Cressida Curzon Bonas was born in Winchester, Hampshire, England, the daughter of 1960s "It girl" Lady Mary-Gaye Curzon, granddaughter of the 6th Earl Howe, and her fourth husband, Old Harrovian Entrepreneur Jeffrey Bonas. The Bonas family, once grocers and butchers, also owned textile mills in Castle Gresley and Burton-on-Trent under the company name, "Bonas Brothers"; it closed operations in the 1980s, having produced, as its final line, elastic for women's tights.
Bonas made her first screen appearance in 2009 with a small role in the TV series Trinity. Her theatrical debut came in 2014 at Hay Festival in the play There's a Monster in the Lake. The play was also staged at the Vault Festival in January 2015. In May and June 2015 Bonas appeared as Laura in the one-woman play, An Evening with Lucian Freud, by Laura-Jane Foley, at the Leicester Square Theatre. Jane Shilling in The Daily Telegraph praised the "charm and Energy of Bonas's performance". In June 2014 Bonas was rumoured to be going to appear in the film Tulip Fever (2015) as Mrs. Steen.
