Background
Foy was born in Stockport, and she grew up in Manchester and Leeds, the youngest of three children. Her family later moved to Longwick, Buckinghamshire for her father"s job, a salesman for Rank Xerox.
Foy was born in Stockport, and she grew up in Manchester and Leeds, the youngest of three children. Her family later moved to Longwick, Buckinghamshire for her father"s job, a salesman for Rank Xerox.
She attended Aylesbury High School, a girls" grammar school, from the age of twelve. She then attended Liverpool John Moores University, studying drama and screen studies.
She also starred in the National Broadcasting Company series Crossbones as Kate Balfour. While at the Oxford School of Drama, Foy appeared in the plays Top Girls, Watership Down, Easy Virtue and Touched. After appearing on television, she made her professional stage debut in deoxyribonucleic acid and The Miracle, two of a trio of one acts directed by Paul Miller at the Royal National Theatre in London.
The other one act was Baby Girl.
She starred as the main protagonist Amy Dorrit in British Broadcasting Corporation mini-series Little Dorrit, and was nominated for an RTS Award. She went on to appear in television movie Going Postal and in the Medieval adventure film Season of the Witch alongside Nicolas Cage.
She also starred in the British Broadcasting Corporation revival of Upstairs Downstairs as Lady Persephone. Foy co-starred in the Channel 4 mini-series The Promise, broadcast in February 2011, which she described in an interview at the time as her "favourite job ever".
She played a lead role of Helen in the television movie The Night Watch, which was based on a Sarah Waters novel.
She returned to the stage in February 2013 as Lady Macbeth, alongside James McAvoy in the title role, in Macbeth at the Trafalgar Studios.