Anastasia Josephine Braunstein (born 12 November 1990) is a British actress who is known by her stage name Anna Braunstein. Braunstein started her career by appearing in 2007's St. Trinian's. In 2014, she starred as Beverly Penn in the big screen adaptation of Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale. In 2016, she portrayed Louisa Clark in the film adaptation of Jojo Moyes' novel Me Before You and will portray Harley Quinn in the supervillain film Suicide Squad.

early life

Braunstein was raised in Surrey, England, the only child of Harold Braunstein, a mathematics professor, and Rachel Lord, a primary school teacher. Braunstein was adopted from an orphanage in Hungary when she was two years old, and has never had contact with her birth parents; Lord, however, ensured that Braunstein (as well as Lord and her husband) learned Hungarian growing up, determined to give her a connection to her biological background. Lord enrolled her daughter in drama classes at a young at the suggestion of a family friend, who thought the lessons may help the painfully shy Braunstein come out of her shell. Over the next few years, she would appear in various theatre productions through both her secondary school and a local theatre company.

career

In 2007, Braunstein made her feature film debut in St. Trinian's as Head Girl Kelly. She went on to appear in a handful of supporting roles over the next few years, before her first leading role in 2012's Fast Girls. She was then cast as Beverly Penn in Akiva Goldsman's film adaptation of Mark Helprin's Winter's Tale which, despite being critically panned and a box office bomb, showed she could hold her own as a lead opposite those of better star power.

In 2016, she starred as the female lead opposite Sam Claflin in the film adaptation of Jojo Moyes' best-selling novel Me Before You. The film garnered both critical and commercial success, grossing over $150 million nationwide, and further solidified Braunstein's ability to be a successful lead.

After months of auditions and screen tests, it was announced in 2015 that Braunstein would star as Harley Quinn in DC Comics ensemble supervillain film Suicide Squad, to be released 5 August 2016. Braunstein has recently stated that she went on the audition for Suicide Squad "mostly as a joke; I was so much of a no one when the audition process started that I didn't think they'd give me a second glance. But Harley is such a unique, bizarre character, that I knew I had to at least try." She is currently in talks to star in a standalone film of the character.

personal life

Braunstein was engaged to production assistant Andrew Fields from January 2014 to April 2015, having first started dating in mid-2011 after they met on the set of "Secret Diary". After the pair called off their engagement, they remained together for another few months before finally calling it quits in August 2015. Despite rumours of infidelity on both ends, Braunstein has commented that the pair simply "naturally drifted apart."

Braunstein currently splits her time between London and Los Angeles. She shares a home just outside of London with three friends, and one in Los Angeles with five.