What You Don't Know About Behind Her Eyes' Star Simona Brown
Step aside Bridgerton and Emily in Paris, because Netflix has a new hit with Behind Her Eyes. The limited thriller series is currently the No. 1 trending show on the streaming platform, and stars the amazing Simona Brown as Louisa who falls in love with her psychiatrist boss. The drama happens when Louisa finds out her boss is married, and a love triangle begins. The show is based on a 2017 novel by Sarah Pinborough, and is full of shocking twists and turns (via EW). It's definitely a show you'll want to marathon-watch all weekend-long, which is why you'll want to know more about its leading lady.
Brown's star in Hollywood is definitely on the rise, but this isn't the first big project she's worked on. The 26-year-old British actress who grew up in southeast London, according to PopSugar, already has an impressive resume that includes a few movies and a bunch of TV credits. In 2018, Brown even starred alongside fellow rising star, Florence Pugh, in the BBC series The Little Drummer Girl, but there's even more you might not know about Simona Brown (via Bustle).
She went to the same drama school as another Netflix star
While natural talent has a lot to factor into Simona Brown's success, the Behind Her Eyes actress has the training as well. Brown attended The Identity School of Acting London back in the day, which has an impressive alumni list that includes another Netflix star, Chance Perdomo (via PopSugar). Perdomo starred as Ambrose Spellman in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, which had its final season premiere on Netflix at the end of 2020 (via SyFy).
Along with Perdomo, Star Wars' John Boyega and Black Panther's Letitia Wright also attended the London drama school. That's actually where the two first met and became friends. Now the former schoolmates have followed their dreams and have even attended the Met Gala together back in 2018 (via Bustle). Boyega and Wright are a little older than Brown, so it's unclear if their paths ever crossed in school, but you can just imagine how cool it would be to see everyone at the same reunion party.
Brown once wanted to be a singer like Whitney Houston
Before pursuing acting, Simona Brown actually wanted to be a singer like Whitney Houston. According to her Essence Magazine interview in 2018, Brown said that "Whitney was a huge inspiration for [her] growing up." Brown told The British Blacklist back in 2016 that "everyone wanted to be Whitney Houston when they were five." Because of that, when she attended The BRIT school, she studied musical theater which included not only acting, but dancing and singing as well. However, it was the acting that she really fell in love with, and decided to focus on.
A Whitney Houston biopic titled I Wanna Dance With Somebody is currently in the making with Sony's TriStar label, according to The Hollywood Reporter. However, it was announced back in December that British actress, Naomi Ackie, would be playing Houston. As exciting as it is to see Ackie take on this big role, it would have been serendipitous to see Brown finally living her childhood dreams of being Whitney Houston in a movie.
She doesn't have any social media accounts
If you were looking to get a glimpse into Simona Brown's life by following her on social media, you'd be out of luck. The actress doesn't currently have any social media accounts, according to HITC. Because of this, it's unclear if the actress is currently dating anyone, since there are no posts of her with someone else on Instagram (via Entertainment Daily).
Even if she doesn't have her own account, Brown can be spotted in a behind the scenes photo posted by her Behind Her Eyes co-star Eve Hewson on Instagram. Hewson actually spoke of the Behind Her Eyes set and said that it felt like she was "back at school" (via YouTube). That's because for the first time, she was working on a project with people her own age. Hewson also said in another interview that despite the amazing chemistry that can be seen in the series, the actors didn't have a chemistry reading before getting to set (via YouTube). They actually met at the table read, which just proves that the cast in this show are top-notch.
Brown appeared in a miniseries with a 'Bridgerton' star
While this is Simona Brown's biggest role to date, the British actress has some impressive credits already under her belt. She's starred in the Freeform series Guilt and appeared on an episode of Outlander in 2018 (via IMDb). But before that, Brown played Jinna in an episode of the Roots remake for the History Channel back in 2016. Along with some other heavy hitters like Forest Whitaker and Laurence Fishburne, the TV miniseries also featured another recent Netflix star — Regé-Jean Page (via The Oprah Magazine).
That's right, Bridgerton's own Duke of Hastings appeared in two episodes of Roots as Chicken George. While Brown and Page never shared any screen time together in the miniseries, they are sharing a rise in their stardom at the same time, thanks to Netflix. It was announced earlier this month that the Shondaland series based on the Julia Quinn novels would be getting a second season, which according to The Oprah Magazine, will start filming in the spring. As far as a second season of Behind Her Eyes goes, while the season finale sure did set up a continuation of the story, there is no word of a second season order just yet (via Marie Claire). You'll just have to wait and see.
Seeing 'The Lion King' was what made Brown want to be an actor
Whitney Houston may have inspired Brown to take up musical theater in school, but it was seeing The Lion King as a kid that steered her focus toward acting. According to The British Blacklist, Simona Brown said that she knew she wanted to be an actor "after [she] saw The Lion King for the first time when [she] was about 9, on a school trip." It was seeing "actors of color perform at such a high level" that truly inspired her.
From there, that's when Brown decided to focus on acting at the BRIT School for Performing Arts (via The Italian Rêve). That, of course, led her to attending the infamous Identity School of Acting after graduating, which is where she ended up getting an agent. And, the rest is history as they say. So, ultimately, we have Simba to thank for this amazing actress who is now inspiring other young kids to become actors. That's the true "circle of life."