Kaya Rose Humphrey was born on March 13, 1992 in Holloway, London, England. She was raised by her Brazilian mother in a council flat after her father left when she was one. She adopted her mother’s maiden name, Scodelario, and became fluent in Portuguese. Growing up, Scodelario was bullied at school about her dyslexia, frizzy hair, and petite frame. Acting became an outlet for her, where she gained confidence and she soon became passionate about the art. She then decided to pursue roles after playing the lead in her school’s production of Oliver.

With no prior acting experience, at the age of 14, Scodelario was cast in the 2007 first series of Skins as Effy Stonem. Upon Scodelario's arrival to the auditions she felt she was too young and became discouraged, a producer told her to stay and was asked to read for the part. While Scodelario's role had minimal speaking lines in th

e first series, her character developed considerably in the series during 2008, before she eventually became the central character in the 2009 and 2010 series after the cast had been replaced with a new generation of characters. This made Effy the only character to appear from series 1 right through to series 4 of Skins. Filming began in July and Scodelario revealed that 18 November 2009 had been her last day of filming the series and that she would miss being on the show.  Scodelario left after the fourth series, making way for the third generation of characters. Her performance was praised by critics, and she was nominated twice in the category for Best Actress at the TV Quick Awards in 2009 and 2010. Scodelario reprised her role as Effy in one of the three parts of the seventh (and final) series of Skins, which is called "Fire", and is a two part rendition of her life as an adult, lasting two hours in total. 

She has stated that she loves being apart of a new generation of actors who are not professionally trained and have more of an edge. Scodelario’s heart currently resides in independent film, as it provides her with more of a learning experience, but would only consider Hollywood with the right role. “I don’t think that I could ever play just a ‘pretty girlfriend’ or just a stereotypical female part that’s just there to get her tits out – that just doesn’t interest me at all, really. I just want to keep pushing myself with every role and keep pushing myself with every film,” she says (Topman, 2013).

Personal life

Scodelario revealed in an interview that she dated Skins co-star Jack O'Connel for about a year before splitting up in June 2009, though they remain good friends. She was in a relationship with Elliot Tittensor since late 2009 but broke up sometime in early 2014. Their relationship became more public when Scodelario supported Tittensor after his arrest for an incident where he hit someone while driving in an uninsured automobile. During the filming of The Moon and the Sun, Scodelario began to date her co-star, Benjamin Walker, and they became engaged on 28 December 2014

Amongst her hobbies, Scodelario enjoys watching her favourite bands in concert, such as the Rolling Stones and Arctic Monkeys. She has a fun, lovable crush on Austrian actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and even named her french bulldog, ‘Arnie’, after him. Scodelario is also a generous individual, and enjoys working with a few charities, most recently, Let’s Get Talking. LGT is a charity which encourages open discussion for teens to raise awareness of health and crime prevention amongst our youth.