especially depending on which part of the movie you're watching.