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9 celebs who moved from LA to London and why the list keeps growing
L-R) Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds attend the "It Ends With Us" New York Premiere at AMC Lincoln Square Theater on August 06, 2024 in New York City. Photo by Cindy Ord/Getty Images
Tom Holland and Zendaya Holland bought his four-bedroom Richmond townhouse back in 2018, long before Zendaya moved in following the couple going public in 2021. What's changed more recently is the scale of their commitment to it: the property has reportedly undergone a two-year renovation, adding a cinema, sauna and games room. That's not the profile of two people treating London as a stopover.
Tom Holland and Zendaya attend the "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" UK Premiere at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on July 29, 2026 in London, England. Photo by Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images
America Ferrera The Ugly Betty and Barbie star has reportedly been spotted touring private schools in southwest London, the same unmistakable signal every parent on this list seems to send before an actual move is confirmed.
CANADA-ENTERTAINMENT-FILM-FESTIVAL-TIFFUS actress America Ferrera arrives for the special presentation of "The Lost Bus" at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on September 5, 2025. (Photo by Cole BURSTON / AFP) Photo by COLE BURSTON/AFP via Getty Images
Renée Zellweger Zellweger's relationship with British television presenter Ant Anstead appears to be doing what relationships on this list usually do, pulling an American star eastward. She's reportedly moved into a rented London townhouse valued at around $5 million, with reports suggesting the couple are spending increasing time in England as Anstead's family ages.
Renée Zellweger attends the 2025 Gotham Television Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on June 02, 2025 in New York City. Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
Hugh Jackman Jackman was in London filming when reports first suggested he was considering a longer-term stay in the UK. It's the softest confirmation on this list, nothing's been finalised, but for an actor of his profile to even be floated as a potential London name is worth noting on its own.
Hugh Jackman attends the photocall for "The Death Of Robin Hood" at the Soho Hotel on September 02, 2026 in London, England.Photo by Eamonn M. McCormack/Getty Images
Lena Dunham Dunham relocated to London in 2021 and later married British musician Luis Felber, giving her one of the more settled stories on this list rather than a recent or speculative one. She's been based in the city long enough that "moved to London" undersells it, she's simply based there now.
Lena Dunham attends "Storytellers: Lena Dunham with Michelle Buteau" during the 2025 Tribeca Festival at Spring Studios on June 14, 2025 in New York City. Photo by Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Tribeca Festival
Darius Rucker The Hootie and the Blowfish frontman confirmed his own move in early 2025 with a characteristically low-key Instagram caption, joking that he couldn't move to London without playing UK shows. It's a smaller name than most of this list, and a useful reminder that this migration isn't limited to film stars.
Darius Rucker performs on the main stage during CMA Fest 2025 at Nissan Stadium on June 05, 2025 in Nashville, Tennessee. Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images
Josh Hartnett Hartnett doesn't live in London exactly, he's based in the Hampshire countryside, but the pull is the same story in a different postcode: his wife, Tamsin Egerton, is British, and family ties rather than politics or paparazzi appear to be the actual driver.
US actor Josh Hartnett poses for a photocall upon arrival to attend the Jacquemus Menswear ready-to-wear Fall-Winter 2026/2027 collection as part of the Men Paris Fashion Week in Paris on January 25, 2026. Photo by Blanca CRUZ / AFP via Getty Images
Janet Jackson Jackson has lived in London for years with her son, long enough that her UK life occasionally makes headlines for entirely mundane reasons, including a reported black mould problem in her apartment in 2024. It's a small detail, but it says something: after long enough in a city, even a global superstar's problems start to sound like everyone else's.
Janet Jackson attends the GRAMMY Hall of Fame Gala 2026 at The Beverly Hilton on May 08, 2026 in Beverly Hills, California. Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
The numbers behind the move
A few figures are worth knowing, and worth getting right. UK film and high-end TV production spend hit £5.6 billion in 2024, up 31 per cent on the previous year, according to official BFI statistics, real growth in the industry these actors are increasingly working within, even if it isn't a number about relocation specifically. The UK's Independent Film Tax Credit, introduced in 2024, does offer up to 53 per cent relief on qualifying costs, though only for productions with budgets under roughly £15-23.5 million, not every film shot in Britain.
On immigration, the picture is more precise than it's sometimes made to sound. More than 6,100 Americans applied for UK citizenship in 2024, a 26 per cent rise on the year before and the highest figure since records began two decades ago, according to Home Office data. The sharpest jump was concentrated in the final quarter of the year, when applications rose 40 per cent compared with the same quarter in 2023, coinciding with the US election. Both numbers are real. They're just not the same number, and conflating them overstates how sudden the overall shift actually was.
Two other claims that tend to circulate alongside this story, a specific total for London's film studio space, and a precise percentage rise in "celebrities" applying for UK residency, don't hold up. No official source breaks immigration data down by celebrity status at all, and no single figure for total studio square footage across London appears to exist anywhere on the record. They've been left out here rather than repeated.
The pattern behind the moves
Family ties, privacy, and simply having already been quietly based here for years show up again and again, more often than any single dramatic reason. For every couple whose move gets attached to a political headline, there's a Lena Dunham or a Janet Jackson who just relocated their life for entirely personal reasons and let the city absorb them quietly. London's real appeal isn't one single explanation. It's that enough different reasons all point the same direction at once.
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