Eliza Butterworth

Eliza Butterworth (born 24 July 1993) is an English actress. She is best known for her role as Queen Aelswith of Wessex in the series The Last Kingdom, and is nominated for best supporting actress in a TV series at the National Film Awards UK for her performance as Heston the BBC Two miniseries The North Water in 2022. Butterworth was born and raised in Lincoln, England on July 24, 1993 to an English father from Lancashire and an Italian American mother from Iowa. Her parents met in Nebraska where her mother was training to be a nurse and her father, in the Royal Air Force, was stationed at Offutt Air Force Base. She has dual citizenship. From the age of 4 to 18, Butterworth attended Lincoln Minster School. She discovered acting through a school play and was Head Girl. She went on to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Acting from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 2014. Whilst training at RADA, Butterworth performed lead roles in The Daughter in Law and The Witch of Edmonton.