Kierston Wareing

Kierston Wareing was born on January 7, 1976, in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England. She began acting lessons at the age of seven and later enrolled in Focus drama school and Place Theatre workshops. Wareing completed a three-year program at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York. Her career began in 2003, with early appearances in the TV series ‘The Bill’, initially credited as Fay Wareing and later as Faye Wareing.

Wareing’s breakthrough came with her lead role as Angie in Ken Loach’s 2007 film ‘It’s a Free World…’, portraying an ambitious recruitment agent assisting immigrants. This was followed by a supporting role in Andrea Arnold’s 2009 film ‘Fish Tank’, which earned the BAFTA award for ‘Best British Film’ and the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. She received a BAFTA nomination and three British Independent Film Award nominations for her performances. In television, Wareing played significant roles such as Tina Adams in ‘Wire in the Blood’ (2007), Jackie in Martina Cole’s ‘The Take’ (2009), and Madge in ‘The Runaway’ (2011). Her television credits also include Caroline Jones in ‘Luther’ (2011) and Gina in ‘Inside Men’ (2012).

Wareing further expanded her television career with a regular role as Kirsty Branning in the BBC soap opera ‘EastEnders’ from 2012 to 2014. She also appeared as Delilah in ‘The Bible’ miniseries in 2013. In 2015, she joined the cast of the Channel 4 soap opera ‘Hollyoaks’ as the character Ashley Davidson for a period of nine episodes. More recently, Wareing played Leda Strike in the TV adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s novel, ‘C.B. Strike’ (2018-2022) and contributed voice work to video games such as ‘World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth’ (2018). Her film work includes ‘Avengement’ (2019) and upcoming projects like ‘The Death of Bunny Munro’ (2025) and ‘Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare’ (2025).