Holly Taylor is a Canadian and American actress and dancer. She began her career in the Broadway production of Billy Elliot at the age of eleven as Sharon Percy (Ballet Girl) and continued in the role for almost two years. She played the role of Paige Jennings in the FX television series The Americans for its entire run, for which she received a nomination for the Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 2019. In addition, she portrays Angelina Meyer, one of the airplane survivors, in the NBC/Netflix science fiction series Manifest.
Career
By the time she was eleven years old, Taylor was dancing eight shows a week as a member of the cast of Billy Elliot at the Imperial Theatre in New York City.[2]
Taylor attended middle school in her hometown in New Jersey as much as the Billy Elliot schedule would allow and kept up her academics. She was invited to attend the Johns Hopkins program for Gifted and Talented Children, and the following year was invited to the International Student Exchange program for Gifted Children.[2]
Billy Elliot lasted 22 months. After that, she started looking into acting more, although she was so shy it was difficult at first. "But then, the more I started to do it, the more I came out of my shell and the more I enjoyed it", she said.[2]
She did an audition tape for the spy thriller television series The Americans in Los Angeles and booked the show after having a chance to meet the producers in New York.[2]
^Ung, Elisa (January 28, 2015). "Wayne teenager now a big part of The Americans". The Record. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 28, 2015. As The Americans begins its third season tonight, the teenage character played by actress Holly Taylor will become a major focus of the FX drama. But at Wayne Hills High School, Taylor is no big deal – just a petite 17-year-old junior who juggles honors English, AP environmental science, psychology and art.... 'Those are definitely spy qualities,' the actress said in a recent interview in the rental apartment in Wayne where her family has lived since she was 2.