Hannah Murray: A Career Look Back, Her Memoir, and Why the Gilly Actress Has Stepped Away

Hannah Murray is trending this week, and the reason is one of those quietly significant news stories that resists a headline. The British actress, long beloved for her roles in Skins and Game of Thrones, has published a memoir and confirmed that she has retired from acting. The trend is real, the subject is sensitive, and the most useful thing we can do is treat both seriously.

This is a respectful guide to Murray's career, what is publicly known about the memoir, and where to watch the performances that made her name.

Who Hannah Murray is

Hannah Murray is an English actress, born in 1989 in Bristol, who came to wider attention as a teenager in one of the most influential British television series of her generation. Her career has been defined less by chasing the biggest projects than by choosing distinctive ones, and across roughly two decades on screen she built a body of work that is both varied and consistent in quality.

Skins: Cassie, the breakthrough

Murray's first major role was as Cassie in Channel 4's Skins, the teen drama that defined a certain corner of British television in the late 2000s. The show ran for multiple generations of cast, and Murray was a central part of its first run from 2007 to 2008.

Cassie was the show's emotional centre. The character's struggles with mental health, eating disorders, and self image were handled with a frankness that was new to British teen drama at the time, and Murray's performance was the reason the writing landed. She returned to the role in the show's later season Skins Fire, giving Cassie a follow up most British teen drama characters never get. For many viewers of a certain age, that performance is the one Murray is best remembered for.

Game of Thrones: Gilly, the long run

From 2012 to 2019, Murray appeared in Game of Thrones as Gilly, the daughter and later partner of Samwell Tarly. Across the show's eight season run, Gilly grew from a frightened, hidden young woman into one of the series' quietly important characters, the person whose belief in Sam helped shape the rest of his story.

It was a role that grew in importance steadily rather than spectacularly, and that is in part what made it work. In a show full of dramatic deaths and grand monologues, Gilly's arc was smaller and more human, and Murray played it as such. For a global audience of millions, she is Gilly.

Other notable film work

Alongside her television work, Murray built a strong run of film roles. The most notable include:

• Bridgend (2015), a quietly devastating Danish-Welsh drama about a community grappling with a wave of teenage deaths.
• God Help the Girl (2014), Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch's musical film, in which Murray played a key role.
• Detroit (2017), Kathryn Bigelow's drama about the 1967 Detroit riots.
• Charlie Says (2018), Mary Harron's drama about the women of the Manson family, in which Murray played Leslie Van Houten.

Each of those choices speaks to an actress who was actively interested in difficult, character driven material rather than the easier path her television fame could have offered.

The Make-Believe, and her decision to step away

In May 2026, Murray's memoir The Make-Believe was the subject of significant publishing news. The rights were acquired by Hutchinson Heinemann after a thirteen way auction, a level of interest that confirms the publishing industry's belief in the importance of the story.

The memoir is Murray's own account of a difficult period of her life. In interviews and previews tied to the book, Murray has publicly discussed becoming involved with what has been described as a wellness organisation, experiencing a serious mental health crisis, being sectioned, and later being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The book is her own telling of that experience, on her own terms.

Murray has also confirmed that she has retired from acting. That is the choice an artist has every right to make, and her decision to step away in order to focus on her own life and her own writing is the kind of thing the industry should respect rather than treat as a void to be filled.

What this means for fans of her work

Practically, her decision changes nothing about the work she has already made. Skins, Game of Thrones, and her films remain. The performances that made her one of the most distinctive young actresses of her generation are still there, and they are still worth watching.

For anyone discovering her name for the first time through the memoir news, the best place to start is Skins. Watching Cassie is the clearest possible introduction to the kind of presence Murray brought to every role afterwards.

Where to watch Hannah Murray's work

Availability varies by region, but the broad answer is straightforward:

• Game of Thrones streams on HBO Max in markets where the service is available.
• Skins has rotated across various streaming services and can usually be found on rental platforms.
• Detroit, Charlie Says, and her other films are commonly available to rent or buy through major digital storefronts, and frequently appear on subscription services.

To check what is currently streaming where you live, use Discover for a quick read on your own subscriptions.

A respectful close

When an artist publishes a memoir about her own life, the most useful thing the rest of us can do is take her account on her own terms. Murray's career has been remarkable, and her decision to step away from acting in order to live and write on her own terms is its own form of integrity. The best way to honour the work is to watch it.

Skins as a cultural moment

To understand why Hannah Murray's name has the weight it does, it helps to understand what Skins meant. The Channel 4 series, created by Bryan Elsley and Jamie Brittain, redefined British teen drama when it premiered in 2007. The show treated its young characters as fully adult subjects, refused to flatten the texture of teenage life into something safe for television, and gave a generation of British viewers something they had never quite seen before.

The show was also one of the first to take its young cast genuinely seriously as performers. Several of the actors who broke through on Skins, including Nicholas Hoult, Dev Patel, Daniel Kaluuya, Joe Dempsie, Kaya Scodelario, and Murray herself, went on to define corners of British and global screen acting over the decade and a half that followed. The list speaks to what Skins was as a moment. It was the show that effectively introduced a generation of talent that is still shaping film and television now.

Murray's Cassie was, by widespread agreement, the show's emotional centre. Two decades on, viewers who watched the show as teenagers still cite the performance as one of the defining acting moments of their formative television years.

Reading the memoir on her own terms

The most important guideline for anyone interested in The Make-Believe is the simplest one. Read it. Watch the interviews Murray herself has given to talk about the book. Form your own view based on her own words.

What is unhelpful is second hand summarising of an account she has chosen to publish in her own voice. The book's existence as a memoir is itself a statement, that the story is hers to tell and that she has decided how to tell it. The most useful thing the rest of us can do is take her up on that offer rather than reduce her experience to a few sentences in someone else's article.

What her step away from acting actually means

It is worth taking a moment on the broader meaning of an actress choosing to retire after a sustained, successful career. The instinct in popular coverage is to treat any such decision as either tragic or temporary, a wait it out story rather than a respected choice. Murray's public framing has been the opposite. She has described her decision as a deliberate move into the next phase of her life, with her writing rather than her acting taking the lead.

That is a legitimate, complete sentence. Artists do not owe the audience an indefinite career, and a decision to step back is not a problem to be solved. The right response is to thank her for the work she has made and to look forward to whatever she chooses to share next.

Frequently asked questions about Hannah Murray

Is Hannah Murray retiring from acting?

Yes. Murray has publicly confirmed that she has retired from acting alongside the publication of her memoir.

What is Hannah Murray's memoir about?

The Make-Believe is her own account of a difficult period of her life, including her involvement with a wellness organisation, a mental health crisis, and her subsequent diagnosis. Read it on her own terms rather than through second hand summaries.

Where can I watch Hannah Murray's best work?

Game of Thrones is on HBO Max in most markets. Skins rotates across services. Her films are usually available to rent or buy through the major digital storefronts.

Will Hannah Murray act again?

She has publicly stated that she has retired from acting. Any speculation beyond that should be treated as such.

For more on the actors and films worth your time, browse our movie news and guides, or use The Movies Finder to find your next watch.