Celebrities with autism: From Tallulah Willis to Chloé Hayden, meet the famous faces on the autistic spectrum

Anthony Hopkins, known for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, plus many other iconic films, publicly shared his autism diagnosis in 2017. The 86-year-old revealed he was diagnosed in 2014, well into his 70s.

According to the actor, being on the spectrum has had a positive impact on his career. He once stated: "I definitely look at people differently. I like to deconstruct, to pull a character apart."

He has also shone a spotlight on late autism diagnoses.

After making history as the first Black actor with autism to portray a character with autism in a mainstream TV series (Phoenix Hathaway on Hollyoaks), Grant earned multiple award nominations.

Writing about growing up with autism, the actor said in The i newspaper, "The arts and media are responsible for much of society’s learning but, unfortunately, adults think they already know about autism. Perhaps they’ve watched Rain Man and expect us all not to make eye contact, barely speak and have some savant gifting. Or they may have watched The Big Bang Theory and think we are all nerdy swots like Sheldon. Or perhaps they read Christopher’s story in The Curious Incident of the Dog in The Night-time. Meanwhile, I just want to scream, 'We aren’t all the same!'."

Courtney Love was diagnosed with autism as a young child.

Back in 1994, the Hole singer told Rolling Stone: "When I talk about being introverted, I was diagnosed autistic. At an early age, I would not speak. Then I simply bloomed. My first visit to a psychiatrist was when I was, like, three."

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, now considered part of autism spectrum disorder, when she was 11 years old, alongside selective mutism and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

She came to prominence in 2018 when she started staging the 'School Strike for Climate' outside the Swedish Parliament.

Speaking of her diagnosis, she told The I Paper in 2019: "Before I started school striking, I had no energy, no friends and I didn’t speak to anyone. I just sat alone at home, with an eating disorder. All of that is gone now, since I have found a meaning, in a world that sometimes seems shallow and meaningless to so many people."

Tallulah Willis revealed she had been diagnosed with autism in an Instagram post in March 2024.

Sharing a sweet throwback video of herself and her father, Bruce Willis, on a red carpet, when she was a child, Tallulah, 30, quipped: "Tell me you're autistic without telling me you're autistic 😂".

In the clip, she can be seen repeatedly rubbing her dad's head while he grins for the cameras. Opening up about her diagnosis in the comments under the post, Tallulah shared how she found out she has autism "as an adult."

"This is the first time I’ve ever publicly shared my diagnosis. Found out this summer and it’s changed my life," she wrote.

Pop icon Sia (real name: Sia Kate Isobelle Furler) opened up about her autism diagnosis, saying on the Rob Has A Podcast podcast: "I’m on the spectrum."

Although Sia did not share when exactly she was diagnosed with autism, she hinted that this was a recent development. "For 45 years, I was like, 'I’ve got to go put my human suit on'," she said, "and only in the last two years have I become fully, fully myself."

Sia added that "knowing about which kind of neurotypicality you may have or may not have" has helped her to live a more authentic life.

Opening up about being diagnosed with autism during adulthood, TV personality Christine McGuinness said in her biography that it has been both "emotional" and "a relief".

In a later documentary about her experience, titled Unmasking My Autism, Christine said that her diagnosis helped her to understand "why I am the way I am".

Because of her diagnosis, and her deeper understanding of herself, Christine later broke off her marriage to presenter Paddy McGuinness. "As an autistic woman, I like to stay where I’m comfortable, I like things to stay the same," she said at the time. "I know I’ve stayed in a place where I was probably unhappy because it was safe and I don’t like change and ultimately I wanted to keep my family together."

She went on: "I understand myself better now because that’s where I was comfortable just knowing that it was me, Patrick and the children – but sometimes change has to happen. You just have to deal with it in the best way possible."

TV presenter Melanie Sykes is another celebrity who was diagnosed with autism later in life. Taking to Instagram to announce her diagnosis at 51 years old, Melanie, now 54, told her followers: "This week has been truly life-changing. Or rather, life-affirming."

Melanie went on to say that after her diagnosis "so many things made sense."

"I cannot begin to tell you the sense of relief this is for me and how much I celebrate this diagnosis," she added. "I now have a deeper understanding of myself, my life and the things I have endured."

Prison Break star Wentworth Miller was diagnosed with autism during the coronavirus pandemic, and took to social media to open up about this to his fans.

"I don’t know enough about autism. (There’s a lot to know)," he wrote. "Right now my work looks like evolving my understanding. Re-examining five decades of lived experience through a new lens."

To that end, he said he planned to turn to the autistic community for knowledge, and hoped to platform the community's voice. "The autistic community (this I do know) has historically been talked over. Spoken for. I don’t wish to do additional harm. Only to raise my hand, say, 'I am here. [I] have been (w/o realising it).'"

Notably, the actor also commented on how difficult it had been to receive a diagnosis, partly due to being an adult rather than a child. "This fall marks 1 year since I received my informal autism diagnosis. Preceded by a self-diagnosis. Followed by a formal diagnosis," he said. "It was a long, flawed process in need of updating. IMO. I’m a middle-aged man. Not a 5-year-old."

Singing sensation and Britain's Got Talent star Susan Boyle has, throughout the years, spoken candidly of her Asperger Syndrome diagnosis, which the NHS says is a term "used by some people to describe autistic people with average or above average intelligence."

Susan, who is now 63, was not diagnosed with the condition until her fifties, and was wrongly diagnosed as having brain damage as a child. "I was told I had brain damage when I was a kid. It was the wrong diagnosis. I always knew it was an unfair label," she said back in 2013 after revealing that she's on the spectrum.

"Now I have a clearer understanding of what’s wrong and I feel relieved and a bit more relaxed about myself," the singer added. "I went to seek a diagnosis from a specialist. Nobody told me to. I thought I had a more serious illness and couldn’t function properly."