Why Ruth From Ozark Looks Familiar

Long before she made a name for herself in gritty small-screen dramas, Julia Garner was a fixture on the silver screen. After appearing in two short films in 2010, Garner was cast in a role in 2011's Martha Marcy May Marlene, starring Avengers: Endgame's Elizabeth Olsen and American Horror Story's Sarah Paulson. The film, about a woman struggling to re-enter society after living in a cult, saw Garner in a small role as one of the cult members.

Although only about 17 at the time Martha Marcy May Marlene was released, Julia Garner nonetheless proved that she could hold her own in a feature production, and it wasn't long before more — and more diverse — roles came her way. Over the next few years, Garner played a cannibal in We Are What We Are, a waitress in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, and the friend of a demonically possessed girl in The Last Exorcism: Part 2.

In 2012, Garner snagged a small role in the indie hit The Perks of Being a Wallflower, based on the book of the same name by Stephen Chbosky. Playing a classmate of the main character, Charlie, Garner's Susan didn't get much screen time, but definitely shone in the few scenes in which she appeared.

While engaging in a game of cat and mouse with a Soviet-era spy, Julia Garner also took some time to play Ramones-obsessed teen Claudia Gunns in the Netflix original series The Get Down. First appearing in the Part 1 finale in 2016, Claudia is the rich, privileged daughter of Herbert Gunns, and her interaction with Zeke in her father's mansion provides a striking counterpoint to the violence and poverty Zeke is used to seeing.

The series, set in the Bronx during the '70s, chronicles the rise of hip-hop through a gripping narrative, and received plenty of critical acclaim during its brief run.

Claudia showed up again in the Part 2 episode "Unfold Your Own Myth," appearing near the end in a scene set in her father's boardroom. Although there wasn't much to her role, it's clear that this young up-and-comer was already getting attention at Netflix, since the first season of Ozark debuted just a few months after that.

In 2018, Julia Garner ditched her curly locks and appeared in the series premiere of Dirty John. Bravo's thrilling true crime series is about a con man named John Meehan who manipulated multiple women into starting relationships with him, only to attempt to swindle them out of their money... and worse. The show follows the horrifying crimes of the real-life Meehan and one of his victims, Debra Newell. As detailed by Harper's Bazaar, Meehan met Newell just two days after being released from prison, a fact he hid as their relationship developed. The whole terrifying story came out in a series of articles published by the Los Angeles Times and a companion podcast.

In the show, Garner plays Debra's youngest daughter Terra, who is suspicious of her mom's new boyfriend — and later husband — and who is one of the few to see the psychopathic side lurking underneath Meehan's charming exterior. Garner co-starred in all eight episodes of the series, alongside Eric Bana and Connie Britton.

As for what drew her to the role, Garner explained to Bravo, "As soon as I got the email, I started listening to the podcast. I read the script. I listened to the podcast in like one day, just so quick. [...] It's such a good podcast that I was like, 'wow.' And the script was amazing, too."

In 2020, Julia Garner stepped away from the small screen for a starring role in the feature film The Assistant, a drama written and directed by Kitty Green, who also helmed the original Netflix documentary Casting JonBenet. In the film, Garner plays Jane, a young woman who gets a job at a film production company as an executive's assistant.

While it feels like the opportunity of a lifetime at first, Jane soon becomes aware of the culture of abuse and discrimination that pervades the office. When she tries to speak up about it, she becomes a target herself. It's a timely and unflinching look into the very real issue of finding yourself in a toxic and demeaning workplace, particularly in the scandal-ridden film industry. As Kitty Green put it in an interview with Vox, "If it was just Harvey Weinstein that was the problem, well, then, it would be fixed. We'd all be fine. But it's not. The system is rotten."

Considering her roles in productions such as Waco and Dirty John, to name a few, Garner is clearly no stranger to tackling difficult, real-life issues, and her performance in The Assistant garnered high praise. Deadline's review called out her subtlety as one of the film's strengths, saying, "Garner is simply superb, resisting any opportunity to ever let us see her acting. [...] This movie will stay with you and make you think."

Clearly, Garner is only getting started.

Remember Anna Delvey? If you missed the story, that's okay. But fair warning: it's wild. Her real name is Anna Sorokin, and she conned her way into the upper social circles of New York City by pretending to be a multimillionaire German heiress named Anna Delvey. Of course none of it was true, but she managed to get away with her con from 2013 to 2017, when she was finally brought down on half a dozen charges of grand larceny.

If that story sounds ripe for a televised adaptation, you wouldn't be far off the mark. Inventing Anna is being created by Grey's Anatomy showrunner Shonda Rhimes as a limited series for Netflix, and stars Julia Garner and Anna Chlumsky (who you may know from Veep).

Garner plays none other than Anna Sorokin herself, no doubt with plenty of the bravado that made her such a breakout star on Netflix. The series is still in production, but you can no doubt look for the 10-episode series to arrive sometime soon.

As for what's on the table for Julia Garner after that, well, we'll just have to wait and find out. But with a lifetime ahead of her and a fresh Emmy under her belt, there's no doubt we'll continue to see great things from this young actor.