Movies

Rachel Hurd-Wood (born 17 August 1990) is an English actress. She is best known for her film roles as Wendy Darling in Peter Pan (2003), Dorian Gray (2009) and Tomorrow, When the War Began (2010). And more recently for her television role as Rachel Maddox in Clique (2017–2018).

Early life
Background
Hurd-Wood was born in the Streatham district of South London, England, the daughter of Philip and Sarah Hurd-Wood. She lived in London till the age of eight, when she and her family moved to a Victorian cottage in Godalming, Surrey.

Hurd-Wood has a younger brother, Patrick who appeared with her in Peter Pan as one of the sleeping children in the "I Do Believe In Fairies" scene. He also plays the role of Samuel Crowthorn alongside his sister in her later film, Solomon Kane in which she plays Meredith Crowthorn.

Her father's work involves performing, writing scripts and doing voice-overs for commercials. He appears in one of her films, An American Haunting, as one of the guests in the Christmas party scene towards the beginning of the film. She joined a drama club in her school and took part in its stage production during her second year. Hurd-Wood dispelled the false rumour that her uncle is Hugh Laurie in a 2009 September–October interview for the magazine Little White Lies: The An Education Issue and then again in a 2010 live Myspace web chat for the film Tomorrow, When the War Began. "My uncle lives in Wales and is an artist", she says.

Education
Hurd-Wood attended Rodborough Technology College in Milford, Surrey from 2001 to 2006. She had tutored lessons during the filming of Peter Pan in Australia during 2002 to 2003 as her work lasted for a span of 8 to 9 months. She later attended Godalming College from 2006 to 2008 to study for her A-Levels in Art, English Literature, Psychology and Philosophy.

Hurd-Wood had considered becoming a marine biologist because of her love for dolphins. She gave up on the idea when she discovered that it would require studying science because she thought she was not very good at it.

Hurd-Wood became interested in working with children who have special needs or disabilities. Hurd-Wood began studying linguistics at University College London in 2008, but left the course after a year, before travelling to Australia for the filming of Tomorrow, When the War Began, when she decided to focus entirely on her career in acting.