Hannah New

Born in London, England, Hannah insisted at age 4 to attend ballet school, setting her on a performing path in life. She later turned her focus to acting and joined The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. Her interest in other cultures led her to travel around the world, including Bolivia where she did volunteer work in children's homes. Upon her return to England, she attended Leeds University, majoring in English and Spanish and performing in numerous stage productions in both languages. Hannah earned her a First Class honors degree and promptly moved to Spain to further master the language through immersion and even studied Sanford Meisner, with Frank Feys, in Spanish. Hannah was quickly scouted by View Management, a top Spanish modeling agency, and decided to pursue print and commercial work to support her studies in Barcelona and Madrid and save for drama school back home. She was accepted and attended London University's Central School of Speech and Drama. While pursuing her degree, Hannah was offered several Spanish projects, including the lead in the 11-part mini-series adaptation of María Dueñas' best-selling novel "El Tiempo Entre Costuras". Although against standard school policy, Central allowed Hannah to continue her studies while shooting this and several other projects in Spain and in December 2011, she graduated with a Masters in Acting with Distinction. Since graduation, Hannah landed her first American role as one of the leads in "Shelter," a pilot for Warner Bros. and the CW that was produced by J.J. Abrams. She was then cast in Walt Disney Pictures' Maleficent (2014), starring Angelina Jolie. Hannah plays "Leila", the beautiful mother of young Princess Aurora, and the film will be released in March, 2014. She will next star, among an international cast, in the pirate drama, Black Sails (2014). The 8-episode series for Starz is executive-produced by Michael Bay, Jonathan E. Steinberg and Robert Levine. Hannah plays "Eleanor Guthrie", a beautiful and courageous owner of a rowdy Bahamas saloon, who must run her father's black market business as supplier to dangerous pirates. Hannah continues to reside in London, England.