Jude Hill

Hill was born on 1 August 2010, in Gilford, a village in County Down near Armagh in Northern Ireland to parents Shauneen and Darryl.^[1] He has a younger sister and a younger brother.^[2] He attended St John's Primary School^[3][4] and took drama classes at the Shelley Lowry School in Portadown from the age of four.^[5]

Hill made his feature film debut in Kenneth Branagh's Belfast. The film's story is mostly told through the eyes of Hill's character Buddy, "a smart, cheery 9-year-old and a fictional version of Branagh himself", as described by Jeanette Catsoulis of The New York Times.^[6] Hill was nine when he was cast as the film's lead out of 300 young actors who auditioned, ten when filming took place, and eleven when the film premiered in 2021.^[7]

Hill also played the title role in the World War II-set short film Rian, which premiered at the 2021 CineMagic.^[8] In December 2021, Hill signed with United Talent Agency stateside.^[9]

In 2022, Hill attended Italy's David di Donatello ceremony as a special guest, picking up the Best Foreign Film award won by Belfast.^[10] In the same year, he made his television debut in Magpie Murders, a BritBox and PBS Masterpiece adaptation of the 2016 mystery novel of the same by Anthony Horowitz. He also appeared alongside Deirdre Mullins in the horror film Mandrake.

In September 2023, he appeared as Leopold Ferrier in Branagh's supernatural mystery film A Haunting in Venice, based on Agatha Christie's Hallowe'en Party.^[11]

Hill portrayed Harry Vandergroot in the Amazon film Holland alongside actress Nicole Kidman, which was released on 27 March 2025.^[12][13]