Jessie Buckley Biography

Irish singer/actor Jessie Buckley was born in Killarney in the Republic of Ireland, the eldest of five children. Growing up, she was surrounded by music as her mother, Marina Cassidy, was a professional vocal coach who encouraged Jessie to pursue a singing career.

While attending an all-girls school in Thurles, Jessie performed in multiple theater productions, including playing the lead role of Tony in the musical West Side Story. Beyond singing, she is also proficient at playing the piano, the clarinet and the harp.

Jessie trained with the Royal Irish Academy of music before moving to Britain at the age of 18 to pursue her musical education there. Prior to her enrollment and graduation from the world-famous Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, she was rejected from two other drama schools.

At age 19, she landed a spot on I'd Do Anything, a primetime search for a new, unknown lead to play the role of Nancy in a London stage revival of the musical Oliver! Buckley finished the competition in second place and turned down the chance to be the winner’s understudy so she could star in the production of A Little Night Music. For a while, she continued to perform on the stage before she eventually found her way onto television.

Her first TV role was as Emily Strong in Rosamunde Pilcher’s four-part TV adaptation of her novel Shades of Love in 2013. Following this, Jessie appeared alongside Jude Law in the theater production of Henry V, then returned to TV in 2016 for her biggest role yet as Marya Bolkonskaya in the BBC dramatization of War & Peace. This performance earned her great critical acclaim.

Jessie continued to appear on television and played a recurring character on the BBC drama series Taboo, alongside Tom Hardy. She also appeared in the series The Last Post and The Woman in White.

Jessie made the jump from TV to film in 2018 with her role as Moll Huntingdon alongside Johnny Flynn in the psychological thriller Beast (2018). She also portrayed Rosalyn Wilder alongside Renée Zellweger in the Judy Garland biopic Judy (2018) and Queen Victoria in the comedy The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle (2019), starring Robert Downey Jr. in the title role.

In 2022 she received her first Academy Award nomination, for her role as "Young Leda" in The Lost Daughter (2021). Leda was played by Olivia Colman, and the two women would go on to co-star in the dark comedy Wicked Little Lies (2024).

But first, Jessie played Mariche in the critically acclaimed film Women Talking (2022), for which she received a Critics Choice Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress and shared a SAG award nomination with the ensemble cast.

In 2023, Jessie married a mystery man named Freddie from North London. He's a mental health worker and they met on a blind date, but she has released no other information, preferring to keep her personal life private.

Filmography:

Wicked Little Lies (2024)
Fingernails (2023)
Women Talking (2022)
Men (2020)
The Lost Daughter (2021)
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
Misbehaviour (2020)
The Courier (2020)
Dolittle (2020)
Judy (2018)
Wild Rose (2018)
Beast (2018)