Eleanor Winifred Worthington Cox (born 21 June 2001) is an English actress from Merseyside^[1] best known for portraying Matilda Wormwood in Matilda the Musical. Eleanor won a 2012 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical along with the three other child actresses playing Matilda: Cleo Demetriou; Kerry Ingram; and Sophia Kiely. Upon winning, 10-year-old Eleanor became the youngest Olivier Award winner in any category at the time.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} She received a nomination for a British Academy Television Award for playing Janet Hodgson in The Enfield Haunting.^{[7][8][9][10][11]} She is also known for portraying Polly Renfrew in the CBBC TV adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson's Hetty Feather and Cait in the Sky Atlantic series Britannia.^[12][13]

From 2003, at the age of two, until 2012, Worthington Cox trained at the Formby School of Performing Arts.^[14]

Before starring in Matilda, Worthington Cox was in the chorus for a Bill Kenwright production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Liverpool Empire.^[15]

In September 2011, Worthington Cox was announced as one of four girls who would be playing the lead role of Matilda in Matilda the Musical^[4][5][6] along with: Cleo Demetriou;^[16][4] Kerry Ingram;^[16][4] and Sophia Kiely.^[16][4] She made her debut in October 2011 and performed in the show two nights a week. It was a critical success, and Matilda was nominated for 10 Olivier awards.^[17] Among the nominations was Best Actress in a Musical, for which Demetriou, Ingram, Kiely, and Cox were all nominated.^[2] On awards night, Matilda won seven out of the ten nominations. Cox won Best Actress in a Musical along with her co-stars and currently holds the record for the youngest winner of an Olivier award.^[2][18]

Worthington Cox continued to appear in Matilda until 19 August 2012, later sharing the role with Demetriou, Hayley Canham, Jade Marner, and Isobelle Molloy.^[14]

In May 2013, Worthington Cox played Scout in a stage production of To Kill a Mockingbird at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre,^[19] sharing her role with Lucy Hutchinson and Izzy Lee.^[20]

After finishing Matilda, Worthington Cox filmed the role of Young Princess Aurora in the film Maleficent (2014).^[21]

From April to August 2015, Worthington Cox played the role of Blousey Brown in a production of Bugsy Malone at the Lyric Hammersmith.^[22] This was the debut production following the theatre's reopening after a £16.5 million redevelopment project.^[23]

In October 2015, Worthington Cox played Jess in Tomcat, a new play by James Rushbrooke, at Southwark Playhouse, London.^[24][25]

In 2016, Worthington Cox received a British Academy Television Award nomination for her performance in the Sky One mini-series The Enfield Haunting.^[10][11] She was also featured as one of Screen International's "Stars of Tomorrow", the film magazine's annual showcase highlighting outstanding young actors from the UK and Ireland.^[26]

In 2018, Worthington Cox starred as Cait in Britannia.^[12][13][27]

In 2018 played “Boogie” in comedy film “Action Point”

• List of British actors