HBO phenomenon Succession has finally returned for its fourth and final season, and so have some of our favourite characters. As the Roy family continues to feud with one another in a battle to buy and/or sell and/or create a leading media conglomerate, we see them revisit their dysfunctional working relationship with rival family the Pierces.
Naomi Pierce (Annabelle Dexter-Jones), who caught fans attention during episode one with her stylish wardrobe and debut mullet, is a descendant of the 'other' fictional media family the Pierces. Spearheaded by Nan Pierce (Cherry Jones), the family own the left-leaning media empire PGM, which the Roy's right-wing ATN broadcaster has tried to buy out in previous seasons.
Episode one of season four finds Logan Roy (Brian Cox) going up against three of his kids, Kendall (Jeremy Strong), Shiv (Sarah Snook) and Roman (Kieran Culkin) in a multi-billion dollar bid to acquire PGM from the woman at the helm – and Naomi is a key pawn in the game.
Where else have you seen Naomi Pierce in Succession?
The Pierces entered the fold in season two of Succession when Logan first tries to acquire PGM from the Pierce family. Naomi is positioned as the non-conforming, ex-party girl, Kendall-adjacent member of her family and the two of them open up to each other when the Roys visit the Pierces house for the weekend. Naturally, they discuss their respective drug addictions and their futile existences within their power-hungry billionaire families. Despite being from opposite sides of the political spectrum in theory, their lives have an unsurprising number of parallels and they even sneak off to do some cocaine together – very a la mode.
When we first meet her, Naomi speaks openly about her personal vendetta against the Roy family because they owned the tabloids that stalked her relentlessly after she was in a car accident that killed her mother. She told Kendall that for this reason, she'd do anything in her power to stop Logan from buying PGM. However, Kendall managed to convince her that a portion of the money from the acquisition would be hers and would help her start a new life, and so the love story begins.
Later on in the season, Naomi and Kendall start dating properly, although Naomi's second name means she's never fully welcome or trusted by the Roys. But things with Kendall come to a head during his Roy-scale mid-life crisis birthday party in season three, and their relationship falls apart.
We meet Naomi again in the most recent episode of the show when Shiv's estranged husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfayden) – who betrayed his wife by secretly siding with Logan at the end of the last season – calls her to say he'd been spotted out at a 'social' meeting with Naomi in an attempt to make her jealous. However, all it does is put the Roy siblings on the right scent and encourages them to go after PGM themselves.
We then see Naomi wander out of one of the Pierce's many sun-soaked mansions to greet Kendall, Shiv and Roman, in an outfit defined by Vanity Fair as 'WASP style with a twist' and mullet described both as 'class warfare' and 'princess Diana' by fans on Twitter.
Who is Annabelle Dexter-Jones?
The WASPy Princess Diana lookalike who plays Naomi Pearce is 36-year-old Annabelle Dexter Jones. Annabel is a British-American actor who was born in London and is the daughter of jewellery designer Ann Dexter-Jones and Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones.
Through her mother, she is also half-sister to world-famous DJ and producer Mark Ronson. She can be found exuding a similar Naomi-esque New York cool girl energy on her Instagram page @princesssummerfall. She has previously said that her famous arts family helped her in myriad ways to prepare for the role of Naomi.
In 2019 she spoke to Paper magazine about her own glamorous upbringing: 'I love them to death, but sometimes they’re crazy. So big, crazy families are not foreign to me. My family is definitely big and definitely crazy. I have a lot to draw from.' She also recalled her 'eccentric' childhood home, her mum’s 'crazy' parties and said 'there was never a dull moment growing up'.
What else has Annabelle Dexter-Jones actor been in?
As well as starring in Succession, Annabelle has been has directed and starred in the short film, Cecile on the Phone (2017), as well as films Under the Silver Lake (2018), Swing Low (2019) and Holy Motors (2012) and TV show The Calling (2022).
She has appeared in eight episodes of Succession so far and is expected to feature more in the upcoming season as a key player in the PGM acquisition – if only to generate more mullet discourse on Twitter.