Jessie Buckley

Buckley was born on 28 December 1989 in Killarney, County Kerry, the daughter of Marina Cassidy and Tim Buckley.[3] Her mother encouraged her to sing and coached her. She has a younger brother and three younger sisters. She attended Ursuline Secondary School, an all-girls convent school in Thurles, County Tipperary, where her mother works as a vocal coach[4] and where she performed in school productions. She played a number of male roles at school, including the male lead role of Tony in the musical West Side Story and Freddie Trumper in Chess.[5] She reached grade eight in piano, clarinet, and harp at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and was a member of the Tipperary Millennium Orchestra. She attended summer workshops with the Association of Irish Musical Societies (AIMS) to improve her singing and acting, and it was here that she was recognised as a talented actress and encouraged to apply for drama school in London. Just before she auditioned for I'd Do Anything, she was turned down by two drama schools, including one the day before her first audition for the show.[5] In 2008, she won the AIMS Best Actress award for her portrayal of Julie Jordan in the Killarney Musical Society production of Carousel.

Buckley competed in I'd Do Anything, a search for a new, unknown lead to play Nancy in a London West End stage revival of the British musical Oliver![6] She reached the final on 31 May 2008, finishing in second place behind Jodie Prenger.[7]

Buckley performed at the Andrew Lloyd Webber's Birthday in the Park show in Hyde Park, London on 14 September 2008, singing "I Don't Know How To Love Him" as a solo and "Light at the End of the Tunnel" from Starlight Express with fellow I'd Do Anything finalists Keisha Amponsa-Banson, Niamh Perry, Rachel Tucker as well as Any Dream Will Do finalists Daniel Boys, Lewis Bradley, Ben James-Ellis and Keith Jack.[8] On 18 September she and Aoife Mulholland performed with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra at an Andrew Lloyd Webber evening at the National Concert Hall in Dublin.[9] On 26 August 2008 Buckley performed on Denny Street in Tralee, Co. Kerry for RTÉ Radio 1. After this, Jessie performed at a charity concert in Tipperary, where she announced that she would be starting rehearsals for A Little Night Music in London the following Monday.

Buckley was offered the opportunity to understudy Nancy,[10] but turned it down in favour of another production: on 10 October 2008 it was announced that Buckley would be appearing in a revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical A Little Night Music, in the role of Anne Egerman, at the Menier Chocolate Factory, a fringe Studio Theatre, in London from 22 November 2008 to 8 March 2009.[11] She appeared alongside Maureen Lipman and Hannah Waddingham in the production, which was directed by Trevor Nunn.[12] A Little Night Music transferred from the Menier Chocolate Factory to the Garrick Theatre in London's West End on 7 April 2009 (previews from 28 March – 6 April). A Little Night Music was Buckley's West End debut. The show closed on 25 July 2009. Since then, she has appeared in a number of concerts nationally, including a Christmas concert alongside Maria Friedman, Cantabile – the London Quartet and Tim Rice,[13] and in February 2010 appeared alongside Daniel Boys (and Night Music co-star Kelly Price[14]) in a series of Valentine musical concerts.[15]

Buckley graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in January 2013.[16] In the 2013 summer season at Shakespeare's Globe, she played Miranda in The Tempest, and singer Arabella Hunt and Kate in Samuel Adamson's Gabriel.[17][18]

Buckley played the part of Emily Strong in Rosamunde Pilcher's four-part TV adaptation of her book Shades of Love. This was aired in September 2013.[19]

In September 2013, Buckley appeared opposite Jude Law in Michael Grandage's West End production of Henry V at the Noël Coward Theatre.[20] She played Perdita in the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company's production of The Winter's Tale,[21] which was streamed live to cinemas worldwide on 26 November 2015.

In 2016, Buckley appeared as Marya Bolkonskaya in the BBC's new dramatisation of War and Peace.[22][23] She received acclaim for her performance with Viv Groskop of The Guardian citing her performance as a highlight of episode two, writing that she plays this supposedly plain and pious character "beautifully".[24]

In 2017, Buckley appeared as Lorna Bow in the BBC television drama series Taboo, alongside Tom Hardy.[25] She also starred as Honor Martin in the BBC series The Last Post and as Marian Halcombe in the BBC series The Woman in White. In 2018, she received acclaim for her lead performance as Moll Huntford in the psychological thriller Beast, a British-made film set on Jersey. She played the lead role in the 2019 country music drama Wild Rose, which earned Buckley the opportunity to perform music from the film at the Glastonbury Festival. The official soundtrack from the film reached number one on the UK Country Albums Chart.

Buckley in January 2020

In 2019, Buckley appeared as Lyudmilla Ignatenko in Chernobyl. She appeared in the 2019 biopic of Judy Garland titled Judy.[26] In 2020, she has appeared in Dolittle, directed by Stephen Gaghan,[27] The Courier, directed by Dominic Cooke,[28] and Misbehaviour, directed by Philippa Lowthorpe,[29] and starred in the drama thriller I'm Thinking of Ending Things, directed by Charlie Kaufman for Netflix.[30] Also in 2020, Buckley had a lead role as nurse Oraetta Mayflower in the fourth season of the FX black comedy crime drama Fargo.[31][32][33][34]

In 2021, Buckley starred as the younger version of Leda Caruso in Maggie Gyllenhaal's feature directorial debut The Lost Daughter, alongside Olivia Colman, who portrayed the character's older counterpart. The film began a theatrical limited release in the United States on 17 December 2021, prior to streaming on Netflix at the end of the month. It received acclaim from critics. For her performance, Buckley won a Gotham Independent Film Award for Outstanding Supporting Performance, and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. She also received her first nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 94th Academy Awards.

Buckley was approached by Eddie Redmayne to star alongside him, as Sally Bowles, in a revival of the musical Cabaret.[35] The production opened in the West End in November 2021, and she received the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 2022 for her performance.[36]

Buckley was in a relationship with actor James Norton between 2015 and 2017. She lives in Norfolk as of 2021.[40]

• For All Our Days That Tear the Heart (with Bernard Butler)[41] (2022)

• Jessie Buckley at the British Film Institute
• Jessie Buckley at IMDb