Why Mysaria From House Of The Dragon Looks So Familiar

Mysaria, the scheming Mistress of Whisperers in "House of the Dragon," might be a recognizable face to some viewers. An ever-present influence beside Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) and Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), Mysaria plays a pivotal part in the so-called Dance of the Dragons. Japanese-British actress Sonoya Mizuno has been active in Hollywood since the 2010s, and, in the years leading up to her role in HBO's "Game of Thrones" prequel series, she made appearances in numerous well-known TV shows and movies. 

Mizuno made her television debut in the 2018 Netflix miniseries "Maniac," a dark comedy that follows participants in a trial for a new hallucinatory drug. A main cast member in the series, Mizuno played Dr. Azumi Fujita, one of the scientists in charge of the trial. Mizuno has also appeared in a number of film projects: She entered the realm of musical movies in 2016, for example, with "La La Land," in which she portrayed Caitlin, one of the roommates of Emma Stone's Mia. Mizuno also played Araminta Lee, the dazzling wealthy supermodel who gets her "wedding of the century" in 2018's "Crazy Rich Asians." Dedicated cinephiles may also remember Mizuno's supporting role as Jane alongside Dakota Johnson's Lucy in the 2022 romantic comedy "Am I OK?"

A frequent collaborator of Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director Alex Garland, Mizuno has featured in four of the five movies Garland has helmed, and she headlined his only TV show to date. Mizuno and Garland first worked together on his 2014 directorial debut "Ex Machina," in which Mizuno played the silent android Kyoko. "Ex Machina" was her second-ever feature film appearance, and, although she doesn't have any lines, she ends up playing a major role in the sci-fi thriller's final act. 

Garland's next movie, 2018's "Annihilation," saw Mizuno take the role of a medical student named Katie; she's also credited with a motion capture performance of the mysterious humanoid found in the Shimmer. Two years later, Mizuno starred in Garland's FX dystopian sci-fi miniseries "Devs" as Lily Chan, a software engineer who becomes entangled in conspiracies surrounding the unexplained death of her boyfriend. Mizuno never showed up on screen in Garland's 2022 horror film "Men," but she can be heard voicing the police operator Jessie Buckley's Harper speaks to on the phone. Most recently, Mizuno reunited with Garland in "Civil War," in which she played Anya, a TV journalist who follows the Western Forces.