Background
Grainger was born in Didsbury, Manchester.
Grainger was born in Didsbury, Manchester.
Grainger attended Parrs Wood High School from 1999 to 2006, and in 2007 began study for a degree in English literature at the University of Leeds.
Some of her prominent roles include Lucrezia Borgia in the Showtime series The Borgias and Estella in Mike Newell"s adaptation of Great Expectations. Her first experience of acting was at age six when she was scouted for a British Broadcasting Corporation television series. She appeared in many television shows and independent films as a child actor.
However, she eventually opted for the Open University where she gained a first class honours degree.
Grainger"s first acting role was at six years old in the British Broadcasting Corporation comedy drama series All Quiet on the Preston Front. Roles followed in Casualty, Doctors, Dalziel and Pascoe.Grainger played Megan Boothe in Where the Heart Is, Stacey Appleyard in Waterloo Road and Sophia in Merlin.
In 2011 she appeared in the television series The Borgias, playing Lucrezia Borgia with Jeremy Irons in the role of Pope Alexander VI. The series, created by Oscar-winning Neil Jordan and shot in Hungary, ran for three seasons. Grainger also performed on stage and in film.
After her role as Emily in The Scouting Book for Boys she played one of the Rivers sisters opposite Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender in Cary Fukunaga"s 2011 retelling of Jane Eyre, and had minor roles in Belorussian Ami alongside Robert Pattinson and Uma Thurman, and in the 2012 film Anna Karenina as Baroness Shilton.
In June 2011, she gained the leading role of Estella in Mike Newell"s film adaptation of Great Expectations, opposite Jeremy Irvine and Helena Bonham Carter. The movie, screened at Toronto International Festival 2012, had its European premiere as the closing night film of the BFI London Festival. She appeared in the third series of The Borgias, starred in Disassociation, a play by Luke Bailey, at the Lowry, and played Bonnie Parker in the 2013 mini-series Bonnie & Clyde.
She was one of the female leads in The Riot Club, the film version of the play Posh, alongside Max Irons.
Grainger played Cinderella"s stepsister Anastasia Tremaine in Kenneth Branagh"s 2015 film version of Cinderella. She is to appear in a film adaptation of the novel Tulip Fever alongside Alicia Vikander.
In 2014, she appeared on stage in a version of Chekov"s Three Sisters. Grainger lives in Manchester with her mother, Gianetta Grainger, a graphic designer.
She went to piano, gymnastics lessons, Taekwondo and was a pupil at the Madeley School of Dancing in Manchester.