Esther McGregor Is This Generation's Most Versatile Talent

Esther McGregor is only 23, and already, she's lived a multitude of lives. There was Esther the fashion designer in high school, where her love of sewing and photography resulted in her very own clothing line. Esther the musician came after graduation when she formed the band French Thyme with Leo Major and released an EP in 2020. Then there was Esther the tattoo artist, who opened her first shop, Pink Ether, in NYC and learned how to build a business at 19, and then Esther the jet-setting model, who booked various editorials and campaigns and walked in shows for Miu Miu and Dolce & Gabbana within months of moving to New York. But all were simply detours on the road to a much bigger, more serious creative pursuit: Esther the actress. With two major indie films and a new Prime Video series under her belt, she has officially arrived at her destination.

Truth be told, acting runs in McGregor's blood. "I think I came out of the womb singing and performing," she tells me on a sunny morning in late May. Her father is Scottish actor Ewan McGregor, and her mother, Eve Mavrakis, is a production designer, so she had the privilege of seeing the magic of filmmaking firsthand from a young age. It was her proximity to it all and, more specifically, seeing her dad in a play for the first time ("It rocked my world") that ignited her passion for the craft early on.

Graduating high school during the COVID-19 pandemic meant McGregor had time to dabble in a bit of everything before committing to one solid career path. And dabble she did. One might call it a rite of passage of young adulthood. Music, McGregor tells me, still remains a passion, but it's just a personal one for now. Tattooing follows her around everywhere, even onto sets. "I've got really bad ADHD, so my sewing and my tattooing has always been something that quiets the world around me. My music is a way to understand the world around me, and then my acting is to disassociate from it all and be a completely different person at the same time as being completely me," she shares.

Once McGregor put both feet fully into acting, she immediately felt better. "Even if it's the tireless hours of work that no one will ever see [and] the thousands of self-tapes that you kill yourself over that, again, no one ever sees, that filled me with so much joy and so much life that it was very obvious to me what I had to do," she says.

In 2022, McGregor appeared on-screen in a cameo in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi and later starred in the coming-of-age series High School. But 2024 was a turning point for the actress. In the spring of that year, it was announced she was cast in the highly anticipated series adaptation of E. Lockhart's YA novel We Were Liars, and by late summer, she had not one but two projects premiere at the Venice Film Festival—Babygirl, where she played Nicole Kidman and Antonio Banderas's daughter, and The Room Next Door, in which she played a young version of Tilda Swinton's character. Exciting momentum was building for the rising star.

I imagine her star will only get bigger when We Were Liars premieres on Prime Video on June 18. The critically acclaimed young adult novel on which it is based has a massive fan following sure to bolster excitement for the series, but for those who haven't read the book, myself among them, the series offers enough romance, drama, and thrilling twists and turns to be a surefire hit. It doesn't hurt that it features a cool young cast too. McGregor stars as Mirren Sinclair, one of the titular "liars" whose free spirit and boundless curiosity make her a favorite.

The fact that the show was based on a book was immediately appealing to McGregor. "I've always believed that film and television in general… When you have a piece of literature behind it, there is a strength that is the backbone," she says. Growing up, it was McGregor's mother who instilled in her a passion for reading, and when the audition came through for We Were Liars, her mother, who McGregor admits is still CC'd on all of her work emails, was ecstatic. That solidified things for the actress. "I was like, 'Oh, okay, my mom's read this book. This is fucking insane. I have to read this, and I need to get this role,'" she says. "It was a beautiful moment of my work life intermingling with my childhood and also a huge passion of mine, which is literature, and getting to experience that through the eyes of my mother for a moment. It was really lovely."

As soon as McGregor started reading the novel, she saw herself in Mirren. "I was like, 'Oh my god, she's literally me,'" she says emphatically. Mirren's zest for life and genuine curiosity reminded McGregor a lot of herself at that age. There came a time when, faced with adversities, she lost that part of herself, and it was through Mirren that she was able to find it again. For that reason, it was important for McGregor to encapsulate that part of Mirren on-screen along with her relatable flaws. "Her strive for perfection is so earnest, and I find that I still struggle with that every single day," she tells me. "If I wake up feeling a little not perfect, I'm like, 'How do I recalibrate myself to be okay with that?' I think she struggled with that a lot, and I found so much sympathy with that part of her character." At the end of the day, McGregor just hopes she did Mirren justice more than anything and is proud of the work she's done. "That experience was one of the best I've ever had, and I've made lifelong friends from that whole production," she adds.

The actress is freshly back in Los Angeles after wrapping production on the upcoming crime drama Clean Hands with Zach Braff. But her time at home will be short-lived as she prepares to go to New York City for We Were Liars press in a few short weeks. McGregor doesn't mind the crazy schedule, though. She doesn't like sitting still for too long. In the interest of looking forward, I ask what she'd like to check off her acting bucket list next. Her eyes light up as she veers into talking about wanting to make an art film mostly based on visuals, crediting David Lynch and The Holy Mountain as major influences in high school.

McGregor is careful not to name names of people she'd like to work with for fear that speaking such dreams out loud will almost certainly taint them. Instead, she leaves me with this: "I would just love to play a heroic, interesting female role that leads a narrative of victory. Boom!"

Photographer: Olivia Malone
Stylist: Rebecca Ramsey
Hairstylist: Ericka Verrett
Makeup Artist: Karo Kangas
Manicurist: Sayo Irie
Creative Director: Sarah Chiarot