Hannah John-Kamen

Hannah John-Kamen was born in Hull, the daughter of a Norwegian fashion model mother and a Nigerian forensic psychologist father.^[4] She has an older brother and an older sister. She attended primary school in nearby Kirk Ella, received her secondary education at Hull Collegiate School,^[5] and trained at the National Youth Theatre.^[6] John-Kamen moved to London at the age of 18. In 2012, she graduated from the Central School of Speech and Drama.^[7]

John-Kamen began her career in 2011, providing voice work for the video game Dark Souls. She went on to make appearances in episodes of television series Misfits (2011), Black Mirror (2011), Whitechapel (2012), The Syndicate (2012), The Midnight Beast (2012) and The Hour (2012).

From 11 December 2012 to 29 June 2013, she took the lead role of Viva in the Spice Girls-themed West End musical Viva Forever!^[8] The musical premiered at the Piccadilly Theatre to largely negative reviews.^[9] The Daily Mirror, however, praised John-Kamen's performance and called it a "shame" that she and the rest of the cast were "let down by a clichéd plot and leaden dialogue".^[10]

In 2015, John-Kamen had a starring role in the SyFy series Killjoys.^[11][12] In 2016, she had a guest-star role on the HBO series Game of Thrones.^[13] That year, she appeared in the Black Mirror episode "Playtest"^[14] and an episode of The Tunnel. Addressing John-Kamen's role in Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One (2018), Kristen Tauer wrote, "While much of Ready Player One takes place in a virtual reality world, Hannah John-Kamen's character is unique in that she is rooted in the reality throughout the film."^[15] That same year, John-Kamen played Ava Starr / Ghost in the superhero film Ant-Man and the Wasp.^[16] In 2021, John-Kamen starred in the action-thriller film SAS: Red Notice and portrayed Jill Valentine in the reboot film Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. She was cast as Red Sonja in the upcoming film by the same name from Millennium Films but reportedly left the project for unknown reasons.^[17][18]

In 2023, John-Kamen starred in the folk horror film Unwelcome alongside Douglas Booth.^[19] In 2025, John-Kamen reprised her role as Ava Starr / Ghost in Thunderbolts* (2025), and it was announced that same year that she would also reprise the role in Avengers: Doomsday (2026).^[20]

John-Kamen enjoys playing the piano and is trained in various styles of dance such as ballet, cabaret, jazz, salsa and tap.^[6]