Eve Best is set to be inducted into the Game of Thrones hall of fame when its debut series first airs on Sky Atlantic tonight. Fans will soon come to know her as Princess Rhaenys Velaryon in the eagerly-anticipated prequel House of the Dragon.
After largely making a name for herself in the theatre and on British television, this role will introduce her to a whole new cult audience. The opening episode premieres at 2am tomorrow morning before repeating at 9pm that same evening.
While the series, set 200 years before the events of GoT, will focus largely on the Targaryen family dynasty, who are in the midst of a civil war, Eve’s Princess Rhaenys Velaryon character will have a major part to play despite being on the periphery of the chief family. She stars alongside Steve Toussaint, as Lord Corlys Velaryon, with the pair poised to have a surprisingly equal relationship.
Read more: Who is House Of The Dragon's Olivia Cooke and who does she play?
Who is Eve Best and what has she been in?
Eve Best grew up in Ladbroke Grove in West London before attending Oxford’s Lincoln College, where she studied English. After graduating from Oxford, her professional debut came at the Southwark Playhouse as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing.
Having worked on the London fringe, she graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before continuing to star on the stage. She also began featuring on television, making appearances in The Bill and Casualty in 2000.
It remained her stage career where Best earned most of her recognition however, winning a Laurence Olivier Award for playing the title role in Hedda Gabler. Best was nominated for the same award the following year, for her performance in A Moon for the Misbegotten, as well as a Best Actress in a Play Tony Award nomination for her role in The Homecoming.
A rare film credit came in 2010, when she played the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, in the critically-acclaimed The King’s Speech. Her directorial debut came courtesy of a production of Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in 2013, before playing Cleopatra at the same theatre the following summer.
Further TV credits came in Prime Suspect: The Final Act, Walking the Dead, Nurse Jackie and The Honourable Woman. She was finally announced to portray Princess Rhaenys Velaryon in House of the Dragon this year.
Who is Eve Best’s House of the Dragon character Princess Rhaenys Velaryon?
Rhaenys Targaryen is known as the Queen Who Never Was after being denied access to the Iron Throne despite being the rightful heir. Rhaenys's father died before her grandfather King Jaehaerys did, with Jaehaerys controversially naming his second son as his heir, despite it being traditional inheritance law that a lord’s daughter should succeed ahead of his younger brother.
After Jaehaerys’s younger son died himself a few years later, a battle ensues between two rival male heirs - Rhaenys's own son Laenor and Rhaenys's first cousin Viserys. Rhaenys was married to Lord Corlys Velaryon, admiral of the Targaryen fleets and the wealthiest living man in Westeros at the time.
The pair have two children - daughter Laena Velaryon and son Laenor Velaryon. Rhaenys is a dragonrider whose dragon was Meleys, the Red Queen.
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