Ella Purnell (born 17 September 1996) is an English child actress who has appeared in several feature films being released in 2010 and 2011.
She was born in London, England, where she currently lives with her mother. Ella has two younger brothers by her father. She attends City of London School for Girls and began Year 9 in September 2010. She attends weekly classes at Sylvia Young Theatre School, studying acting, singing and dance, and was formerly represented by their in-house talent agency, Young 'Uns (now known as Sylvia Young Agency). She is now however represented by MFmanagement. As well as weekly classes at Sylvia Young she also attends Young Actors' Theatre Islington.
In 2008, she beat hundreds of other girls for a role in Oliver! at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London. She was one of only a few girls chosen to appear in the children's ensemble and remained in the show for a year.
Towards the end of her time in Oliver!, she won the role of Young Ruth in Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go – a feature film based on the acclaimed book by Kazuo Ishiguro. This was a main role, in which Ella played the younger version of Keira Knightley's character; the script is set for the first half in Hailsham boarding school, where the main characters are children, and in the second half tells of their lives after leaving the school.