Francesca Hayward is a Kenyan-born English ballet dancer and actress, the daughter of an English father and a Kenyan mother. She is a principal dancer in the Royal Ballet at Covent Garden in London. At the age of two, she moved to the Goring-by-Sea suburb of Worthing in West Sussex to live with her grandparents. She started ballet at age 3, after her grandparents bought her a video of The Nutcracker. When she was young, she danced at Le Serve School of Ballet and Theatre Dance in Worthing until her teacher encouraged her to audition to White Lodge, the junior section of the Royal Ballet School. After being a Junior Associate from the age of nine, she entered the School at the age of 11 in 2003, and progressed to the Royal Ballet Upper School in 2008. According to Hayward, due to an injury, she did not officially graduate, but received a certificate of attendance.

Filmography

• 2024Cygnes
• 2024Royal Ballet & Opera 2024/25: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland — Alice
• 2023Like Water for Chocolate — Tita
• 2022The Royal Ballet: A Diamond Celebration
• 2022The Royal Ballet: Mayerling — Princess Stephanie
• 2020Audrey — Audrey Hepburn
• 2020Live from Covent Garden - Royal Opera House — Dancer
• 2020Royal Ballet All-Star Gala
• 2020The Cellist / Dances at a Gathering (The Royal Ballet) — Dancer
• 2019Cats — Victoria
• 2019Concerto / Enigma Variations / Raymonda Act III (Royal Ballet) — Dora Penny (Dorabella)
• 2019Romeo and Juliet: Beyond Words — Juliet
• 2019The Royal Ballet: Within the Golden Hour / Medusa / Flight Pattern — Principal Dancer (Golden Hour)
• 2018Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake — Prince Siegfried's younger sister
• 2017The Sun Is God
• 2017Woolf Works — I Now, I Then / Becomings
• 2016Dancing the Nutcracker: Inside the Royal Ballet — Herself, Sugar Plum Fairy
• 2016Giselle — Pas de six
• 2016The Nutcracker — Clara
• 2015La Fille Mal Gardée (The Royal Ballet) — Hen
• 2015The Royal Ballet: The Nutcracker — Clara
• The Nutcracker (The Royal Ballet) — Clara

Appearances as themselves (1)

• Jimmy Kimmel Live! — Self - Guest