[5] The audition process had ten thousand applicants, and Philip Pullman (author of the books) said, "As soon as I saw Dakota's screen test, I realised that the search was over.

[10] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian commented "Lyra is nicely played by 13-year-old newcomer Dakota Blue Richards, though with an Artful Dodger-ish 'urchin' accent that comes and goes a bit",[9] while Empire noted that she "struggles with lumpy dialogue".

[8] Roger Ebert was more effusive, calling Richards "a delightful find" who was "pretty, plucky, forceful, self-possessed, charismatic and just about plausible as the mistress of an armored bear and the protector of Dust.

"[14] In this full-length film, Richards plays a protagonist's sister-in-law, cajoled into acting the role of author of a chick-lit novel written by four patrons of a local pub in Norfolk.

[citation needed] Before The Golden Compass was released, Richards had already been cast as the lead in another film, The Secret of Moonacre, her second book-to-film adaptation, in which she would play Maria Merryweather from the book The Little White Horse.

[19] In 2013, she appeared in French filmmaker Stéphanie Joalland's sci-fi thriller The Quiet Hour, about a brother and sister trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic England.

[4] Since 2010 she has supported Action for Children, a charity in the United Kingdom helping vulnerable young people overcome injustice and deprivation.

[23][24] Richards also backs The Young Actors Group, an acting school in Brighton opened in 2014 that gives children and teenagers the training to work professionally in stage and screen.

[25] Richards describes herself as "quite into modern art and abstract stuff"[13] and a fan of photographer Christian Coigny, artists Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, and films from Studio Ghibli.