Hannah Murray is an English actress best known for playing Cassie in the cult TV series Skins and Gilly in HBO’s epic fantasy Game of Thrones . She gained renewed public attention in May 2026 after revealing the harrowing details of how she was drawn into a wellness cult in her late twenties, which led to a psychotic breakdown and her being sectioned under the Mental Health Act .
Quick Facts
Full Name: Tegan Lauren-Hannah Murray
Age: 36 (born July 1, 1989)
Nationality: British
Occupation: Actress
Known For: Her role as Gilly in Game of Thrones; her memoir The Make-Believe about her cult experience
Marital Status: Not confirmed
Children: None
Early Life and Background
Murray was born and raised in Bristol, England, on July 1, 1989 . She comes from an academic family; both of her parents work at the University of Bristol—her father as a professor and her mother as a research technician . She earned an English degree at Queens’ College, Cambridge, and was a member of the Bristol Old Vic Young Company .
Career and Achievements
At just 16, Murray auditioned for the E4 teen drama Skins on a whim and was cast as Cassie Ainsworth, a gentle but self-destructive teenager with an eating disorder . She appeared in the first two series (2007–2008) and reprised the role for the show’s final series in 2013 . Her stage debut came in 2008 in the critically acclaimed West End production That Face .
From 2012 to 2019, Murray played Gilly, a young woman from a wildling clan who becomes protected by Samwell Tarly, in HBO’s Game of Thrones . She was nominated with her castmates for three Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series .
Murray’s film work includes God Help the Girl (2014), which won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance, and Bridgend (2015), for which she won the Tribeca Film Festival Award for Best Actress . She also starred in Detroit (2017) and Charlie Says (2018) .
Major Event or Controversy
In 2017, at age 27, Murray was drawn into a shadowy wellness organization . She described her entry point as a $150 “healing” session with an “energy healer” called Grace, whom she met while filming Detroit in Boston . What followed was a descent into a world of expensive classes, bizarre rituals, and a charismatic male leader referred to in her memoir as “Steve” .
The situation reached a crisis point during a five-day course in a London hotel. Murray experienced a full psychotic episode, hallucinating and hearing the cult leader’s voice in her head. She recalled taking refuge in a locked bathroom, feeling like she was “giving birth through my skull” . Members of the organization surrounded the stall with bronze tools, chanting, “Be gone, evil spirit in Hannah” .
She was eventually pinned to the floor by a group of men in uniform and rushed to Gordon Hospital in Bloomsbury, London, where she was detained for 28 days under the Mental Health Act . A psychiatrist later diagnosed her with bipolar disorder . During her psychosis, she believed she was the “saviour of the planet” and that Game of Thrones had hidden clues about her destiny .
Why She Is In the News
Murray is in the news following the announcement of her debut memoir, The Make-Believe: A Memoir of Magic and Madness, set for release on June 9, 2026 . In extensive interviews with The Guardian and other outlets published on May 22, 2026, she detailed for the first time the traumatic experience of joining the cult, losing her mind, and being sectioned . She has since retired from acting and lives a quiet life in an East Anglian town, free from the wellness world .
Conclusion
Hannah Murray was a rising star of Skins and Game of Thrones whose pursuit of healing led her into a terrifying psychological spiral. Her new memoir is a stark warning about the unregulated underbelly of the wellness industry and a brave account of surviving a cult and rebuilding a life afterward. “Lots of people go through this,” she said. “That doesn’t mean they are bad or fed up forever” .
