Ellie Kendrick (born 6 June 1990) is a British actress best known for playing Anne Frank in the BBC's 2009 miniseries The Diary of Anne Frank. Kendrick said she was"absolutely terrified" at the thought of playing the 15 year-old Anne Frank. She said that her approach to playing Frank was to"peel back the layers of idolisation and to think of the characters just as normal people." However, her performance as a difficult teenager, obsessed with boys but sensitive to the trauma felt by her family while in hiding in The Annexe, was praised for"bringing fresh realism to an iconic role." Kendrick was 17 when she filmed the role. She has also played roles in Waking the Dead (2004), Doctors (2004), In 2 Minds (2004), Prime Suspect: The Final Act (2006), Lewis (2007) and the film An Education, scripted by Nick Hornby and which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. In 2009, she made her stage debut as Juliet in a Shakespeare's Globe production of Romeo and Juliet. In December 2010, she played maid Ivy Morris in BBC One's revival of Upstairs, Downstairs. Kendrick attended Benenden School in Kent and is a former member of the National Youth Theatre. In October 2009, she took up a place to study English at the University of Cambridge.
