Jessie Cave, best known for playing Lavender Brown in the Harry Potter films, has revealed that her OnlyFans side hustle has earned her more in a year than she made from her entire acting career.
The 39-year-old actress, who also appeared in Call the Midwife, Industry, Am I Being Unreasonable? and Black Mirror, said she reached a “point of complete desperation” after struggling to find work and being unable to afford to retrain.
Financial struggles and a breakdown
Cave explained that she couldn't take a supermarket job because of childcare costs and fears that customers might recognise her and start “shouting Harry Potter spells” at her. Speaking to The Times, she said the situation became so overwhelming that she had a “breakdown”.
In March 2025, she joined OnlyFans, initially expecting it to be a short-term way to make extra cash. “I thought I’d make five grand, be on it for a few months and it would buy me time to work out what we’re going to do,” she said. “But it’s now been over a year and a half and it’s genuinely saved our lives.”
A niche for long hair
Cave's content is not explicit. Instead, she creates videos focused on her famously long hair, which falls to her pelvis. She brushes it while dressed as characters including her former Harry Potter role, Lavender Brown. “My rule is the hair is the main character. That’s how I justify it,” she explained. “It’s literally about hair: the texture of hair. The fetish. It’s very, very niche.”
Subscribers pay $6 a month, and she also earns through paid-for messages. She once made £15,000 in a single day, and over one year, her earnings exceeded everything she had made from acting.
Career highlights and future plans
Before Harry Potter, Cave appeared in the CBBC drama Summerhill in 2008. She won the role of Lavender Brown through an open casting process, beating around 7,000 other girls for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Her other credits include ITV sitcom Buffering and Sky comedy Trollied.
Earlier this year, she underwent breast enlargement surgery, which she said her subscribers paid for, partly because her hair “can only do so much”. Despite the success, she may have a limited future on the platform because she does not want to cross into explicit content. She is regularly asked to do “gross stuff”, which can get to her.
She believes more performers could turn to the platform, following stars like Kate Nash and Lily Allen, who have spoken about using it to subsidise their music careers.
