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Actress Anya Taylor-Joy rose to fame in 2020 thanks to starring in the Netflix hit show The Queen's Gambit in which she plays the fictional chess prodigy Beth Harmon. However, even prior to that, the actress has been known to many thanks to her roles in projects like Split, Glass, The Witch, Peaky Blinders, and Emma.

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Today, we're taking a look at where the actress was born, where she was raised, and just what languages she speaks. Keep on scrolling to find out just which Anya Taylor-Joy's first language is (hint: it's not English)!

Where Was Anya Taylor-Joy Born?

Anya Taylor-Joy was born in Miami, Florida on April 16, 1996. At the time of her birth, her parents were on holiday in the country, which is why the actress actually grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina where a lot of her family lives.

Anya Taylor-Joy's father Dennis Alan Taylor is the son of a British father and an Argentine-British mother, while Taylor-Joy's mother Jennifer Marina Joy was born in Zambia to an English diplomat father and a Spanish mother. The actress lived in Buenos Aires until the age of six when her family relocated to London.

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Because she moved around, the actress admitted that she never really felt like she belonged anywhere. "I grew up feeling like people didn't like or trust me because they couldn't put me in a box," Taylor-Joy told InStyle. "I was always the Argentine girl in England. I was the English girl in America. I was the weird blend of both in Argentina, so I never really fully belonged."

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Anya Taylor-Joy wasn't able to visit her homeland Argentina for a while, and when she finally traveled back home, she decided to share a heartfelt message on Instagram. "This pictures was taken five minutes after I got to Buenos Aires airport for the first time in three years," the actress wrote. "I was so emotional I couldn't stop crying. Here's to hoping that this year will reunite us with the people and the places we love the most."

Anya Taylor-Joy's First Language

Anya Taylor-Joy's first language is Spanish, which she is still fluent at. The actress even does interviews in Spanish occasionally, and she didn't properly learn English until she moved to London with her family. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Anya Taylor-Joy revealed that adjusting to London wasn't easy, as she was used to "lots of horse-riding, lots of animals" and London certainly lacked those. "The move [to London] was very traumatic to me. All of a sudden I was in this intense big city," the actress said. Taylor-Joy also admitted that she refused to learn English for two years as she was hoping that her parents would change their minds and move back to South America.

Taylor-Joy actually revealed that she perfected her English thanks to a famous book franchise. "My uncle taught me to read and to speak at the same time with the Harry Potter books," Taylor-Joy said in an episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers. "I was either casting spells continuously or using very annoying words," she added.

Judging by the movies she starred in, it's hard to believe that the actress' first language isn't English. However, plenty of the star's fans are hoping to see Anya Taylor-Joy star in a Spanish-speaking role soon. In an interview after the 2020 Golden Globes, the actress was asked when she would speak Spanish in a movie, and this is what she revealed:

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"I have always wanted to work with is Guillermo Del Toro. I feel his relationship with the supernatural is very much like mine. He understands my brain and my heart very well. So I would love to work with him. But honestly, I haven’t had much time to figure it out. I am just waiting for the right project. It needs to be something special because it’s a very special part of my life, it’s a very special part of my soul. Spanish is my first language. But while I am very good at accents in English because I mimic a lot, in Spanish I have a very thick Argentine accent. So I wonder how difficult it would be when I will speak Spanish. But I am up for the challenge. "

Anya Taylor-Joy even joked about her ethnicity and the languages she speaks during her monologue on Saturday Night Live. "Now that you’re hearing my accent, you may be surprised to know I was born in Miami, raised between Argentina and London, and my first language is Spanish," the actress said. "So legally, my ethnicity is Fashion Week."

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