Jessie Buckley

About Jessie Buckley

Jessie is an Irish actress and singer & was born in Killarney, County Kerry, Ireland to Marina Cassidy and Tim Buckley. She has a younger brother and three younger sisters. Through her late grandmother Dr Norrie Buckley, she is the great-granddaughter of Irish republican Madge Clifford.

She attended Ursuline Secondary School, an all-girls convent school in Thurles, County Tipperary, where her mother works as a vocal coach 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 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 recognized 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.

Buckley attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), graduating in January 2013

Her accolades include a Laurence Olivier Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and three BAFTA Awards.

Buckley began her career in 2008 as a contestant on the BBC TV talent show I'd Do Anything, in which she came second. A RADA graduate, her early onscreen appearances were in BBC television series, such as War & Peace (2016) and Taboo (2017). Buckley made her film debut playing the lead role in Beast (2017), and had her breakthrough starring in the musical film Wild Rose (2018). Her performance as an aspiring country music singer in the latter earned her a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Buckley's career progressed with starring roles in the HBO miniseries Chernobyl (2019), I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020), season four of Fargo (2020), The Lost Daughter (2021), Men (2022) and Women Talking (2022). Her performance in The Lost Daughter earned her nominations for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Buckley's portrayal of Sally Bowles in a 2021 West End theatre revival of Cabaret won her the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical.

In 2022, she released the collaborative album For All Our Days That Tear the Heart with Bernard Butler, which was shortlisted for the 2022 Mercury Prize.