Jessie Buckley
Birthdate: December 28, 1989 (36 Years Old)
Birthplace: Killarney, Ireland
Jessie Buckley is an Irish actor-singer of exceptional range. Subtlety Buckley was“discovered” on the BBC talent contest show, I’ll Do Anything, and made her talent first felt in her West End debut the same year in an acclaimed revival of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music.
Buckley amassed an impressive number of major stage credits (particularly in productions at Shakespeare’s Globe on London’s South Bank) before landing roles in major BBC-TV productions such as War and Peace (2016), and making a stunning feature debut in Michael Pearce’s psychological thriller, Beast (2017), which won the Best Debut Film BAFTA Award in 2019 and for which Buckley received ten performing nominations and four wins from various film organizations and festivals.
Buckley earned kudos for her next, very different, title role in the romantic musical Wild Rose (2018), alongside Sophie Okonedo and Julie Walters. Buckley appeared opposite Renee Zellweger in the Judy Garland biopic, Judy (2019), as Queen Victoria with Robert Downey, Jr. in the box-office dud Dolittle (2020), and with Benedict Cumberbatch in the spy drama, The Courier (2020).
Jessie Buckley joined director Philippa Lowthorpe’s ensemble for Misbehaviour (2020), including Keira Knightley and Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and then tackled the challenging role of a young woman in a strange world in Charlie Kaufman’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things (2020). Buckley’s deeply impressive performance as a young mother under stress in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s acclaimed The Lost Daughter (2021) earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination.
Jessie Buckley appeared next under Alex Garland’s direction in his thriller, Men (2022), opposite Rory Kinnear, followed by a lead role in Sarah Polley’s anticipated return as writer-director in Women Talking (2022), with Frances McDormand, Rooney Mara, Claire Foy and Ben Whishaw Buckley starred in director/co-writer/producer Christos Nikou’s drama, Fingernails (2023), with Riz Ahmed and Jeremy Allen White, and with Cate Blanchett as a lead producer, launching at the Telluride Film Festival and released theatrically and on streaming by Apple TV+.
Buckley co-starred with Olivia Colman (who was also a lead producer) in the British period black comedy based on actual events, Wicked Little Letters (2023), with Anjana Vasan, Malachi Kirby, Timothy Spall, Gemma Jones, and Eileen Atkins, produced (among other entities) by Film4 and released by StudioCanal and Netflix after launching at the Toronto Film Festival.
Buckley portrayed Agnes Shakespeare (usually known as Anne Hathaway) in director/co-writer/co-editor Chloe Zhao’s big screen version of co-screenwriter Maggie O’Farrell’s acclaimed 2020 novel, Hamnet (2025), produced by five producers including Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes, and co-starring Paul Mescal as Shakespeare, with Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, David Wilmot, Jacobi Jupe (as Hamnet Shakepeare) and brother Noah Jupe in the role of Hamlet, and which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival before a release by Focus Features (U.S.)/Universal Pictures (U.K.),, grossing over $74 million theatrically worldwide.
Jessie Buckley reunited with director/writer/producer Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Bride! (2026), with Buckley as Dr. Frankenstein’s Creature’s bride, Christian Bale (as the Creature), Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Penelope Cruz, produced by First Love Films/In the Current Company and released by Warner Bros. Pictures.
Personal life
Jessie Buckley is the eldest of five children (three sisters, one brother) of parents Marina and Tim Buckley. She attended and graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 2013. Buckley was in a relationship with actor James Norton from 2015 to 2017. She is not married and has no children. Buckley’s height is 5’ 7”.
Awards
Winner, Best Supporting Actress, Academy Awards (2022); Three-time nominee, Best Actress/Supporting Actress/Rising Star, BAFTA Awards (2019-2020, 2022); Winner, Chopard Trophy for Female Revelation, Cannes Film Festival (2021); Winner, Best Musical Actress, Laurence Olivier Awards (2022); Nominee, Best Supporting Actress, Independent Spirit Awards (2022).
Jessie Buckley Movies
Actor
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Previous (13)
- 2024 |
Wicked Little Letters
When people in Littlehampton--including conservative local, Edith--begin receiving letters full of hilarious profanities, the rowdy, Irish migrant, Rose, is charged with the crime. Suspecting that something is amiss, the town's women investigate.
- 2022 |
Women Talking
asMariche
Do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. In 2010, the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling a brutal reality with their faith.
- 2022 |
- 2021 |
The Lost Daughter
asYoung Leda
A woman's beach vacation takes a dark turn when she begins to confront the troubles of her past.
- 2021 |
The Courier
asSheila
Businessman Greville Wynne is asked by a Russian source to try to help put an end to the Cuban Missile Crisis.
- 2020 |
- 2019 |
- 2019 |
- 2019 |
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale
A jealous King jeopardizes his family, friendships, and succession.
- -- | as The Bride
- -- | as Moll
- -- | as Moll
- -- | as Agnes
Facts About Jessie Buckley
Artistic Family: Jessie Buckley’s mother plays the harp and her father writes poetry.
Role Reversal: In her Irish all-girls convent school in Thurles, County Tipperary, Jessie Buckley was cast in several male roles, including Tony in West Side Story.
Rejected: Despite going on to finish second on the BBC-TV talent contest show, I’ll Do Anything, Buckley had been turned down by two drama schools to which she had applied.
Outvoted: On I’ll Do Anything, Buckley won the support of three of her distinguished five-judge panel, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Cameron Mackintosh, and Barry Humphries, but lost with viewers.
Struggling Actor: For two years, Jessie Buckley sang jazz in a nightclub where, she says, “nobody listened to me.”
