Ceridwen is a fiction writer and essayist based in Sydney. She’s the author of several works of fiction (Blood Kin, Only the Animals, In the Garden of the Fugitives, and Life After Truth), and non-fiction (On J.M. Coetzee: Writers on Writers and Inner Worlds Outer Spaces: The Working Lives of Others). Her essays have been published by newyorker.com, the Smithsonian Magazine, WIRED, and the Monthly. In 2020, she won a prestigious Australian Museum Eureka Award for her essay critiquing the commercial push to mine the Moon. She's currently working with filmmaker Rowena Potts on a short experimental film, Moonrise.

Vanessa received a 2021 Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination for her role in Netflix’s Piece’s of a Woman. Pieces of a Woman recounts the story of a woman trying to rebuild her life after the loss of her baby. Pieces of a Woman premiered at the Venice Biennale, where Vanessa won the Volpi Cup for best actress for her role.

In 2016 and 2017, Vanessa starred as Princess Margaret in Netflix’s award-winning series, The Crown. Vanessa’s performance as Princess Margaret earned her a Supporting Actress nomination at the British Academy Television Awards 2017, and again in 2018, where she won.

The BAFTA award winning actress Vanessa started her career in a series of hugely successful theatre roles for director David Thacker. She first appeared as Ann in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons for which she received the BIZA Rising Star Award at the Manchester followed by Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts.

In February 2016, Vanessa played Yelena in Uncle Vanya at The Almeida Theatre. She then reprised her role as Stella in A Street Car Named Desire alongside Gillian Anderson and Ben Foster on Broadway.