Australian actress Milly Alcock has shed fresh light on just how much her life has changed since she secured her role in the hit HBO series “House of the Dragon,” admitting that—when she landed the job—she was working as a dish washer and living inside a cramped attic room at her parents’ home.
The 26-year-old, who will next star in the upcoming DC Comics movie “Supergirl” as the titular character, has admitted that the jet-setting lifestyle she now lives as one of Hollywood‘s most promising stars is a world away from what her life was like just a few years ago.
Alcock, who is best known for playing the part of a young Rhaenyra Targaryen in “House of the Dragon,” was born and raised in a suburb of Sydney, where she lived with her parents and two younger brothers.
She first developed a love of acting at a very young age, when she was cast as Little Red Riding Hood in a school play—and she began pursuing a professional career in the industry when she was still just a teenager.
Luckily, it didn’t take long for that work to pay off; the actress started landing several small roles in multiple Australian TV shows and commercials when she was 14, before securing a much larger part in Australian series “Upright” when she was 18—a role that required her to drop out of school.
At the time, her performance in the show received wide praise, with Vogue Australia publishing an article in 2020 in which it stated that Alcock was “bound to make it big in Hollywood.”
But even after all that hometown success, Alcock was still very much living a humble, down-to-earth life, explaining in a new interview with Variety that, while “Upright” may have earned her attention from industry leaders, it didn’t provide her with enough of a financial cushion that she was able to quit her day job or move into a place of her own.
“I was living in the attic in my family home, because we didn’t have enough rooms,” she recalls of her life immediately after “Upright” was shot. “It was so hot in there.”
In order to earn some extra cash—having left school without a certificate or diploma—Allcock started working as a dish washer at a popular Sydney eatery, a job she says she tackled with great gusto, albeit without a huge amount of skill.
“I was a stick of a thing. I was washing these dishes so proudly and so terribly, and it was an open kitchen so everyone could see me,” she recalled.
It was during this time that Alcock first auditioned for “House of the Dragon,” a process that took place entirely over Zoom because of COVID-19 restrictions at the time.
She later confessed in an interview with Stellar Magazine that securing the part of Rhaenyra came as a complete shock to her, not least because of her living conditions at the time.
“I never thought this would happen to me. I was washing dishes in a restaurant, living in my mom’s attic,” she joked. “This doesn’t happen to people like me, so it was incredibly quick. I froze, and took a deep breath and said to my friend, ‘Do you have wine?’ Then I called my mom.”
The actress didn’t even dare give up her day job until she actually traveled to start shooting the series, previously revealing to Harper’s Bazaar that she continued working in a cafe in the Sydney suburb of Marickville.
“I was literally washing dishes every day. Nobody knew!” she joked.
In 2024, Alcock opened up her mother’s house—and her former attic room—to TikTok star Caleb Simpson, revealing a glimpse inside the very eclectic home where she was raised.
Urging Simpson to head up a ladder through a trapdoor in the ceiling, the actress exclaimed, “This used to be my room!”
Alcock then revealed an adorable space, decorated with rainbow Christmas lights, piles of books, unique road signs, and a mattress being used as a bed.
“This is where all of your hopes and dreams were dreamed up,” Simpson remarked.
“It is a bit magical,” she conceded, before revealing that the attic space served as the backdrop for her very first “House of the Dragon” audition.
In fact, Alcock said the Christmas lights—which she hung up while she was living there—actually earned her a fair amount of mockery from show producers who “kept making fun” of her because of the wall accessory.
Recalling the exact spot she sat in when doing her audition, admitting that she was forced to sit in front of a light bulb hanging from a beam because she didn’t have any professional lighting.
Elsewhere in the home, Alcock revealed the main living space of the house opened up directly to the quaint garden, which had been decorated with multiple road signs that her mother had “stolen” over a period of many years.
Explaining that her family had been living in the adorable property for 15 years, Alcock noted that she still returned home to the dwelling every time she went back to Australia.
Alcock was actually at the family abode when she learned she had been cast in “Supergirl” via a text from director and DC Studios CEO James Gunn, who sent her a link to an article about her landing the role.
“I was kind of in disbelief. I was initially like, ‘What have I done?’” the actress recalled of the moment in a 2025 interview with Elle. “I then invited all my friends over to the house and we drank champagne.”
Not long after, Alcock traveled to the U.K., where much of the filming for the movie took place—with reports emerging at the time that she had finally moved into her own home in the form of an apartment in the upscale London neighborhood of Primrose Hill.
However, she has since revealed that she has relocated to East London, where she is still understood to be based.
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