Henley made her acting debut as
Lucy Pevensie in
2005 film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, based on the
C.S. Lewis novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The film grossed over $745 million worldwide. Henley reprised her role of Lucy Pevensie in the
2008 sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian and
2010 sequel The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Since the release of
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Henley has appeared as Jill in the stage play
Babes in the Wood put on by Upstagers' Theatre Group, which ran from 27 January to 4 February 2006. She starred as Scaramouche in Bradford Grammar School's production of
We Will Rock You, which ran from 13 to 16 March 2013. She also appeared as the young
Jane Eyre in the 2006
BBC adaptation of
Jane Eyre. Henley appears as Beth in the crime-drama
Perfect Sisters a film based on the story of two Canadian teenaged sisters who killed their mother. The film was released in April 2014. Henley plays Mary Warren in
The Sisterhood of Night. The film was released in April 2015. During her time at
University of Cambridge Henley studied English and performed on stage in
Play It Again, Sam by Woody Allen;
The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood;
The Trojan Women;
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess; and in the
CUADC/
Footlights annual pantomime. Henley has also directed projects including co-directing
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and
After Seymour (the latter of which she co-wrote). In 2016, she appeared in the stage productions of:
Skylight by David Hare;
Girl, Interrupted (an adaptation of the
book with the same name; and
Swallow by
Stef Smith. In the summer of 2014, Henley went to the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival along with Cambridge Shortlegs, performing once again in
The Penelopiad in the role of
Eurycleia. In 2015, Henley wrote and directed her first short film, TIDE, the story of a young lesbian couple. In late 2016, Henley starred in the film
Access All Areas starring as Nat. In 2018 Henley played
Margaret Tudor in the
Starz limited series
The Spanish Princess, based on the novels
The Constant Princess (2005) and ''
The King's Curse (2014) by Philippa Gregory. In January 2019, she was named as a cast member for an upcoming Game of Thrones'' prequel series, which would not be picked up by HBO. In 2022 she published a pamphlet of poems called
Amphibian. ==Personal life==