All eyes should be on Mia Tharia, breakout star of ‘Klara And The Sun’

T hrough a couple of small but perfectly formed roles in BBC’s The Listeners and the forthcoming dystopian sci-fi movie Klara And The Sun , Mia Tharia has become an elegant mouthpiece for the interiority of teenage ennui.

Every glazed look and lip twitch semaphores a ruminating soul, wiser than her years.

Dressed down in her “skivvies” of plaid shirt and crocs, Tharia is poised and boundaried: a testament to a stable family background and a career that has not yet been shipwrecked by the touch of fame.

We meet in a bougie cafe in south London (an iced coffee is a cool £4.50), a slice of gentrification that’s both deeply depressing and matter of fact.

“We used to have a Poundland here…” Tharia notes.

Read more: The best films of 2026… so far! She arrives two minutes before our allotted meeting time, sans agent, PR or fanfare.

“I try not to be late for things but, oh, I’m too early,” the 21-year-old mutters to herself, as she sits down with a builder’s tea and normal milk.

“I love South West London.

I feel like it’s home: there’s a lot of culture and art here.

I grew up around that.” For Thalia, growing up mixed race was the norm in south London – and it’s something she explores through the forthcoming period drama The Education Of Jane Cumming, which is based on the real life story of two female teachers who were accused by a student of having an affair in the early 19th century.

“I play an Anglo-Indian character who goes to a Scottish boarding school, ” says Thalia.

“She’s of mixed heritage and an illegitimate child.

It’s a really intense exploration of identity.

Part of her belongs here and part of her doesn’t.