Future Women's History Month: Maisie Williams' Amazing Wisdom

Fuse is celebrating Women's History Month by looking at a variety of rising forces who are creating Future Women's History before our eyes. Today we're paying tribute to Maisie Williams, the Game of Thrones actress whose confidence and wise words hit as hard as Valyrian steel.

HBO's adaptation of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels premiered in 2011, two days after Williams' 14th birthday. As Arya Stark, she found her hopes of swordplay and glory thwarted for the first season before setting off on an independent hero's journey more powerful and harrowing than almost anyone's, one that's still in progress years later. Going into Season 7—the series' penultimate arc—the only characters who've appeared in more episodes than Williams' Arya are Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow and Tyrion and Cersei Lannister.

Williams, who turns 20 in April, was born in Bristol, England and grew up in the Somerset town of Clutton. She was a dancer rather than an actress as a youngster, until she was spotted at a Paris performance and quickly found herself with an agent, then beating hundreds of potential Arya Starks to land her first-ever role. Among other projects, she wound up on four episodes of Doctor Who and co-starred with Jason Sudeikis in the film The Book of Love. In January, she toplined Netflix's sci-fi thriller iBoy.