Hannah Murray (born 1 July 1989), is an English actress best known for portraying Cassie Ainsworth in the E4 teen drama series Skins from 2007 to 2008 (and again in 2013) and Gilly in the HBO series Game of Thrones. Murray was born and raised in Bristol. Her parents both work at Bristol University, her father as a professor and her mother as a research technician. She earned an English degree at Queens' College, Cambridge. At the age of 16, Murray heard about an audition for young actors in Bristol, and decided to audition for the experience. The auditions were for the E4 teen drama series Skins. She impressed the producers of the series and was cast as Cassie Ainsworth, a gentle and creative but self-destructive teenager with an eating disorder. Murray went on to appear in the first two series, from 2007 to 2008. She left at the end of the show's second series to make way for a new generation of characters. On the decision to replace the cast, Murray has said that "it would be really silly to be in a teenage drama if you're no longer a teenager". On 8 August 2011, HBO confirmed that Murray would portray Gilly in the second and third seasons of Game of Thrones. She was upgraded to a series regular for the fourth season. In 2013, Murray appeared in a two-episode feature, in the seventh and final series of Skins, where she continued her role as a more serious, solemn, and independent Cassie Ainsworth, who returns as an adult to the series. She also starred in the music video for "Your Cover's Blown" by Belle & Sebastian. In 2014, Murray starred in God Help the Girl, about three musicians in Glasgow.