Who Is Ella Beatty? Meet the Actress Playing Lizzie Borden in Monster

Ella Beatty may have one of Hollywood’s most recognizable surnames, but Netflix’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story represents a major step into the spotlight on her own.

Beatty plays Lizzie Borden in the fourth installment of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Monster anthology, becoming the first woman to serve as the central “Monster” of the Netflix franchise. Before taking on the notorious Fall River murder suspect, Beatty trained at Juilliard, appeared in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, made her Broadway debut opposite Sarah Paulson and began establishing a film career of her own. She is also the daughter of actors Annette Bening and Warren Beatty.

Ella Beatty comes from one of Hollywood’s best-known families

Ella Beatty was born on April 18, 2000 in California and is the youngest of Annette Bening and Warren Beatty’s four children.

Her parents need little introduction. Bening has built a decades-long career through films including American Beauty, The Kids Are All Right and Nyad, while Warren Beatty’s career as an actor, director and producer includes Bonnie and Clyde, Reds, Shampoo and Heaven Can Wait.

Rather than avoiding the obvious advantages of that background, Ella has spoken fairly openly about them. During her Broadway run in Appropriate, she acknowledged the privilege of having famous actors as parents while also discussing how watching her mother’s work influenced her own interest in acting.

She subsequently pursued formal training and graduated from Juilliard’s drama program in 2022.

What has Ella Beatty appeared in before Monster?

Beatty’s screen career is relatively young. One of her first significant television parts came in Ryan Murphy’s Feud: Capote vs. The Swans. The role placed her inside Murphy’s creative orbit before she was chosen to lead Monster. Netflix says Murphy and Brennan conducted an extensive search before casting her as Lizzie Borden.

Beatty also appeared in Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, broadening her work beyond television. But much of her early development happened on stage.

In 2024, Beatty took over the role of River from Elle Fanning when Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ acclaimed play Appropriate transferred to Broadway’s Belasco Theatre. The production starred Sarah Paulson, Corey Stoll and Michael Esper, and the role marked Beatty’s Broadway debut. That Sarah Paulson connection has now become particularly interesting.

Paulson also appears in Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, playing serial killer Aileen Wuornos in later-set material. The two actors therefore entered the Netflix project already knowing each other from the stage.

Related: Were Lizzie Borden and Bridget Sullivan Really Lovers? The True Story Behind Monster

Related: Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story Filming Locations

Why did Monster cast Ella Beatty as Lizzie Borden?

Netflix describes the casting process as an extensive search for the actor who would play Lizzie.

Director Max Winkler told Vanity Fair that Beatty’s audition showed both vulnerability and strength, qualities he believed were necessary for the show’s interpretation of the character.

For Beatty, the challenge was unusual because Lizzie Borden is both a historical person and an American myth.

Beatty already knew the famous nursery rhyme before getting the role, but she researched the case more seriously during preparation. She told Vanity Fair that she relied on a copy of Cara Robertson’s The Trial of Lizzie Borden, among other material. That does not mean she is claiming to have discovered the “real” Lizzie.

The murders of Andrew and Abby Borden were never solved, and Lizzie was acquitted. Any dramatic performance therefore has to operate partly in the territory between historical fact and interpretation.

Monster is Ella Beatty’s first major screen lead

That makes the role an unusually large jump. Beatty had television, film and Broadway experience before Monster, but Lizzie is her first leading screen role of this scale. Beatty told Vanity Fair that she found the responsibility intimidating but welcomed the challenge.

Netflix is also placing considerable weight behind the character.

The official first-look campaign presents Beatty covered in blood and describes the fourth installment as the anthology’s first story built around a female “Monster.” Beatty herself has said the season examines female rage, repression and why Lizzie Borden’s story remains relevant more than a century later. She leads a substantial ensemble.

Vicky Krieps plays Bridget Sullivan, Charlie Hunnam plays Andrew Borden, Rebecca Hall is Abby Borden, Billie Lourd plays Lizzie’s sister Emma and Jessica Barden portrays actress Nance O’Neil. Sarah Paulson also appears as Aileen Wuornos.

Ella Beatty could become Monster’s next breakout performer

The Monster anthology has already given its central actors unusually high visibility. Evan Peters’ Jeffrey Dahmer performance became one of Netflix’s biggest television phenomena, while subsequent installments kept the franchise at the center of true-crime discussion. Beatty is entering that position relatively early in her screen career.

There is also an extra level of scrutiny that comes with being Warren Beatty and Annette Bening’s daughter. Some viewers discovering her through Monster will inevitably begin with the famous family connection.

Lizzie Borden, though, gives her an opportunity to make the conversation about the performance rather than the surname.

When Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story premieres on Netflix on September 17, Ella Beatty will no longer simply be one of the promising young actors who has moved between Juilliard, Broadway and supporting screen roles. She will be the face of one of Netflix’s biggest true-crime franchises.