Darby Camp

Darby Eliza Camp was born on July 14, 2007, in Charlotte, North Carolina.^[2][3][1] Her father, Clark, works as North Mecklenburg High School's assistant basketball coach.^[2][4] Her mother, Lacy, has a degree in acting and is a graduate at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.^[4][5] She has also worked as an actress.^[4] Lacy let Darby and her sister, Ruthie, "get into" acting at an early age.^[2][5] While Ruthie disliked it, Darby enjoyed it.^[5] During the first semester of the 2017–2018 school year, Darby attended Community School of Davidson.^[4] By November 2020, she enrolled back into school after having been home-schooled for the past two years.^[5]

After seeing Camp's enjoyment of acting, her mother submitted her for a role. Through her mother's contacts, Camp booked roles in television series such as Drop Dead Diva and The Leftovers.^[4] In early-2016, Camp was announced to have joined the cast of the television adaptation of Liane Moriarty's Big Little Lies, which was her breakout role.^[5][6] While Camp was unaware of who Reese Witherspoon and Nicole Kidman were, her parents were "super excited" about them.^[5] Witherspoon gave Camp suggestions while acting, which the latter described as nice and professional.^[7] Debuting in February 2017,^[8] the series featured Camp as Chloe Adaline Mackenzie, the daughter of Madeline Martha Mackenzie (Witherspoon).^[2] The show was critically acclaimed, particularly for its performances.^[9][10] Later that year, Big Little Lies was renewed for a second season.^[11] Regarding season 2 episode "Kill Me", Ben Travers of IndieWire said Camp's hug with Adam Scott "shatter[ed] hearts".^[12]

In 2017, she was announced to have joined the cast of Dreamland; the film was in production during the announcement.^[13] Camp stated her dad had secured the audition for her—she was excited when she heard it as the film starred Margot Robbie, whom she was a fan of.^[5] While filming Dreamland, Camp auditioned for Netflix film The Christmas Chronicles, where she would play an 11-year-old girl who believes in Santa Claus, after her agent stated it "sounded like something [she would] be really great at".^[5] She was enthusiastic about as she "never thought [she would] get in a Christmas [film]".^[5]

In 2018, she starred in Benji, which was released on March 16, 2018, to mixed reviews.^[14][15] The performances were sources of praise: Common Sense Media's Renee Schonfeld found Camp and Gabriel Bateman gifted with realism and heart.^[16] The Christmas Chronicles was released in November of the same year; Camp's performance received mixed reviews from critics. Vox writer Emily St. James opined that Camp and Judah Lewis, who plays her on-screen brother Teddy, "succeed in feeling more or less like real kids", deeming their emotional moments flat and criticizing their disconnection with Kurt Russell, who plays Santa Claus.^[17] By contrast, IGN thought Russell was well-matched by Camp and Lewis.^[18] Earlier in 2018, Camp was announced to be recurring in AMC supernatural horror television series NOS4A2 as Haley Smith, a tough, adventurous, humorous, and confident 10-year-old girl, and debuted in 2019.^[19] Dreamland premiered on April 28, 2019, at the Tribeca Film Festival and was received averagely by critics.^[20][21] Camp's portrayal garnered praise from David Ehrlich of IndieWire, who deemed her "inquisitive but never annoying".^[22]

In 2019, Camp was announced to be playing the lead role of Emily Elizabeth Howard, a misfit who becomes best friends with a small puppy, in Paramount Pictures's film adaptation of Clifford the Big Red Dog.^[23] It was originally set for a September 2021 theatrical release though this was later pushed back to November 2021^[24] due to the Delta variant of the SARS-CoV-2.^[25][26] Although the film received mixed reviews,^[27] Camp's performance was praised. Chicago Sun-Times considered her "appealing ... [and] sweetly-but-not-obnoxiously precocious",^[28] while Los Angeles Times said, "Camp is able to sell her emotional connection to the enormous scarlet pup-ernel among all the chaos, which keeps the movie’s heart in the right place."^[29] In May 2020, a sequel to The Christmas Chronicles was announced.^[30] Released in November of the same year, the second film also received mixed reviews.^[31][32] Writing for Deadline Hollywood, Pete Hammond considered her reprisal pleasant.^[33] In May 2021, she was cast as a regular in Starz's Gaslit where she will play Marty Mitchell, a young girl who has been overshadowed by her mother, Martha Mitchell (Julia Roberts).^[34]

• Darby Camp at IMDb