Alycia Jasmin Debnam-Carey (born 20 July 1993) is an Australian actress.
Debnam-Carey was born on 20 July 1993, in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Her mother, Leone Carey, worked as a children's television writer, and her father was a musician.
As children, Debnam-Carey and her brother would help their mother act out the program segments she wrote.
Debnam-Carey began acting at age eight, and also studied classical percussion for ten years.
She attended Newtown High School of the Performing Arts, where she was a percussionist.
2003
She made her film debut in 2003 in Rachel Ward's Australian short drama Martha's New Coat, and her feature film debut in the American disaster film Into the Storm (2014).
Debnam-Carey made her film debut at age ten in Rachel Ward's award-winning short-feature film Martha's New Coat (2003).
2006
In 2006, she guest-starred in the Australian drama series McLeod's Daughters, and voiced Lee in the Australian animated short film, The Safe House, based on the Petrov Affair.
2008
In 2008, she appeared in television film Dream Life and the short drama film Jigsaw Girl.
2010
In 2010, in partnership with the Berlin Philharmonic, Debnam-Carey and around 40 other musicians composed a piece in a two-week program and performed it at the Sydney Opera House.
In her last year of school, she was listed as a distinguished achiever by the NSW Government for achieving the top band of six Higher School Certificate courses.
She received the Premier's Award for earning a score of 90+ in over 10 units, as well as an OnStage nomination for achievement in drama and an HSC Encore nomination for achievement in music.
Debnam-Carey also played supporting roles in the short films At the Tattooist (2010) and The Branch (2011).
In 2010, she was cast in the unsold pilot Resistance, and guest-starred in an episode of the Australian drama series, Dance Academy.
In her last year of high school, Debnam-Carey decided on traveling to the U.S. after graduating to pursue acting.
She began to work in Hollywood at the age of 18.
2011
Graduating from Newtown in 2011, she almost attended the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, but decided she wanted to pursue acting.
2012
While staying in LA, Debnam-Carey became a Heath Ledger Scholarship Finalist in November 2012.
2013
She appeared in Next Stop Hollywood (2013), a six-part documentary that followed six Australian actors as they competed for roles during the U.S. TV pilot season.
After two weeks in Los Angeles, Debnam-Carey auditioned for the role of a young Carrie Bradshaw for the CW series The Carrie Diaries, and was asked to audition for an independent thriller film set in the Amish community.
She landed on the shortlist for The Carrie Diaries and tested for the network, but the network said she looked too young for the role.
She was offered the lead role in the thriller film, later titled The Devil's Hand, which she began filming in North Carolina during the final week of the documentary.
2014
From 2014 to 2016, she portrayed Lexa on the dystopian science fiction series The 100.
In 2014, Debnam-Carey played a supporting role in the American disaster film Into the Storm.
Following The Devil's Hand, she was cast in a series pilot called Galyntine for AMC, starring Peter Fonda and co-executive-produced by Ridley Scott, Greg Nicotero and Jason Cahill, though AMC ultimately opted not to take the pilot to series.
Debnam-Carey guest-starred in the second season of The CW's dystopian series The 100, debuting in episode six (aired 3 December 2014) as Lexa.
Lexa soon became a fan favorite, and Debnam-Carey's breakout role.
On 1 December 2014, the four lead roles of AMC's Fear the Walking Dead were announced, with Debnam-Carey as Alicia Clark.
2015
She co-starred as Alicia Clark on the horror drama series Fear the Walking Dead (2015–2023), and made her directorial debut with the seventh season episode "Ofelia".
In 2023, Debnam-Carey co-starred as Alice Hart in the Australian drama Amazon miniseries The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, for which she received an AACTA Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama.
At San Diego Comic-Con International in July 2015, The 100's showrunner Jason Rothenberg announced that Debnam-Carey would be returning to the show's third season.
AMC had agreed to two blocks of filming schedules for her to film for both shows.
Fear the Walking Dead premiered on 23 August 2015.
On 27 August, Debnam-Carey made her first talk show appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! while promoting the series.
In December, The Wrap featured Debnam-Carey as one of the 15 breakout TV stars of 2015 for The 100 and Fear the Walking Dead.
2016
In 2016, she won the MTV Fandom Award for Fan Freakout of the Year for Lexa on The 100, and E! Online TV Scoop Awards for Best Guest Star (as Lexa) and Female Breakout Star (for Lexa and Alicia Clark).
Debnam-Carey received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Lexa on The 100.
Considered a breakout star of Fear the Walking Dead as well, she also received critical praise for her work in the series, with Erik Kain of Forbes writing, "Debnam-Carey is a fantastic actor. She was great in The 100 but she's even better in Fear", crediting her performance in the third-season episode "This Land is Your Land" for "elevating the show".
Vanity Fair Laura Bradley said Debnam-Carey "delivered one of her best performances yet" in the season four episode "Close Your Eyes", and David Zapanta of Den of Geek deemed it "arguably a career-defining performance".
