Darci Shaw Age, Movies and TV Shows, and Everything to Know About the Liverpool-Born Actress

Darci Shaw is a British actress from Liverpool, best known for playing a young Judy Garland in the 2019 biopic Judy alongside Renée Zellweger. Since that breakout role, she has built a steady career across film and television, appearing in Netflix’s The Irregulars, Disney+’s A Thousand Blows, and BBC One’s This City Is Ours. This guide covers her background, her full list of movies and TV shows, and the answers to the questions people ask most about her.

Quick Facts About Darci Shaw

Early Life and How She Got Into Acting

Darci Shaw was born and raised in Mossley Hill, a suburb of Liverpool, and attended The Belvedere Academy. Her interest in performing began early: she started taking Saturday acting classes at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts around age five.

By 14, she had joined the Everyman and Playhouse Youth Theatre, where she took part weekly and landed roles in stage productions of Fiddler on the Roof and Romeo and Juliet in 2017. Watching professional actors work on those productions is what convinced her to pursue acting seriously rather than treat it as a hobby.

That grounding in Liverpool’s local theatre scene gave her a foundation most young actors don’t get before stepping onto a film set — and it paid off almost immediately.

Her Breakout Role: Playing Young Judy Garland

Shaw’s first credited screen role came in 2019, when director Rupert Goold cast her, at just 15, as the teenage Judy Garland in Judy. The film follows Garland’s difficult final years, and Shaw’s scenes depicted her early life on the set of The Wizard of Oz, opposite Renée Zellweger’s portrayal of the older Garland.

The role required Shaw to carry real emotional weight for a first-time film actress, and critics noticed. Rolling Stone singled out her performance as one of the film’s standout elements, and the part put her on casting directors’ radar almost overnight.

That same year, she also picked up her first television credit, playing Holly Meredith in four episodes of the ITV crime drama The Bay, working alongside Morven Christie and Chanel Cresswell.

Darci Shaw Movies and TV Shows: Full List

Here’s a complete breakdown of Darci Shaw’s movies and TV shows to date, from her stage beginnings through her current run of leading television roles.

The Irregulars (2021)

After Judy, Shaw’s next major role was Jessie in Netflix’s The Irregulars, a supernatural mystery series set in a darker, alternate version of Victorian London where a group of teenagers investigate strange cases for Dr Watson. Jessie is a psychic character whose visions drive much of the show’s mystery, and the part demanded a very different register from her work in Judy — more physical, more unsettling, and spread across a full eight-episode arc.

Midas Man (2024)

In Midas Man, a biographical drama about Beatles manager Brian Epstein, Shaw played Cilla Black, the Liverpool singer and television presenter. Playing a real, well-known British entertainer added a different kind of pressure to the role — one closer to the challenge she’d already faced playing Judy Garland.

A Thousand Blows (2025–2026)

Shaw’s highest-profile TV role to date is Alice Diamond in A Thousand Blows, a Victorian-era boxing drama for Disney+ and Hulu created by Peaky Blinders writer Steven Knight and co-starring Stephen Graham. Alice Diamond was a real historical figure —the leader of an all-female gang in early 20th-century London —and the show returned for a second season in 2026, showing how well the series, and Shaw’s role in it, landed with audiences.

This City Is Ours (2025)

That same year, Shaw also joined the BBC One organised-crime drama This City Is Ours, playing Melissa Phelan, the daughter of Sean Bean’s crime-boss character. Set in Liverpool, the show gave her the chance to play a leading role in a story set in her home city.

What Makes Darci Shaw Stand Out as an Actress

A few things come up again and again when critics and interviewers talk about Shaw’s work:

• Range across genres. She’s moved between biographical drama (Judy, Midas Man), supernatural mystery (The Irregulars), and gritty crime television (A Thousand Blows, This City Is Ours) without settling into one type of role.
• Comfort with real historical figures. Playing both Judy Garland and Cilla Black means she’s taken on the added challenge of portraying performers audiences already strongly associate with.
• A strong regional identity. Several of her biggest roles — including This City Is Ours — are set in or connected to Liverpool, the city she grew up in.
• Vocal versatility. She’s known for performing confidently in Received Pronunciation, American, and various British Northern accents, particularly Mancunian.

Awards and Industry Recognition

While Shaw hasn’t picked up a major acting award to date, her early work put her firmly on the industry’s radar. In 2021, she and fellow Irregulars co-star Henry Lloyd-Hughes were chosen to announce the nominations for the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards — a notable vote of confidence from British film critics, and a sign that Judy had made an impression well beyond box office numbers.

Personal Life

Darci Shaw keeps her personal life largely out of the spotlight. She isn’t a heavy presence on social media compared to many actors her age, and most of what’s publicly known about her centres on her work and her Liverpool roots rather than her private affairs.

What’s Next for Darci Shaw

With A Thousand Blows renewed for a second season and This City Is Ours having launched to strong attention in 2025, Shaw’s television work is currently the main focus of her career. Given her track record of alternating between film and TV, and between period drama and contemporary crime stories, further film roles wouldn’t be a surprise as her profile continues to grow.

FAQs About Darci Shaw

How old is Darci Shaw? Darci Shaw was born on 17 April 2002, making her 24 years old as of 2026.

What is Darci Shaw best known for? She’s best known for playing young Judy Garland in the 2019 film Judy, and more recently for starring in A Thousand Blows and This City Is Ours.

Where is Darci Shaw from? She was born and raised in Liverpool, England, specifically the suburb of Mossley Hill.

What are Darci Shaw’s most popular movies and TV shows? Her most notable credits are Judy (2019), The Irregulars (2021), Midas Man (2024), A Thousand Blows (2025–present), and This City Is Ours (2025).

Did Darci Shaw train as an actress? Yes. She took Saturday classes at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts from around age five and later joined the Everyman and Playhouse Youth Theatre at 14.

Is Darci Shaw in a second season of A Thousand Blows? Yes, she continues as Alice Diamond in the show’s second season, which aired in 2026.

Final Thoughts

Darci Shaw’s career has moved from Liverpool youth theatre to leading roles on two of the biggest streaming platforms in under a decade, and her willingness to take on real historical figures alongside fictional ones has become something of a signature. Keep an eye on her upcoming projects, and catch up on A Thousand Blows or This City Is Ours if you haven’t already seen her most recent work.

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