Carey Mulligan Movies: The Top 10 Films Starring the Academy Award-Nominated Actress, Ranked

English actress Carey Mulligan knew she was destined to be in the movies from a young age — even despite her parent’s disapproval. Seeing her brother perform in school productions during her youth gave her the initial push, and she eventually became enmeshed in theater during her teenage years.

Toward the end of her schooling, she made a connection that landed an audition for Pride & Prejudice (2005), and she was eventually cast in the role of Kitty Bennet alongside Keira Knightley.

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Roles in both television and film continued to come her way, including that of orphan Ada Clare in BBC’s Bleak House, My Boy Jack (2007) with Daniel Radcliffe and Northanger Abbey (2007). Come 2009, she was cast in her first leading role in An Education.

From that point forward, Carey Mulligan started rising in the ranks, so much so that at the 2024 Academy Awards, she was nominated for Best Actress for her role in Maestro (2023).

Here, take a look at the top 10 Carey Mulligan movies — which one is your favorite?

10 best Carey Mulligan movies, ranked

10. Drive (2011)

Carey Mulligan stars alongside Ryan Gosling in this thrilling action film. Gosling plays a stunt driver who just so happens to also be a getaway driver. When he gets to know his neighbor Irene (Mulligan), he learns that circumstances surrounding her husband’s release from prison put her and her son in danger.

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Aiding in a heist that will ensure their protection, it’s not long before things go in the wrong direction and The Driver is now striving to keep Irene and her son safe.

9. Suffragette (2015)

Carey Mulligan leads this movie as Maud Watts, a working class mother in 20th century Britain who becomes involved with a group of fierce suffragettes fighting for their rights and freedom.

The deeper involved she becomes in the cause, the more it costs her both in terms of her professional life and personal life as a mother and wife. The cast of the film also includes Helena Bonham Carter and Meryl Streep.

8. Wildlife (2018)

Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal lead this film as a married couple, Jeannette and Jerry, who make a move to Montana with their son Joe. When Jerry is let go from his job and his pride is wounded, he becomes enthralled with the local efforts to fight forest fires, eventually taking a job joining the crew, despite its low pay.

With Jerry away taking on this new career path, their son Joe watches as his mother grapples with these rapid changes in her life in the absence of her husband.

7. Mudbound (2017)

Carey Mulligan stars as Laura McAllan, a woman who is raising her family on a farm in the Mississippi Delta. Her clan and the nearby Jackson’s, a black family, lean on one another from time to time out of necessity, despite the racism that runs rampant amongst their community and family, specifically, her father-in-law Pappy.

At the end of WWII, her brother-in-law Jamie and the Jackson’s son Ronsel return from serving and struggle to re-adjust to life in Mississippi.

When the men return, Jamie is dealing with PTSD and Ronsel is having difficulty accepting the racism in his hometown that wasn’t as prevalent in Europe.

6. Never Let Me Go (2010)

Carey Mulligan stars alongside Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield in Never Let Me Go as three students attending Hailsham, a boarding school in which their health and well-being is highly regarded.

The students eventually learn the reality of their fate: that they are clones, essentially being conditioned to serve as organ donors as they grow into adulthood. The knowledge that they have limited time combined with the complications of romantic feelings change the course of the trio’s relationship in ways they never imagined.

5. An Education (2009)

Mulligan is Jenny in An Education, a 16-year-old girl who has ambitions of attending Oxford where she can embrace art and culture, but is currently stifled by her overbearing father. She soon meets David, a significantly older man who sees her waiting in the rain with her cello and offers her a ride.

It isn’t long before David begins weaseling his way into Jenny’s life, managing to seduce both she and her strict father into trusting him, threatening the freedom and independence she dreamed for herself. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actress.

4. She Said (2022) Carey Mulligan movies

Mulligan embodies New York Times reporter Megan Twohey alongside Zoe Kazan as Jodi Kantor, two reporters who investigated the allegations and published the report exposing the abuse of Harvey Weinstein that took place over several years in Hollywood

3. Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) Carey Mulligan movies

Inside Llewyn Davis tells the story of a struggling folk musician (Oscar Isaac) trying to make it as a solo artist during the 60s in Greenwich Village.

With the help of various friends and strangers he meets along the way, he sets out to achieve his goals, though the person standing in his way just might be himself.

2. Maestro (2023) Carey Mulligan movies

Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan bring to life the relationship between famed conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein and actress Felicia Montealegre. For her role in the film, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

1. Promising Young Woman (2020) Carey Mulligan movies

In perhaps one of her most enthralling roles, Carey Mulligan stars as Cassie, a woman who spends her evenings frequenting clubs, faking intoxication, luring men who wish to take advantage of her and eventually exposing them when she reveals her ruse.

However, her most significant venture is that in which she enacts revenge on the people responsible for her best friend’s sexual assault and subsequent suicide.

When she learn the perpetrator is getting married, she begins her journey of getting bak at those involved.

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